Oct. 29 is the feast of the Martyrs of Douai, Englishmen who went abroad to study for the priesthood and then returned to England to minister in secret to their fellow Catholics.
"Between 1577, the date of the martyrdom of St Cuthbert Mayne, the college's protomartyr, and 1680, the date of the execution of Thomas Thwing, the college's last martyr, 158 college members, priests and laymen, secular and religious, met with a martyr's death."
To read their names, click here.
For details about the individual martyrs, Edmund Campion, Ralph Sherwin, John Sandys, Southwell the poet, Luke Kirby, Alexander Briant, etc., where they were born, where they studied before going to Douai, what crimes led to their arrest, imprisonment, torture, and execution, where they were hanged, drawn and quartered, etc., click here.
The booklet also contains the names of other English martyrs, including women like Bl. Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury and lady governess to Princess Mary, who was beheaded, and St. Margaret Clitherow, a butcher's wife from the Shambles of York, who was pressed to death.
"Kindle in us, Lord, the spirit in which the blessed martyrs of Douai labored, so that filled with this spirit, we may love what they loved and do as they taught."
-- from the prayer for the feast.
-- Submitted by Gerelyn Hollingsworth
