ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY
Saints celebrated on the 27th of February
SAINT ANN LINE, MARTYR
Ann Line was a widow gentlewoman, of an infirm constitution of body, troubled with almost continued headaches, and, withal, inclined to a dropsy; and so ill every spring and autumn, that her friends, at each of these seasons, feared she would be carried off by death: but her soul was strong and vigorous, and ever tending by spiritual exercises, to Christian perfection.
Her devotion was unfeigned; she received the blessed Sacrament at least once a week, and always with abundance of tears. Her conversation was edifying, willingly discoursing on spiritual subjects, and not on worldly vanities; and what was particularly remarkable in her, was, the desire she had of ending her days by martyrdom on which account, she bore a holy envy to priests, and others who seemed to be in a fairer way to that happy end than she, or any other of her sex were; of which, very few had suffered in this reign.
However, she told her confessor some years before her death, that Mr Thomson, (Blakeburn), a former confessor of her's, who ended his days by martyrdom in 1586, had promised her, that if God should make him worthy of that glorious end, he would pray for her, that she might obtain the like happiness. She also related to her confessor a vision which she had seen of our Lord, in the blessed Sacrament, bearing his cross and inviting her to follow him; which seemed to promise her this martyrdom, to which she aspired, and which she at last obtained in the manner following.
On Candlemas-day, 1601, the pursuivants having some intelligence, or suspecting that Mrs Line entertained a priest, beset her house at the very time that Mass was actually beginning. However, as the door was strongly barred and fastened, they were forced to wait some time before they could come in and, in the meantime, the priest, "Mr Page," had leisure to unvest himself and make his escape.
After they broke in, they searched every corner of the house, and seized upon everything that they imagined to savour of popery, but could find no priest. However they hurried away Mrs Line to prison, and with her, Mrs Gage, (daughter to Baron Copley.) whom they found in the house. Mrs Gage, by the interest of a certain noblemen, was, after some time, set at liberty; but Mrs Line was brought upon her trial, at the Old Bailey, before the Lord Chief Justice Popham, a bitter enemy of the catholics.
She was carried to her trial in a chair, being at that time so weak and ill, that she could not walk. The evidence against her, was very slender, which was the testimony of one Marriot, who deposed, that he saw a man in her house, dressed in white, who as he would have it, was certainly a priest. However, any proof it seems was strong enough with Mr Popham against a papist; and the jury, by him directed, brought in Mrs Line guilty of the indictment, viz. of having harboured or entertained a seminary priest. According to which verdict, the judge pronounced sentence of death upon the prisoner, and sent her back to Newgate, to prepare herself for execution.
Here she acknowledged. that the day before her condemnation, God had given her a foresight of this happiness, when reading her hours in her primer, she perceived a light and delightful brightness upon and round her book, which she interpreted to be a sign of her future triumph, though she would not speak of it till after she was condemned. When the keeper acquainted her with the dead-warrant being signed, and when afterwards she was carried out to execution, she showed not the least commotion or change in her countenance.
At Tyburn, when she was just ready to die, she declared to the standers by, with a loud voice, I am sentenced to die for harbouring a catholic priest; and so far I am from repenting for having so done, that I wish, with all my soul, that where I have entertained one, I could have entertained a thousand. She suffered before the two priests; and
Mr Barkworth, whose combat came on the next, embraced her body whilst it was yet hanging, saying, O! blessed Mrs Line, who hast now happily received thy reward. Thou art gone before us; but we shall quickly follow thee to bliss, if it please the Almighty.
She was executed February 27, 1601.
From the Douay records, and from the historians of the Society of Jesus and from Dr Champney's manuscript history.
Source: Bishop Richard Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, Volume 1
[In England and Wales, St Anne Line is commemorated in the Liturgy on
- May 4 - English Martyrs, Collective Feast Day; and
- August 30 - SS. Margaret Clitherow, Anne Line, and Margaret Ward, Martyrs]
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