Oct. 25, 2011 Tuesday: St. Richard Gwyn
St. Richard Gwyn
Richard was a Welshman who lived in the sixteenth century. He was raised in the Anglican Church and attended Oxford University and St. John’s College in Cambridge. After completing his studies, he returned to Wales and opened a school. He got married and had six children. It was at this time that Richard converted to the Catholic faith.
Wales was ruled by Queen Elizabeth I of England. Many people in Wales were Catholic, but the queen introduced many strict laws to enforce the Anglican religion as the only one in her reign. Catholic priests or people who were loyal to the Holy Father were put in prison. They were often tortured and killed.
Before long, Richard was a hunted man. He escaped from jail once, and the following year he was arrested again. “You will be freed,” he was told, “if you will give up the Catholic faith.” Richard absolutely refused. He was brought to an Anglican church by force. He upset the preacher’s whole sermon by clanking his chains loudly in protest. Furious, the officials put him in the stocks for eight hours, and many people came to abuse and insult him.
More prison time and torture sessions followed. The queen’s men wanted him to give them the names of other Catholics, but Richard would not. At his trial, men were paid to lie about him, as one of them later admitted. The men on the jury were so dishonest that they asked the judge whom he wanted them to condemn. After Richard was sentenced to death, his wife and baby were brought to court. “Do not imitate your husband,” the poor woman was told. In disgust, she bravely snapped, “If you want more blood, you can take my life with my husband’s. If you give more money to your witnesses, they will surely find something to say against me, too.”
As Richard was being martyred, he cried out in terrible pain: “Holy God, what is this?” One of the officials mockingly answered: “An execution of her majesty, the queen.” “Jesus, have mercy on me!” exclaimed the martyr. The beautiful religious poems Richard wrote in prison are still in existence. In them, he begged his countrymen of Wales to be loyal to the Catholic faith. Richard died a martyr in 1584. He was proclaimed a blessed by Pope Pius XI in 1929. In 1970, Pope Paul VI canonized him as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
-Daughters of St. Paul
Richard was a Welshman who lived in the sixteenth century. He was raised in the Anglican Church and attended Oxford University and St. John’s College in Cambridge. After completing his studies, he returned to Wales and opened a school. He got married and had six children. It was at this time that Richard converted to the Catholic faith.
Wales was ruled by Queen Elizabeth I of England. Many people in Wales were Catholic, but the queen introduced many strict laws to enforce the Anglican religion as the only one in her reign. Catholic priests or people who were loyal to the Holy Father were put in prison. They were often tortured and killed.
Before long, Richard was a hunted man. He escaped from jail once, and the following year he was arrested again. “You will be freed,” he was told, “if you will give up the Catholic faith.” Richard absolutely refused. He was brought to an Anglican church by force. He upset the preacher’s whole sermon by clanking his chains loudly in protest. Furious, the officials put him in the stocks for eight hours, and many people came to abuse and insult him.
More prison time and torture sessions followed. The queen’s men wanted him to give them the names of other Catholics, but Richard would not. At his trial, men were paid to lie about him, as one of them later admitted. The men on the jury were so dishonest that they asked the judge whom he wanted them to condemn. After Richard was sentenced to death, his wife and baby were brought to court. “Do not imitate your husband,” the poor woman was told. In disgust, she bravely snapped, “If you want more blood, you can take my life with my husband’s. If you give more money to your witnesses, they will surely find something to say against me, too.”
As Richard was being martyred, he cried out in terrible pain: “Holy God, what is this?” One of the officials mockingly answered: “An execution of her majesty, the queen.” “Jesus, have mercy on me!” exclaimed the martyr. The beautiful religious poems Richard wrote in prison are still in existence. In them, he begged his countrymen of Wales to be loyal to the Catholic faith. Richard died a martyr in 1584. He was proclaimed a blessed by Pope Pius XI in 1929. In 1970, Pope Paul VI canonized him as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
-Daughters of St. Paul
