ST PHILIP EVANS, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 22 JULY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 22nd of July

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 PHILIP EVANS, PRIEST AND MARTYR 

⬅️ Martyrs of England and Wales

Philip Evans was born in Monmouth in 1645, and educated at Jesuit College of St Omer (in Artois, now in France).

He joined the Society of Jesus in Watten on September 7, 1665, and was ordained at Liège (now in Belgium) and sent to South Wales as a missionary in 1675. He worked in Wales for four years, and despite the official anti-Catholic policy no action was taken against him.

When the Oates' scare swept the country both Fr John Lloyd and Fr Evans were caught up in the aftermath. In November 1678 John Arnold, of Llanvihangel Court near Abergavenny, a justice of the peace and hunter of priests, offered a reward of £200 (an astronomical amount in those days) for his arrest.

Despite the manifest dangers Evans steadfastly refused to leave his flock. He was arrested at the home of Christopher Turberville at Sker, Glamorgan, on December 4, 1678. Ironically the posse which arrested him is said to have been led by Turberville's brother, the notorious priest hunter Edward Turberville.

He was martyred on July 22, 1679.

(Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Evans_and_John_Lloyd

🎨 St Philip Evans, source: https://m.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2884061 )

PRAYER:

May the intercession of the blessed Philip, Priest and Martyr, commend us to you, so that through his merits we may obtain that which we cannot accomplish by our own. 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.