A feast day not celebrated in the United States anywhere except the Ordinariate falls today, the fourth day of May; it honors those Catholics martyred for remaining true to the “old faith,” mostly during the century and a half following Henry VIII’s decision to split the English Church from its ancient submission to the See of Peter.

These men and women were called “Recusants” because they refused to attend the services of the new Anglican church; the name comes from the Latin verb “recusare” — to refuse or object. The laws under which they suffered began under Elizabeth I with a statute against “Popish recusants” in 1593; it and subsequent laws (levying many penalties, up to and including death) were finally repealed by Oliver Cromwell (of all people) in 1650: but his intention was the relief of “other” non-conformers, the Calvinist Puritans; during the Puritan Commonwealth Catholics and Anglicans were united through persecution by Government. The recusant laws, per se, were not reinstated with reestablishment of the monarchy in 1660; but legal persecution of English Catholics only came to an end with Catholic Emancipation — in 1829.

The most well-known English Martyrs are SS John Cardinal Fisher (the only Cardinal to have “earned” his red vestments, symbolizing a willingness to die for the Faith) and Thomas More, highly-placed and famous men and among the earliest — although not the first — to die for their constancy to the Faith Catholic. They are not remembered specifically on today’s feast, however, as they have their own (on June 22nd). Slightly fewer than 350 Catholic martyrs went to their deaths over about a century and a half; most were hanged, drawn, and quartered — like Crucifixion, a particularly gruesome death intended for public display — because their crime was considered treason against the state (and its religion) — exactly the situation in which most of the early martyrs of the church found themselves.

The Church noted and provided for these martyrs from the start: In the reign of Pope Gregory XIII (1572–85), 63 English martyrs were recognized and veneration of their relics was authorized. The number of those canonized and beatified has grown over the centuries: Pope Leo XIII beatified 41 in 1886 and another 9 in 1895; 108 were beatified in 1929 by Pope Pius XI; 40 were canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970; and S John Paul beatified 85 (the most recent) in 1987. The Feast of the English Martyrs — while remembering all — is a specific memorial of the 40 [sainted] Martyrs of England and Wales (canonized in 1970).

The image used for our own small commemoration of these heroic models of faith, fortitude, and — with almost no exception — Christian charity towards those by whom they were persecuted, hunted down, and killed are three panels from a stained glass window dedicated to the English Martyrs produced in 1929 for Holy Name Church, Oxton, Birkenhead Cheshire (now “Wirral”) by the remarkable English artist Margaret Agnes Rope (1882–1953) who, with her mother and five of her six siblings, entered the Catholic Church after her father’s death); she became a Carmelite nun.

The three panels show Blessed Ralph Crockett, born an Anglican; an alumnus of Christ’s College, Cambridge, he became a Catholic and was ordained a Priest at Reims in 1585. Captured with other English Priests on board a ship at Littlehampton Sussex in April 1586, all were sent up to London and imprisoned. In the aftermath of the Spanish Armada Father Crockett was sent to Chichester for trial with three other Priests in late September 1588: all were condemned to death for treason (for being “Priests coming in the Realm“). One of the four took the Oath of Supremacy and was released; the other three were taken out for execution. At the gallows a second Priest recanted. Father Crockett ascended the scaffold and blessed the crowd in Latin, at which the crowd howled; he then prayed in English; the crowd cheered. Fathers Edward James and Ralph Crockett faced their deaths without fear and, after absolving each other, were executed. Subsequently Fr. Crockett’s father reverted to the old Faith; the family remained recusants throughout the time of persecution.

The central panel shows our blessed Lady as the Queen of Martyrs, one of her Titles in the Litany of Loretto, and the scroll at the bottom refers to England — a land where she was once noted to be particularly beloved — as her dowry; this dedication was performed officially by King Richard at Westminster Abbey in 1381, although the name and association are much more ancient.

The third panel shows Blessed Thomas Holford, raised an Anglican, son of a minister in Cheshire. He became a schoolteacher and under the influence and tuition of a Catholic Priest was received into the Church. He entered the seminary at Rheims in 1582, and was ordained in April 1583; a month later he was sent back to England. After various near-captures he was arrested three years later. The Anglican Bishop of Chester described his appearance, on which Margaret Rope based her depiction: “tall, black [haired], fat, strong man, the crown of his head bald, his beard marquessated [shaven except for a moustache].” Refusing an offer of exile he was sent to London and imprisoned, but escaped and travelled the country (avoiding London) until he was captured after returning to the City to purchase new clothes in 1588. He was followed to the tailor-shop after celebrating Mass in Holborn, arrested, and taken to Newgate Prison. He was condemned to death and executed two days later, on August 29th 1588, at Clerkenwell. This location — along with that chosen for the executions of the others condemned on that day — were highly unusual, scattered throughout the London, and most likely intended to make the executions more public. Unusually, B. Thomas was “merely” hanged.

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman on the English Martyrs:

Can we religiously suppose that the blood of our martyrs, three centuries ago and since, shall never receive its recompense? Those priests, secular and regular, did they suffer for no end? or rather, for an end which is not yet accomplished? The long imprisonment, the fetid dungeon, the weary suspense, the tyrannous trial, the barbarous sentence, the savage execution, the rack, the gibbet, the knife, the cauldron, the numberless tortures of those holy victims, O my God, are they to have no reward? Are Thy martyrs to cry from under Thine altar for their loving vengeance on this guilty people, and to cry in vain? Shall they lose life, and not gain a better life for the children of those who persecuted them?…And in that day of trial and desolation for England, when hearts were pierced through and through with Mary’s woe, at the crucifixion of Thy body mystical, was not every tear that flowed, and every drop of blood that was shed, the seeds of a future harvest, when they who sowed in sorrow were to reap in joy? [Sermon Ten: The Second Spring, preached July 13th, 1852 at the First Provincial Synod of Westminster, Saint Mary’s, Oscott, Birmingham]

The Collect for the Feast of the English Martyrs in the Divine Worship form of the Roman Rite:

O MERCIFUL GOD, who, when thy Church on earth was torn apart by the ravages of sin, didst raise up men and women in England who witnessed to their faith with courage and constancy: give unto thy Church that peace which is thy will, and grant that the who have been divided on earth may be reconciled in heaven and be partakers together in the vision of thy glory; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.