ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER
Saints celebrated on the 17th 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.
ST 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.
(From 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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