ST JOHN PAINE, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 2 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 2nd of April

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SAINT JOHN PAINE, PRIEST AND MARTYR

Saint John Paine [Payne] was an English martyr. Born at Peterborough (the exact date of birth is unknown), he suffered martyrdom at Chelmsford, Essex, April 2, 1582. 

His family was probably Protestant, but the time and circumstances of his conversion are not documented. He entered Douai College in 1574 to study for the priesthood and was for a time made bursar of the college; this indicates that he had some experience in stewardship, probably as a servant of the Shelley family at Stondon Hall in Essex. While he was at Douai, he saw a vision of the figure of Christ rising from the Sacrament during the Elevation. This vision was the subject of the Bosworth Burse now in Leicester Museum. 

On April 7, 1576, Fr John Paine was ordained, and a few days later he set out for England with (Saint) 

Cuthbert Mayne. Paine made his way to Ingatestone Hall in Essex, where the old widowed Lady Petre lived, an uncompromising Catholic. Here he remained in the guise of a steward until about February 1577 or earlier, when he was arrested and, for a brief time, imprisoned. 

After a visit to Douai he returned to Ingatestone some time before June 1578. He continued to work there until the middle of July 1581, when he was betrayed into the hands of George (Judas) Elliot, 

Edmund Campion's captor, at Haddon in Oxfordshire. He was examined before Walsingham at Greenwich, then sent to the Tower and racked several times. 

In March 1582 he was taken to the dungeons of Colchester castle to await trial. He was charged with conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth and was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. When offered his liberty if he would change his religion, he told the officials "to stop their foolish babbling." The sentence was carried out at Chelmsford on April 2, 1582. After praying, he protested that his "feet did never tread, his hands did never write, nor did his wit ever invent any treason against her majesty." 

Since he was so well known and loved in the district, the crowd would not allow the hangman to cut him down and disembowel him until he was dead. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on December 29, 1886 and canonised by Pope Paul VI

on October 25, 1970. 

Source: https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/paine-john-st

⬅️ The Holy Martyrs of England and Wales

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who know how courageously your holy martyr John

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.