ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER
Saints celebrated on the 1st of October
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. CHRISTOPHER BUXTON, PRIEST AND MARTYR
[Fr Christopher is one of the Oaten Hill Martyrs.]
Priest and martyr, born in Derbyshire; died at Canterbury, October 1, 1588.
He was a scholar of Venerable Nicholas Garlick at the Grammar-School, Tideswell, in the Peak District, studied for the priesthood at Reims and Rome, and was ordained in 1586.
He left Rome the next year, and soon after his arrival in England was apprehended and condemned to death for his priesthood.
He suffered at Oaten Hill, Canterbury, together with Venerables Robert Wilcox and Edward Campion.
Being so young, it was thought that his constancy might be shaken by the sight of the barbarous butchery of his companions, and his life was offered him if he would conform to the new religion, but he courageously answered that he would not purchase a corruptible life at such a price, and that if he had a hundred lives he would willingly surrender them all in defence of his faith.
While in the Marshalsea Prison he wrote a "Rituale", the manuscript of which is now preserved as a relic at Olney, Bucks. He sent this manuscript to a priest, as a last token of his friendship, the day before he was taken from the prison to suffer martyrdom.
[Fr Christopher and his companions were executed by hanging, drawing and quartering at Oaten Hill, Canterbury, on October 1, 1588. The gallows had been put up in 1576.]
(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)
[Fr Christopher was beatified by Pope Pius XI on December 15, 1929. With him were beatified Bl. Robert Wilcox, Bl. Gerard Edwards ("Edward Campion"), and Bl. Robert Widmerpool.
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