ST AUGUSTINE WEBSTER, PRIEST AND MARTYR

ST AUGUSTINE WEBSTER, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 4 MAY

SAINT AUGUSTINE WEBSTER, PRIEST AND MARTYR

Augustine Webster, (May 4), Prior of the Carthuse of Beauval, in the county of Nottingham, and a martyr, was sentenced to death and hanged May 4, 1535, for not recognising the ecclesiastical suzerainty of Henry VIII.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)

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The three holy Priors, Bl. Augustine Webster, Bl. Robert Lawrence and Bl. John Houghton... resolved to go together to Cromwell, the King’s Vicar-General, to represent their sincere loyalty, but to petition to be exempted from an exaction which their conscience could not bear.

They were received by this man with the greatest harshness. He would hear of no exemption, no alteration in the terms of the oath. "What do I care for the Church?" he said. "Will you take the oath or not?" On their refusal, they were straightway committed to a severe imprisonment in the Tower, and brought to trial on April 29.

The charge against the five Martyrs, Bl. John Houghton, Bl. Robert Lawrence, Bl. Augustine Webster, Bl. Richard Reynolds and Bl. John Haile, was one and the same, and was clearly expressed "that they had said the King, our sovereign lord, is not supreme head on earth of the Church of England".

The jury showed great reluctance to convict these holy men of such a crime as high treason, but at last yielded to threats of Cromwell, who told them that if they refused they should themselves suffer the death of traitors. On May 4, the Martyrs were dragged on hurdles from the Tower to Tyburn, and persevered to the end with admirable constancy.

Prior Houghton called God to witness that it was purely for conscience that he had to suffer, and with most pious sentiments resigned his soul to God. Lawrence showed equal firmness, and expressly refused a pardon, offered on condition of his taking the oath. Their example was faithfully followed by their brother in Religion, Augustine Webster. In the case of Reynolds, great efforts were made at the trial to seduce him from his Faith; but all were in vain, and he appealed to the doctrine of the Church in all ages, in refutation of the new teaching established by Act of Parliament. The particulars of the case of John Haile are not known, but his glorious death proves that he, too, was faithful to the end.

The sentence for high treason was executed with all its horrors, the butchery and the quartering being commenced before the holy Martyrs had expired. Thus began that long series of persecutions for the Faith of Christ, even unto death, which was to be continued, with little intermission, during the space of 150 years.

[St Augustine Webster was beatified on December 29, 1886 and canonised on October 25, 1970.]

From Fr Richard Stanton's Menology of England and Wales, 1887

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who know how courageously your holy martyr Augustine confessed the faith, may experience his goodness as he intercedes for us with you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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