BL. WILLIAM EXMEW, RELIGIOUS AND MARTYR - 19 JUNE

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JUNE

Saints celebrated on the 19th of June

WELCOME!

BLESSED WILLIAM EXMEW, RELIGIOUS AND MARTYR

Blessed William was a Carthusian monk and martyr; he suffered martyrdom at Tyburn, June 19, 1535. He studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and became a proficient classical scholar. Entering the London Charterhouse, he was soon raised to the office of vicar (sub- prior); in 1534 he was named procurator. Chauncy says that for virtue and learning his like could not be found in the English province of the order. 

Two days after the Prior of the Charterhouse, Bl. John Houghton, had been put to death (May 4, 1535), William Exmew and the vicar, Humphrey Middlemore, were denounced to Thomas Cromwell by Thomas Bedyll, one of the royal commissioners, as being "obstinately determined to suffer all extremities rather than to alter their opinion" with regard to the primacy of the pope. 

Three weeks later they and another monk of the Charterhouse, Sebastian Newdigate, were arrested and thrown into the Marshalsea, where they were made to stand in chains, bound to posts, and were left in that position for thirteen days. After that, they were removed to the Tower. Named in the same indictment as Bl. John Fisher, they were brought to trial at Westminster, June 11 following, and pleaded not guilty, i.e., of high treason, but asserted their staunch adhesion to what the Church taught on the subject of spiritual supremacy and denied that King Henry VIII had any right to the title of head of the Church of England. They were consequently condemned to death as traitors, and were hanged, drawn, and quartered. William Exmew is one of the fifty-four English martyrs beatified by Leo XIII, December 9, 1886.

Source: Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913

⬅️ The Holy Martyrs of England and Wales

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.