Martyrs of England 1929

As a group, these 136 martyrs represent all strata of the recusant Catholic society of the time. Among them are priests trained in clandestine seminaries on the continent (such as the English College in Douai, France, the English College in Rome, or the colleges of Valladolid and Seville in Spain) who returned secretly to England to administer the sacraments. There are also religious (Jesuits, Benedictines, Franciscans, Carthusians) and courageous laypeople who sheltered these priests at the peril of their lives.

Among the prominent figures of this group of 136 martyrs, we can cite: - Blessed David Gonson (or Gunston) († July 12, 1541): A Knight of the Order of Malta and son of a rear admiral, he was one of the first martyrs of the group, executed under Henry VIII for refusing to recognize the spiritual supremacy of the king and for calling him a heretic. - Blessed Thomas Hemerford († February 12, 1584): A secular priest educated at Oxford and then at the English College in Rome, ordained in 1583. Arrested shortly after his return to England, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn with four other priests (James Fenn, George Haydock, John Nutter, and John Munden). - Blessed William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford († December 29, 1680): A Catholic nobleman falsely accused of treason in the context of the famous and fictitious "Popish Plot" fabricated by Titus Oates. He was beheaded at Tower Hill during the reign of Charles II, affirming his innocence and his faith until the end.

Despite the severity of the persecutions, the English Catholic community piously preserved the memory of its martyrs. Clandestine catalogues of their sufferings were written as early as the 16th century. In the 18th century, Bishop Richard Challoner compiled these accounts in his monumental work Memoirs of Missionary Priests, which became the documentary basis for the official recognition of their martyrdom.

After the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in 1850, the Archbishops of Westminster (Cardinals Wiseman and Manning) actively relaunched the cause of the martyrs. In 1923, Cardinal Francis Bourne resumed the process for a large group of candidates. Ecclesiastical tribunals conducted rigorous historical investigations to ensure that each conviction was motivated by hatred of the faith (odium fidei) and not by actual acts of political sedition, thus removing any ambiguity.

The decree recognizing the martyrdom of this group was promulgated by the Congregation of Rites on December 8, 1929. On December 15, 1929, Pope Pius XI celebrated the solemn beatification of these 136 martyrs in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, in the presence of a large crowd and pilgrims who had come from England. The history of this group underwent a significant subsequent development: - 29 of them were canonized on October 25, 1970, by Pope Paul VI as part of the group of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales (which also included 11 martyrs beatified in 1886). Among those canonized are famous saints such as Robert Southwell, John Roberts, or Swithun Wells. - The other 107 martyrs of the 1929 group remained at the rank of blessed and are often referred to collectively as Thomas Hemerford and his 106 companion martyrs.

The spirituality of these martyrs was profoundly Eucharistic and ecclesial. For them, the celebration of the Catholic Mass—forbidden under penalty of death—was the heart of their spiritual resistance. Their absolute fidelity to the Apostolic See of Rome testified to their vision of a universal Church, free from any state tutelage. Their attitude toward death deeply marked the witnesses of the time: on the scaffold, they prayed publicly for the sovereign who condemned them, forgave their executioners, and sang hymns of thanksgiving. Today, their memory is celebrated collectively on May 4 (Feast of the Martyrs of England and Wales). The Tyburn Convent in London, established near the historic site of the executions, remains a place of pilgrimage and perpetual prayer dedicated to their memory and the preservation of their precious relics.