ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST
Saints celebrated on the 28th of August
SAINT EDMUND ARROWSMITH, PRIEST AND MARTYR
[St Edmund Arrowsmith, SJ, is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.]
Father Arrowsmith [born in 1585, educated at the English College, Douai, ordained in Arras in December 1612] came to the English Mission in 1613, the year after his ordination, and resided for the most part with relatives of his family at Denham Hall.
HE RESIDED AT DENHAM HALL
About 1622 Father Arrowsmith was apprehended and brought before Dr Bridgeman, Bishop of Chester, with whom he had a controversy before being committed to Lancaster Castle. Thence he was released about the time of the negotiations for a marriage between Prince Charles (later Charles II) and a Spanish Princess.
HE JOINED THE SOCIETY OF JESUS
Shortly afterwards he joined the Society of Jesus, as he had long desired, making his novitiate on the mission, but spent two or three months in Essex before his profession under the name of Rigby in 1624.
HE WAS APPREHENDED IN 1628
From that date he continued to serve the Mission at Brindle and the neighbourhood till his apprehension in 1628. He was arraigned at Lancaster, condemned to death for being a priest, and martyred August 28, 1628, aged forty-three. The martyr’s right hand was secured by the Gerards of Bryn, and to this day is held in great veneration, at Ashton-in-Makerfield.
Source: Dom F. O. Blundell, O.S.B., Old Catholic Lancashire, Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., London 1925
Comments
Post a Comment