Saint Hedwig (c.1174 - 1243) She was born in Bavaria and married the Duke of Silesia, by whom she had seven children. She lived a devout life, succouring the poor and the sick, for whom she built hostels. On the death of her husband in 1238 she entered the monastery of Trebnitz, where she died in 1243. See also the article in Wikipedia. St Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647 - 1690) She joined the Visitation Sisters at Paray-le-Monial. She made rapid progress along the way of perfection and was given mystical visions as a result of which she worked hard to institute devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Church. See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia. Other saints: Saint Marguerite dYouville (1701 - 1771) She was born at Varennes, near Montréal in Canada. She was married and had two children. In 1738, a widow, she formed a lay group dedicated to charity, with four other women, and took simple vows. This grew into the Order of Sisters of Charity of the Hôpital Général of Montréal, the “Grey Nuns.” She was the first native-born Canadian to be canonized. See the biography on the Vatican web site. Other saints: St Richard Gwyn (1537 - 1584) He was born in Wales. He studied at Oxford and then at St John’s College, Cambridge, but his studies were interrupted in 1558 when Elizabeth I ascended the throne and Catholics were expelled from the universities. He returned to Wales and became a teacher. He married and had six children. He was leant on to become an Anglican and succumbed briefly to the pressure, but returned to the faith after a sudden illness and remained steadfast in it thereafter. He frequently had to change his home and place of work to avoid fines and imprisonment, but he was finally arrested in 1579, and after escaping and spending a year and a half on the run, he spent the rest of his life in prison. He was fined astronomical sums for not attending the Anglican church, and was carried to church in irons more than once; but he would disrupt the service by rattling his irons and heckling, which led to further astronomical fines but was not otherwise useful. The problem for the legal system was that Richard Gwyn was quite obviously guilty and needed to be executed, but could not conveniently be found guilty of anything in particular. Eventually enough evidence was invented to sustain a charge of high treason, which was a charge vague enough to be usable against anyone whose actions were inconvenient to the state, rather like today’s anti-terrorism legislation. He was convicted after a show trial in 1583. He was hanged, drawn and quartered at Wrexham on 15 October 1584. See also the article in Wikipedia.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 01:32:59 +0000
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