Quote/s of the Day – 19 July – The Memorial of St John Plessington (c 1637-1679) Martyr of England
“But I know it will be said that a Priest, ordained by authority derived from the See of Rome, is by the Law of Nation, to die as a Traitor but if that be so, what must become of all the Clergymen or England, for the first Protestant Bishops had their Ordination from those of the Church of Rome….?”
“Bear witness, good hearers, that I profess, that I undoubtedly and firmly believe, all the Articles of the Roman Catholic Faith and for the truth of any of them, (by the assistance of God), I am willing to die and I had rather die, than doubt of any Point of Faith, taught by our Holy Mother the Roman Catholic Church.”
St John Plessington (c 1637-1679)
Martyred because he was a Catholic Priest
by Elizabeth I of England
John Plessington was born at Dimples Hall, near Garstang, Lancashire in 1637, the son of Robert Plessington and Alice Rawstone, into a family at odds with the authorities, for both their religious and political beliefs. Educated by Jesuits at Scarisbrick Hall, at Saint Omer’s in France and then at the College of Saint Alban at Valladolid, Spain, he was ordained in Segovia on 25 March 1662. He returned to England in 1663 ministering to Catholics in the areas of Holywell and Cheshire, often hiding under the name William Scarisbrick. He was also tutor at Puddington Hall near Chester. Upon arrest in Chester during the Popish Plot scare caused by Titus Oates, he was imprisoned for two months, and then hanged, drawn and quartered for the crime of being a Catholic priest. His speech from the scaffold at Gallow’s Hill in Boughton, Cheshire was printed and distributed:
He said: “I know it will be said that a priest ordayned by authority derived from the See of Rome is, by the Law of the Nation, to die as a Traytor but if that be so what must become of all the Clergymen of the Church of England, for the first Church of England Bishops had their Ordination from those of the Church of Rome, or not at all, as appears by their own writers so that Ordination comes derivatively from those now living.”
He was martyred in 1679. He was beatified in 1929 by Pope Pius XI, and canonised as one of the Forty Martyrs on 25 October 1970 by Blessed Pope Paul VI.
A lot more detail about St John here: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2017/07/19/saint-of-the-day-19-july-st-john-plessington/
and his scaffold speech here: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2017/07/19/thought-for-the-day-19-july/
St John Plessington, Pray for Us!
AnaStpaul 