BL. JOHN LARKE, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 7 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 7th of March

WELCOME!

BLESSED JOHN LARKE, PRIEST AND MARTYR 

Blessed John Larke was an English martyr; he died at Tyburn, March 7, 1543-4. He was rector of St Ethelburga’s Bishopsgate, London, from January 30, 1504-5, till his resignation in 1542; rector of Woodford, Essex, January 18, 1526-7, till his resignation in the following April; and rector of Chelsea (on the presentation of Bl. Thomas More, then lord chancellor, whose parish priest and personal friend he became) from March 29, 1530, till his attainder. 

HE WAS INDICTED ON FEBRUARY 15

Cresacre More styles him doctor, but it is not known in what faculty he obtained this degree. He was indicted February 15, 1543-44, with another priest and two laymen. 

FR JOHN IRELAND

The priest was Ven. John Ireland, of whom nothing is known, save that, having been chaplain of the Roper chantry annexed to St Dunstan’s, Canterbury, for a year (1535-36), he became vicar of Eltham, Kent, and, as such, parish priest to Bl. Thomas More’s son-in-law, William Roper of Well Hall. 

THE LAYMEN

Of the laymen the more prominent is Bl. German Gardiner, a kinsman (probably either cousin or nephew) to Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, whose secretary he was. Educated at Cambridge, probably at Trinity Hall, he wrote against John Frith in 1534, and gave evidence against Cranmer in 1543. He resided at Southwark. The other layman was John Heywood, or Hayward, of London. 

THEY SUFFERED TOGETHER

All were condemned, but Heywood recanted on the hurdle, and made his recantation public at Paul’s Cross on July 6 following. The other three suffered together, in the company of Robert Singleton, a priest, the cause of whose execution is uncertain, and their heads and quarters were buried under the gallows.

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)