ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST
Saints celebrated on the 30th of August
BLESSED RICHARD LEIGH, PRIEST AND MARTYR
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| London Oratory, The Martyrs of Tyburn Tree (detail) |
He was born in London, and going abroad, was, for some time, student in the college of Rheims, and from thence, in 1582, was, with several others, sent to Rome, where he finished his studies, and was made priest and so went upon the English mission. Here he was soon after apprehended, and cast into prison, and then sent into banishment: but he returned again to the work of his Lord, and fell a second time into the hands of the persecutors, by whom he was marked out for the slaughter, amongst the many others that were butchered in this year of blood.
The bishop of Tarasona, who calls Mr Leigh a learned priest, relates, (p. 607,) that he, being present with many others, when a catholic gentleman was examined upon his religion by Elmer, the protestant bishop of London; and the lay gentleman excused himself from entering into argument with his Lordship: upon which the prelate began to triumph, as if the gentleman could say nothing for his religion.
Mr Leigh thought himself obliged modestly to offer not only to satisfy the queries which the bishop had proposed, but in all other points of religion to give an answer to whatever his lordship should think fit to object. The bishop, instead of accepting the proffer, called him a popish dog and a traitor, and delivered him up to the secular court for his mouth to be stopped with a halter, though this way of arguing and determining controversies, appeared not a little shocking even to the protestants themselves, who were witnesses of it.
Mr Leigh was condemned, according to Mr Stow's chronicle, on the 26th of August, 1588, for no other crime, but for having been made priest beyond the seas, and remaining in this realm contrary to the statute. For this he had sentence to die, as in cases of high treason, and was accordingly executed at Tyburn, August the 30th.
With Mr Leigh were executed five others, viz. Edward Shelly, gentleman, of the family of the Shelleys, of Sussex, Richard Martin, Richard Flower, and John Roch, laymen, and Margaret Ward, gentlewoman: some for being reconciled to the church, others for abetting and relieving priests. And as for Mrs Ward, as we have seen from Mr Stow, her crime was the conveying a cord to a priest in Bridewell, by means of which he made his escape. But of her we shall say more by and by.
Dr Champney, in his manuscript history, relates after Ribadaneira, 1. 4, De Schism, and bishop Yepez, 1. 5, chap. 1, that when these confessors of Christ were drawn through the streets of London to Tyburn, a gentlewoman of fashion, animated with a zeal and fortitude above her sex, crying out with a loud voice, exhorted them to be constant in their faith; and then forcing her way through the crowd, and kneeling down, asked their benediction. Upon which she was immediately apprehended and committed to prison; as was also another catholic, who, at the place of execution, hearing one of the confessors earnestly requesting of all catholics, if any were there present, to pray for him, because he stood is much need of their prayers, and not thinking it enough to pray secretly in his heart, as others did, knelt down before all the multitude and prayed aloud for him, to the great encouragement of the confessor, and great mortification of the persecutors.
From the Bishop of Chalcedon's Catalogue, from Dr. Champney's Manuscript history, and from bishop Yepez, L. 5, chap. 1.
Source: Bishop Richard Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, Volume 1
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