ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY
Saints celebrated on the 4th of January
WILLIAM WALSH, BISHOP OF MEATH, MARTYR
[William Walsh] (Wilhelmus Willelmus) is also remembered on January 2. This zealous servant of God was a Cistercian and Bishop of Meath in Ireland, and was surnamed Valchaeus.
Devoted to the Catholic faith with utmost fervour, he defended it against the attacks of the innovators of that time with such success that, on the orders of Queen Elizabeth, they decided to have him imprisoned and murdered.
For thirteen years he had to languish in a narrow and dark prison, whereupon he was expelled from the country. He went to Spain and found a willing reception in the religious house of Alcala des Henarez. But the prolonged ordeal in prison had left him with a wasting illness, to which he succumbed shortly after his arrival on the Iberian peninsula - in 1577.
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 5, Augsburg, 1882)
Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations
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