ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 23rd of September
BLESSED WILLIAM WAY, PRIEST AND MARTYR
(Alias May, alias Flower) English priest and martyr, born in Exeter Diocese (Challoner says in Cornwall, but earlier authorities say in Devonshire); hanged, bowelled, and quartered at Kingston-on-Thames, September 23, 1588.
He is frequently confused with the martyred layman Richard Flower, alias Lloyd, who suffered at Tyburn, September 30, 1588, with the priest William Wiggs, alias Way, M.A., a notable prisoner at Wisbech, and with William Wyggs, M.A., of New College, Oxford.
Our martyr William Way received the first tonsure in the Cathedral of Reims from the Cardinal of Guise on March 31, 1584, and was ordained subdeacon, March 22, deacon April 5, and priest September 18, 1586, at Laon, probably by Bishop Valentine Douglas, O.S.B.
He set out for England December 9, 1586, and in June 1587, had been committed to the Clink. He was indicted at Newgate in September, 1588, merely for being a priest. He declined to be tried by a secular judge, whereupon the Bishop of London was sent for; but the martyr, refusing to acknowledge him as a bishop or the queen as head of the Church, was immediately condemned.
He was much given to abstinence and austerity. When he was not among the first of those to be tried at the Sessions in August, he wept and, fearing he had offended God, went at once to confession, "but when he himself was sent for, he had so much joy that he seemed past himself".
Source: Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913 - 📷 St Agatha's Catholic Church, Kingston upon Thames
PRAYER:
Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who know how courageously your holy martyr William 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.
➡️ Blessed William Wigges, Priest and Martyr
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