BL. FRANCIS INGLEBY, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 3 JUNE

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JUNE

Saints celebrated on the 3rd of June

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. FRANCIS INGLEBY, PRIEST AND MARTYR

Blessed Francis was an English martyr, born about 1551; he suffered at York on Friday, June 3, 1586 (old style). According to an early but inaccurate calendar he suffered June 1. He was the fourth son of Sir William Ingleby, knight, of Ripley, Yorkshire, by Anne, daughter of Sir William Malory, knight, of Studley.

He was probably a scholar of Brasenose College, Oxford, in and before 1565, and was a student of the Inner Temple in 1576. On August, 18 1582 he arrived at the English College, Reims, where he lived at his own expense. He was ordained subdeacon at Loan on Saturday, May 28, deacon at Reims, Saturday, September 24, and priest at Loan, Saturday, December 24, 1583 and left for England Thursday, Apri 5, 1584. (These four dates are all new style). He laboured with great zeal in the neighbourhood of York.

[Suspicion was raised when a companion appeared to show more deference towards him than someone dressed as a poor man would warrant. (1)]

He was arrested in the spring of 1586, and lodged in the castle. He was the one of the priests for harbouring whom the Venerable Margaret Clitherow was arraigned. At the prison door, while fetters were being fastened on his legs he smilingly said, "I fear me I shall be overproud of my boots." He was condemned under 27 Eliz. c. 2 for being a priest. When sentence was pronounced he exclaimed, "Credo videre bona Domini in terra viventium" ("I believe to see the good things of our Lord in the land of the living").

Fr Warford says he was short but well-made, fair-complexioned, with a chestnut beard, and a slight cast in his eyes.

(1) Wikipedia

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913 - 🎨 York Castle Prisoners - A sketch of a stained glass window near York Castle, showing prisoners in the castle, Thomas Cooper, History of York Castle, 1911)