Houses (ID 1219)

• Gennings
  Saint Edmund Gennings
  Gennings

  

  Born 1567 Lichfield, England

  Died 1591 (aged 23-24) Gray's Inn, London, England

  Venerated in Catholic Church

  Beatified 15th December 1929 by Pope Pius XI

  Canonized 25th October 1970, Vatican City, by Pope Paul VI

  Feast 10th December

  Edmund Gennings (1567 – 10 December 1591), was an English martyr, who was executed during the English Reformation for being a Roman Catholic priest. He came from Lichfield, Staffordshire. A thoughtful, serious boy naturally inclined to matters of faith at the age of sixteen he became a page to a Catholic gentleman, Richard Sherwood. Impressed by his master's example, when Sherwood left England to become a priest, Gennings followed. On his return to England, Gennings was estranged from his family because of his conversion, but headed straight for Lichfield to seek out his family. Despite lengthy attempts to find his surviving family, Gennings was shunned and so returned to France as a missionary priest Upon his return to London, Gennings was arrested for the act of saying Mass. Gennings punishment was to be hanged, drawn and quartered outside the same house where he said mass. Edmund Gennings was canonized as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales by Pope Paul VI on 25 October 1970.

• Arrowsmith
  Saint Edmond Arrowsmtih
  Arrowsmith

  

  Born 1585 Haydock, England

  Died 1628 (aged 42-43) Lancaster, England

  Venerated in Catholic Church

  Beatified 15 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI

  Canonized 25 October 1970, Vatican City, by Pope Paul VI

  Major shrine Catholic Church of St Oswald and St Edmund Arrowsmith, Ashton-in-Makerfield, England

  Feast 28 August

  Edmund Arrowsmith was born in Lancashire in 1585. His parents were imprisoned for adherence to the Catholic faith and he and his siblings were taken in by neighbours. In 1605 he enrolled at the English College, Douai, France. He was ordained as a priest, returning to Lancashire in 1613 to carry out priestly ministry in secret. Stonyhurst College still holds the small trunk of vestments and equipment which he carried from house to house. He was arrested in 1622, but released the following year on an amnesty from King James. He joined the Jesuits in 1624. In 1628 Edmund was betrayed to the authorities and was convicted of being a Roman Catholic priest. He was hanged, drawn and quartered at Lancaster on 28th August, now his feast day. Edmund was beatified in 1929 and canonized as one of the Forty Martyrs by Pope Paul VI in 1970. His hand was preserved by his family and it now rests in the Church of St Oswald and St Edmund Arrowsmith, Ashton-in-Makerfield.

• Clitherow
  MARGARET CLITHEROW
  Clitherow

  

  Born 1556 York, Yorkshire, England

  Died 25 March 1586 York, Yorkshire, England

  Venerated in Roman Catholic Church

  Beatified 15 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI

  Canonized 25 October 1970, Rome by Pope Paul VI

  Major shrine The Shambles, York, North Yorkshire, England

  Feast 30 August

  Margaret Clitherow, sometimes known as the Pearl of York, was born in 1556. Margaret lived a comfortable life, marrying a wealthy butcher and a chamberlain of the city with whom she bore three children. She converted to Roman Catholicism in 1574 and was supported by her husband who paid her fines for not attending her local Anglican Church. She was imprisoned at York Castle three times for failing to attend church, and her third child, William, was born in prison. Margaret risked her life by harbouring and maintaining priests both in her own house and in a rented property nearby. When a priest hole was discovered in her house she was arrested and called before the York assizes for the crime of harbouring Roman Catholic priests. She refused to plead, thereby preventing a trial that would entail her three children being made to testify, and being subjected to torture. Although pregnant with her fourth child, she was executed by being crushed to death. The two sergeants who should have carried out the execution hired four desperate beggars to do it instead. She was stripped and had a handkerchief tied across her face then laid across a sharp rock the size of a man's fist, the door from her own house was put on top of her and loaded with an immense weight of rocks and stones so that the sharp rock would break her back. Her death occurred within fifteen minutes, but her body was left for six hours before the weight was removed.

• Kirby
  LUKE KIRBY
  Kirby

  Born 1549

  Died 30 May 1582 at Tyburn, London, England

  Venerated in Catholic Church

  Beatified 29th December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII on

  Canonized 25 October 1970, Rome by Pope Paul VI

  Feast 4 May

  Kirby is said to have received his M.A. in England, probably at Cambridge, before converting to Catholicism at Louvain and entering Douai College in 1576. From there he went to Rome where he become known for his charity towards his countrymen who needed help, Catholic and non-Catholic. He helped them from his slender purse, and once went forty miles out of Rome to see some safe on the way. He accompanied Edmund Campion and Ralph Sherwin on their way to England. When he arrived in Dover in 1580 he was arrested and sent to the Tower of London where he was tortured on the Scavenger’s Daughter – a particularly brutal torture device. He spent six months in irons until his execution on 17 November 1581. He was beatified in 1885 by Pope Leo XIII and was canonized as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales in 1970.

• Sherwin
  RALPH SHERWIN
  Sherwin

  

  Born 25 October 1550 Rodsley, Derbyshire, England

  Died 1 December 1581 (aged 31) Tyburn, London, England

  Venerated in Roman Catholic Church

  Beatified 29 December 1886, Rome by Pope Leo XIII

  Canonized 25 October 1970, Rome by Pope Paul VI

  Feast 1 December

  Ralph Sherwin was born in 1550. He attended Eton College and received a scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford where he achieved an MA. After university he converted to Catholicism and was ordained in Douai. From there he spent three years in Rome. In 1580 he left the safety of Rome to spread the Gospel. On 9 November 1580, he was arrested while preaching in the house of Nicholas Roscarrock in London and imprisoned in Marshalsea Prison, where he converted many fellow prisoners, and on 4 December was transferred to the Tower of London, where he was tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow. Later he was put into isolation cell, without food. He is said to have been personally offered a comfortable bishops post by Elizabeth I if he converted, but refused. After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial with Edmund Campion on a charge of treasonable conspiracy. He was convicted, taken to Tyburn where he has hung, drawn and quartered. Sherwin's last words were “Iesu, Iesu, Iesu, esto mihi Iesus!” – Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, be Jesus to me.

• Webster
  AUGUSTINE WEBSTER
  Webster

  Died 4 May 1535 at Tyburn, London, England

  Venerated in Roman Catholic Church

  Beatified 15 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI

  Canonized 25 October 1970, Rome by Pope Paul VI

  Feast 4 May

  Augustine Webster attended Cambridge University and became a monk at the Charterhouse of Sheen. In 1531 he became prior of Our Lady of Melwood, a Carthusian house at Epworth, on the Isle of Axholme. The Carthusian monks led austere lives and were held in high esteem with considerable influence at the start of the reformation. Sometime around the middle of April 1535, Webster, and fellow Carthusians, were imprisoned in the Tower on the orders of Thomas Cromwell for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy which acknowledged Henry VIII as head of the Church. Webster was found guilty to the charge of treason, only once Cromwell visited the jury and threatened them. Webster was hanged, beheaded and quartered at Tyburn on 4 May 1535.