ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY Saints celebrated on the 9th of May BLESSED THOMAS PICKERING, MARTYR ⬅️ The Holy Martyrs of England and Wales [Blessed] Thomas Pickering was a lay brother and martyr, a member of an old Westmoreland family. Born in 1621, he was executed at Tyburn, May 9, 1679. He was sent to the Benedictine monastery of Saint Gregory at Douai, where he took vows as a lay brother in 1660. In 1665 he was dispatched to London, where, as steward or procurator to the little community of Benedictines who served the queen's chapel royal, he became known personally to the queen and Charles II; and when in 1675, urged by the parliament, Charles issued a proclamation ordering the Benedictines to leave England within a fixed time, Pickering was allowed to remain, probably on the ground that he was not a priest. In 1678 came the pretended revelations of Titus Oates , and Pickering was accused of conspiring to murder the king. No evidence except Oates 's word was...