Thursday 22 May 2014

"Neither fire, faggot nor scaffold..."

On 22nd May 1538, Blessed John Forest OSF, won his martyr's crown, not by being hanged drawn and quartered but by being burnt alive.
In this particular instance the flames were held back by the strong winds and the sufferings of this great man extended over a longer period.

Blessed John Forest -
 St Ethelreda's, Ely Place
Picture: Wikipedia

Here is an account of his final days and death:

Franciscan at the age of seventeen, professed Observant at Greenwich, Confessor of Queen Catherine of Aragon, as a strenuous opposer of the divorce he was imprisoned for two years at Newgate.

There he composed a book on the Authority of the Church and the Pope, for which he was condemned to die, but neither torture nor coming death could force him to acknowledge the King's supremacy.

After three years' delay he was sentenced to be burnt as a heretic.

On the stand at Smithfield he faced the Lords of the Council, with Latimer mounted on a pulpit.

To the apostate's (Latimer's) heretical invectives the martyr's rejoinders were so complete that Latimer in his rage exclaimed, "Burn him, burn him! His words are enough."

He was carried to the gibbet and suspended by a chain round the waist over the pile prepared.

The flames were kindled and further fed by the image of a saint cast into the burning mass.

The martyr prayed:"Neither fire, faggot nor scaffold shall separate me from Thee, O Lord."

He bore the agony with invincible patience and with the ascending flames the holocaust was consumed.

Blessed John Forest and the Martyrs of England and Wales - Ora pro nobis!


See also Supremacy and Survival's account of Blessed John Forest HERE


3 comments:

  1. THE
    KNEELERS

    We are St. Joan,
    Philomena, Campion
    The Faith in its whole
    Is what we do champion.

    We are St. Margaret,
    Pearl of York
    Where the bowels of the Faith
    They tried to torque.

    We are Sir More,
    That's Thomas the Saint
    Whose reputation
    They could not taint.

    We are vocations
    Large families and kneeling
    Adoring His presence
    It's not just a feeling.

    We are descendents
    Of Tradition and beggin'
    To stop all the men
    Who are turning us pagan!

    We are the poor,
    Uneducated ones
    But in faith well-informed
    The heretic shuns.

    And when we are told,
    "Don't kneel anymore."
    Since we don’t contracept
    We birthe and IGNORE!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you very much for the link!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Since he is the only Catholic martyr to be burnt as a heretic it would be interesting to know on what grounds he was condemned, and by which ecclesiastical court. Henry VIII tended to burn Protestants but have Catholics hanged, drawn and quartered.

    ReplyDelete