ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY
Saints celebrated on the 1st of February
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.
ST HENRY MORSE, PRIEST AND MARTYR
[Saint Henry Morse,] martyr, was born in 1595 in Norfolk; he died at Tyburn, February 1, 1644. He was received into the church at Douai, June 5, 1614, after various journeys was ordained at Rome, and left for the mission on June 19, 1624.
He was admitted to the Society of Jesus at Heaton; there he was arrested and imprisoned for three years in York Castle, where he made his novitiate under his fellow prisoner, Father John Robinson, S.J., and took simple vows.
THE NINETY FAMILIES
Afterwards he was a missionary to the English regiments in the Low Countries. Returning to England at the end of 1633 he laboured in London, and in 1636 is reported to have received about ninety Protestant families into the Church. He himself contracted the plague but recovered.
Arrested February 27, 1636, he was imprisoned in Newgate. On April 22 he was brought to the bar charged with being a priest and having withdrawn the king's subjects from their faith and allegiance. He was found guilty on the first count, not guilty on the second, and sentence was deferred.
HIS SOLEMN PROFESSION
On April 23 he made his solemn profession of the three vows to Father Edward Lusher. He was released on bail for 10,000 florins, June 20, 1637, at the insistence of Queen Henriette Maria.
In order to free his sureties he voluntarily went into exile when the royal proclamation was issued ordering all priests to leave the country before April 7, 1641, and became chaplain to Gage's English regiment in the service of Spain.
In 1643 he returned to England; arrested after about a year and a half he was imprisoned at Durham and Newcastle, and sent by sea to London. On January 30 he was again brought to the bar and condemned on his previous conviction.
HIS EXECUTION
On the day of his execution his hurdle was drawn by four horses and the French ambassador attended with all his suite, as also did the Count of Egmont and the Portuguese Ambassador. The martyr was allowed to hang until he was dead. At the quartering the footmen of the French Ambassador and of the Count of Egmont dipped their handkerchiefs into the martyr's blood. In 1647 many persons possessed by evil spirits were relieved through the application of his relics.
[He was beatified on December 15, 1929 and canonised on October 25, 1970.]
(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)
Comments
Post a Comment