In the Footsteps of the Martyrs
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Today, 4 May, we celebrate the Feast of the English Martyrs. To mark this occasion, a new book has been written to shed light on the Lancaster Martyrs, 14 priests and laymen from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ,sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered on account of their Catholic faith on Moor above the city of Lancaster.
The book is entitled, ‘Like a Deer yearning for running streams’, a quotation from the psalms, etched into the prison walls of the Tower of London by George Beesley, a martyr from Hill Chapel in Goosnargh. There are few villages and towns in Lancashire that were left untouched by persecution of the Catholic Church. Far from the prying eyes of State authority the Catholic faith continued to be practised in Lancashire, but as political pressures ratcheted up in the late sixteenth century, the Catholic faith was driven underground and example was made of priests who were caught administering the sacraments and the lay faithful who assisted them.
The icon of the Lancaster Martyrs
This new book follows in the footsteps of these martyrs. Last year the parish of St Joseph’s commissioned a unique tryptych icon of the Lancaster Martyrs which was blessed by Bishop Paul Swarbrick. Following its installation Fr Philip Conner spent some time working in the special collections of Stonyhurst College, exploring the lives of the martyrs and researching the literature that Catholics drew upon to keep their faith alive in unprecedented times. The result is this little book which provides a fuller picture of these heroic men. The book comprises three parts: an outline of the martyrs and the context in which they lived; a trail linking the martyrs altar at St Joseph’s with the Castle, Judges Lodgings, the martyrs monument near Williamsons Park, and the Cathedral; and, transcriptions of prayers and meditations from sixteenth and seventeenth-century books which fed the faith of the Catholic faithful.
What surprised Fr Philip was the richness of this literature, reaching far back into the Catholic tradition. Quite apart from providing a rich diet of prayers and devotion, the ancient prayers served to underline the apostolic continuity of the Church, linking the persecuted Church of Elizabethan England with that of the early Church that faced its own troubles. And so, writers such as St Athanasius, St Cyprian of Carthage, St Cyril of Jerusalem, St Jerome are set alongside more recent hymns and prayers of the late Medieval and Early Modern period.
The Martyrs Trail, linking St Joseph’s Church to the Martyrs Monument
Cycling and walking around the Lancashire countryside in lockdown times, Fr Philip discovered that just beneath the surface it is still possible to discern vestiges of the Lancashire martyrs: holy wells and crosses, secret shrines, places associated with the martyrs, creating a whole geography of faith which sustained the faithful through turbulent times. On one cross, there is an inscription, ‘The paths you tread in lane or street, long since were trodden by the feet of saints who went before you’. It is hoped that this little book will inspire us to remember their example, be inspired by their witness, and call upon their intercession, as we face the times that we live in today.
Copies of the booklet can be purchased at the church after Mass, or from the Presbytery, for £5 with proceeds going to the Church’s Restoration Fund. They can also be sent out by post by emailing the parish.
