Saints celebrated on the 4th of May
SAINT ROBERT LAWRENCE, RELIGIOUS AND MARTYR
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| London Oratory, The Martyrs of Tyburn Tree (detail) |
Saint Robert Lawrence, the Carthusian martyr, was born probably in Dorsetshire, studied in Cambridge and, according to Thomas Wrothesley, Earl of Southampton, was once chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk. After his profession at the London Charterhouse, he succeeded John Houghton as prior of Beauvale (1531).
At the appearance of the decree of May 15, 1535, announcing Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the English Church, St Robert went to London for the advice of Prior Houghton. He accompanied Houghton and Augustine Webster, Prior of Axholme, in a visit to Thomas Cromwell for a modified form of the decree that they could accept in conscience.
Thereupon they were imprisoned in the Tower together with Richard Reynolds, a Bridgettine of Syon. On April 20 they were examined by royal commissioners and sent to Westminster Hall for trial. They pleaded innocent of any seditious opposition to the king, but were declared guilty by a jury that hesitated for two days until compelled to act by Cromwell.
On May 4, 1535, in the company of John Haile, the aged vicar of Isleworth, these proto-martyrs were set on hurdles and dragged to Tyburn, where they suffered the penalty of treason. They were hanged, cut down while alive, eviscerated, and quartered. In 1936 a benefactor attributing his restoration to health to St Robert's intercession erected a small chapel in the Catholic church at Eastwood near Beauvale, to which the former altar stone of Beauvale priory was restored in 1940. The ruins of Lawrence's lodging are still preserved.
Source: https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/lawrence-robert-st
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