ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER
Saints celebrated on the 17th of October
SAINT RICHARD WHITE, MARTYR
(Vere Gwyn). Martyr, born at Llanilloes, Montgomeryshire, about 1537; executed at Wrexham, Denbighshire, October 15, 1584.
After a brief stay at Oxford he studied at St John’s College, Cambridge, till about 1562, when he became a schoolmaster, first at Overton in Flintshire, then at Wrexham and other places, acquiring considerable reputation as a Welsh scholar.
He had six children by his wife Catherine, three of whom survived him. For a time he conformed in religion, but was reconciled to the Catholic Church at the first coming of the seminary priests to Wales.
Owing to his recusancy he was arrested more than once, and in 1579 he was a prisoner in Ruthin gaol, where he was offered liberty if he would conform.
In 1580 he was transferred to Wrexham, where he suffered much persecution, being forcibly carried to the Protestant [government church] service, and being frequently brought to the bar at different assizes to undergo opprobrious treatment, but never obtaining his liberty.
In May, 1583, he was removed to the Council of the Marches, and later in the year suffered torture at Bewdley and Bridgenorth before being sent back to Wrexham.
There he lay a prisoner till the Autumn Assizes, when he was brought to trial on October 9, and found guilty of treason and sentenced on the following day.
Again his life was offered him on condition that he acknowledge the queen as supreme head of the Church.
His wife consoled and encouraged him to the last. Five carols and a funeral ode composed by the martyr in Welsh have recently been discovered and published.
Source: Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913
St Richard was canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales (joint feast day). His individual feast day is celebrated on October 17.
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