ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 10th of December
BLESSED THOMAS SOMERS, PRIEST AND MARTYR
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| Colleges at the University of Douai, 16th century |
Mr Thomas Somers, who was known upon the mission by the name of Wilson, was born in Westmorland where for some years he taught a grammar school, to the great benefit of many, as well of his scholars, as of his other neighbours, whom he instructed in the christian catholic religion; and some also of the more advanced he persuaded to go over to Douay, to the English college or seminary there; in order to qualify themselves by learning and piety for holy orders, that so they might one day return again to their own country, to assist the souls of their neighbours in those evil days.
The counsel which he gave to others he not long after followed himself; and repairing to the aforesaid college, he passed through his divinity studies, was made priest, and sent upon the English mission in 1606. His residence was in London; and his labours were chiefly dedicated to the poorer sort of catholics there, whom he served with such extraordinary diligence and zeal, as to be commonly known by the name of the pastor or parish priest of London. Parochus Londinensis.
After some time he fell into the hands of the priest-catchers, and was committed to prison, and from prison was, with twenty others of the same character, by virtue of an order from the council, shipped off, and sent into banishment. He landed at Boulogne, and from thence went and paid a visit to his old mother college, where he met with a kind welcome, and was invited to take up his habitation there, the office of procurator of the house being offered him by Dr Worthington, then president. But his heart was with his flock, from which he had been violently separated; and no apprehension of dangers, to which his return must needs expose him, (being so well known as he was) could make any impression on a soul that was all on fire with heavenly charity, and which looked upon death in such a cause as the greatest happiness.
To England therefore he returned, and there reassumed his accustomed labours, in the same field as formerly but was nat long after apprehended again and quickly brought to his trial, where he was convicted of having received holy orders in the church of Rome, and having exercised his priestly functions in England; and for this supposed treason, (no other being so much as objected to him) he was condemned to die the death of traitors.
When the bloody sentence was pronounced against him, it drew tears from the eyes of many; and caused pity and compassion in most of the standers-by: but as for his own part, he heard it with such a remarkable calmness and composedness in his looks, as affected the whole court with wonder and astonishment.
A few days after, he was drawn to Tyburn in the company of Mr Roberts; where as we have seen already, they both made a glorious confession of their faith, in the sight of an infinite number of people, and poured forth their blood in defence of it, December 10, 1610.
Molanus in his appendix to his Idea togatæ Constantiæ, published in 1629, sets down Mr Somers's banishment in 1610, and gives him for companions Messieurs Richard Newport, Philip Woodward, Thomas Leak, Cuthbert Johnson, Oswald Needham, N. Green, John Prat, John Lockwood, John Ainsworth, Robert Chamberlane, Edward Millington, Gilbert Hunt, N. Sadler and N. Hutton, O. S. B. Thomas Priest and Mich. Walpole, S. J. &c. He adds, that Oswald Needham was afterwards crowned with martyrdom: but this particular is not confirmed by any other writer; and that John Lockwood and Gilbert Hunt were also afterwards condemned to die.
From Dr Worthington and Raissius in their printed Catalogues.
This year 1610, Mr Lewis Barlow, the first missioner from the seminaries, departed this life in a good old age. He came to Douay in 1570, was made priest and sent upon the mission in 1574; was divers times apprehended and imprisoned, and was sent into banishment in 1603; but returned again to his labours, and died this year in England (Douay Diary.)
The year 1611 passed without the shedding of any catholic blood on religious accounts: not so the following year, in which I find three priests and one layman put to death upon the penal statutes.
Source: Bishop Richard Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, Volume 2
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