ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH
Saints celebrated on the 7th of March
BLESSED GERMAN GARDINER, MARTYR
Blessed German [Germain, Jermyn] Gardiner was the last martyr under Henry VIII. His date of birth is unknown; he died at Tyburn, March 7, 1544.
THE TRACT AGAINST FRITH
He was secretary to, and probably a kinsmen of, Stephen Gardiner, and an able defender of the old Faith, as his tract against John Frith (dated August 1, 1534) shows.
HE WAS STIRRED UP TO COURAGE BY THE EXAMPLES OF THE MARTYRS, ESPECIALLY THOMAS MORE
During the years of fiery trial, which followed, we hear no more of him than that “he was stirred up to courage” by the examples of the martyrs, and especially by More, a layman like himself.
KING HENRY VIII WAS BECOMING MORE SEVERE
His witness was given eight years later, under remarkable circumstances. Henry VIII was becoming more severe upon the fast-multiplying heretics. Canmer fell under suspicion, and Gardiner was (or was thought to have been) employed in drawing up a list of that heresiarch’s errors in the Faith. Then the whim of the religious despot changed again, and the Catholic was sacrificed in the heretic’s place. Still he was the last victim, and Henry afterwards became even more hostile.
HIS INDICTMENT
Gardiner’s indictment states plainly that he was executed for endeavouring “to deprive the King of his dignity, title, and name of Supreme Head of the English and Irish Church”, and his constancy is further proved by this circumstance, that Thomas Haywood, who had been condemned with him, was afterward pardoned on recanting his opinions.
HIS MARTYRDOM
His other companions at the bar were Blessed John Larke, priest, whom Blessed Thomas More had presented to the rectory of Chelsea (when he himself lived in that parish), and also the Ven. John Ireland, who had once been More’s chaplain. They suffered the death of traitors at Tyburn.
[He was beatified in 1886.]
Source: Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913 - 🎨 Stephen Gardiner
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