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.
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.
See also Supremacy and Survival's account of Blessed John Forest HERE
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.
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| Blessed John Forest - St Ethelreda's, Ely Place |
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
