ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER
Saints celebrated on the 23rd 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. THOMAS THWING, PRIEST AND MARTYR
[Blessed Thomas] was born at Heworth Hall, near York, in 1635; he suffered at York, October 23, 1680.
His father was George Thwing, Esq., of Kilton Castle and Heworth, nephew of Venerable Edward Thwing; his mother was Anne, sister of the venerable confessor Sir Thomas Gasciogne, of Barnbrow Hall.
Educated at Douai, he was sent to the mission in 1664 and laboured in his native country. Until April, 1668, he was chaplain at Carlton Hall, the seat of his cousins the Stapletons. He next opened a school at Quosque, the dower-house of the Stapletons. When in 1677 the “Institute of Mary” began their foundation in the house given by Sir Thomas Gasciogne at Dolebank, Thwing became their chaplain, three of his sisters being of the community. It was there that he was arrested in the early part of 1679.
At the time of the Titus Oates scare, two servants who had been discharged from Sir Thomas Gasciogne’s employ for dishonesty, sought vengeance and reward by disclosing a pretend murder plot on the part of Gasciogne and others to murder the king. In their first allegation no mention was made of Thwing.
Gasciogne, Thwing, and others were removed to London for trial at Newgate. All were acquitted except Thwing, who was brought back to York for trial in March, 1680.
Owing to his challenging the jurors, his trial was postponed to the summer assizes, and he was brought to the bar on July 29. He was refused an impartial jury, and was found guilty on the very same evidence upon which his relatives had been acquitted.
Upon receiving sentence, which in consideration of his gentle birth was passed on him apart from the felons and murderers found guilty at the same assizes, humbly bowing his head he replied “Innocens ego sum.”
The king at first reprieved him, but owing to a remonstrance of the Commons the death-warrant was issued on the day after the meeting of Parliament.
He was drawn from York Castle, past the convent where the sisters were dwelling, to Tyburn, where the sentence was carried out.
He declared his innocence, protested his loyalty to the king and his charity to his neighbour; prayed for the king and royal family, and begged the prayers of all true Catholics. His dying words were “Sweet Jesus, receive my soul”. His mangled body was given to his friends, and buried in the churchyard of Saint Mary, Castlegate.
(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)
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