ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH
Saints celebrated on the 16th of March
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BLESSED JOHN AMIAS AND BLESSED ROBERT DALBY, PRIESTS AND MARTYRS
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| York Minster |
John Amias (some call him Ann) was a native of Yorkshire, an alumnus of Douay College during its residence at Rheims, where he was made priest the 25th of March, 1581, and sent upon the English mission on the 5th of June of the same year, together with Mr Edmund Sykes.
Robert Dalby was a native of the Bishopric of Durham, an alumnus also and priest of the same college, sent upon the mission in 1688. They both fell into the hands of the persecutors, and were condemned to die the death of traitors, upon account of their priestly character. They suffered together at York on the 16th of March, 1588-9. Dr Champney in his manuscript history, ad annum Elizab. 31, gives the following account of them:
"This year, on the 16th of March, John Amias and Robert Dalby, priests of the college of Douay, suffered at York, as in cases of high treason, for no other cause, but that they were priests ordained by the authority of the see of Rome, and had returned into England, and exercised there their priestly functions for the benefit of the souls of their neighbours. I was myself an eye-witness of the glorious combat of these holy men, being at that time a young man in the 20th year of my age; and I returned home confirmed by the sight of their constancy and meekness, in the catholic faith, which by God's grace, I then followed; for there visibly appeared in those holy servants of God so much meekness joined with a singular constancy, that you would easily say that they were lambs led to the slaughter.
"They were drawn about a mile out of the city to the place of execution, where being arrived, and taken off the hurdle, they prostrated themselves upon their faces to the ground, and there employed some time in prayer, till Mr Amias being called upon by the sheriff, rose up, and, with a serene countenance, walked to the gallows and kissed it; then kissing the ladder, went up. The hangman having fitted the rope to his neck, bid him descend a step or two lower, affirming, that by this means he would suffer the less. He then turning to the people, declared, That the cause of his death was not treason, but religion; but here he was interrupted, and not suffered to go on. Therefore composing himself for death, with his eyes and hands lifted up to heaven, forgiving all who had any ways procured his death, and praying for his persecutors, he recommended his soul to God, and being flung off the ladder, quietly expired; for he was suffered to hang so long till he seemed to be quite dead. Then he was cut down, dismembered and bowelled, his bowels cast into a fire that was prepared hard by for that purpose, his head cut off, and the trunk of his body quartered. All this while his companion Mr Dalby was most intent on prayer; who being called upon, immediately followed the footsteps of him that had gone before him, and obtained the like victory. The sheriff's men were very watchful to prevent the standers-by from gathering any of their blood, or carrying off anything that had belonged to them. Yet one, who appeared to me to be a gentlewoman, going up to the place where their bodies were in quartering, and not without difficulty making her way through the crowd, fell down upon her knees before the multitude, and, with her hands joined, and her eyes lifted up to heaven, declared an extraordinary motion and affection of soul. She spoke also some words which I could not hear for the tumult and noise. Immediately a clamour was raised against her as an idolatress; and she was drove away, and whether or not she was carried to prison, I could not certainly understand." So far Dr Champney.
From the Douay Diary, the Bishop of Chalcedon's Catalogue, and the Manuscript history of Dr Champney, who was an eye-witness of their death.
Source: Bishop Richard Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, Volume 2
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