BL. RICHARD THIRKELD, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 29 MAY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY

Saints celebrated on the 29th of May

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. RICHARD THIRKELD, PRIEST AND MARTYR

⬅️ Forty Martyrs of England and Wales

[Blessed Richard Thirkeld was] born at Coniscliffe, Durham, England; died at York, May 29, 1583. From Queen’s College, Oxford, where he was in 1564-5, he went to Reims, where he was ordained priest, April 18, 1579, and left May 23 for the mission, where he ministered in or about York, and acted as confessor to [Saint] Margaret Clitherow.

On the eve of the Annunciation, 1583, he was arrested while visiting one of the Catholic prisoners in the Ousebridge Kidcote, York, and at once confessed his priesthood, both to the pursuivants, who arrested him, and to the mayor before whom he was brought, and for the night was lodged in the house of the high sheriff.

The next day his trial took place, at which he managed to appear in cassock and biretta. The charge was one of having reconciled the queen’s subjects to the Church of Rome. He was found guilty on May 27 and condemned May 28. He spent the night in instructing his fellow-prisoners, and the morning of his condemnation in upholding the faith and constancy of those who were brought to the bar. No details of his execution are extant: six of his letters still remain, and are summarised by Dom Bede Camm.

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913 - 🎨 Bl. Richard Thirkeld, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Thirkeld)