BL. WILLIAM PIKE, MARTYR - 21 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 21st March

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

BL. WILLIAM PIKE, MARTYR 

⬅️ Eighty-five Martyrs of England and Wales

Blessed William was born at Parley, near Christchurch, Hampshire, and became a joiner by trade in the town of Dorchester. 

HE WAS PUT ON TRIAL FOR HAVING SPOKEN IN FAVOUR OF THE CATHOLIC RELIGION

He was put on his trial for having spoken in prison too freely in favour of the Catholic religion. The “bloody” question about the Pope’s supremacy was put to him, and he frankly confessed that he maintained the authority of the Roman See, and he was condemned to die a traitor’s death. 

HE WAS CONDEMNED TO DEATH

When they asked him, as is their wont, whether to save his life and family he would recant, he boldly replied that it did not become a son of Mr Pilchard to do so. “Did that traitor, then, pervert you?” asked the judge. “That holy priest of God and true martyr of Christ,” he replied, “taught me the truth of the Catholic Faith.” Asked when he first met him, “It was on a journey,” said he, “returning from this city.” 

THE BUTCHERY WAS PERFORMED

He was hanged at Dorchester in 1591, and cut down alive. Being a very able, strong man, when the executioners came to throw him on the block to quarter him, he stood upon his feet, on which the sheriff’s men overmastering him threw him down and pinned his hands fast to the ground with their halberts, and so the butchery was performed.

(Father Henry Sebastian Bowden)