ST JOHN RIGBY, MARTYR - 21 JUNE

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JUNE

Saints celebrated on the 21st of June

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SAINT JOHN RIGBY, MARTYR

⬅️ Forty Martyrs of England and Wales

[Saint John Rigby was an] English martyr; born about 1570 at Harrocks Hall, Eccleston, Lancashire; he was executed at St Thomas Waterings, June 21, 1600. 

He was the fifth or sixth son of Nicholas Rigby, by Mary, daughter of Oliver Breres of Preston. 

In the service of Sir Edmund Huddleston, at a time when his daughter, Mrs Fortescue, being then ill, was cited to the Old Bailey for recusancy, Rigby appeared on her behalf; compelled to confess himself a Catholic, he was sent to Newgate. 

HE WAS SENT TO NEWGATE

The next day, February 14, 1599 or 1600, he signed a confession, that, since he had been reconciled by the martyr, John Jones the Franciscan, in the Clink some two or three years previously, he had declined to go to church. [The state had ordered compulsory participation in Church of England services. Failing to attend this mandatory re-education was severely punished.] 

HE WAS PUT UNDER PRESSURE TO CONFORM 

He was then chained and remitted to Newgate, till, on February 19, he was transferred to the White Lion. On the first Wednesday in March (which was the 4th and not, as the martyr himself supposes, the 3rd) he was brought to the bar, and in the afternoon given a private opportunity to conform. 

HE WAS SENTENCED

The next day he was sentenced for having been reconciled; but was reprieved till the next sessions. On June 19 he was again brought to the bar, and as he again refused to conform, he was told that his sentence must be carried out. 

HE ASKED FOR ST JOHN RIGBY'S PRAYERS

On his way to execution, the hurdle was stopped by a Captain Whitlock, who wished him to conform and asked him if he were married, to which the martyr replied that he was a bachelor and the captain thereupon desired his prayers.

The priest who reconciled him had suffered on the same spot on July 12, 1598. 

Source: Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913

[St John Rigby is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970, joint feast day: 4th May]

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who know how courageously your holy martyr John confessed the faith, may experience his goodness as he intercedes for us with you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.