ENGLISH SPEAKING SAINTS MAY 22 St. Boethian, Bl. John Forest, St. Conall,

ENGLISH SPEAKING SAINTS MAY 22 St. Boethian, 7th century. Benedictine martyr and a disciple of St. Fursey. An Irishman by birth, Boethian built the Pierrepoint Abbey near Laon, in France. He was murdered there by rebellious monks. Bl. John Forest, 1538 A.D. Martyr of England, the confessor of the first wife of King Henry VIII, Queen Catherine of Aragon. He became a Franciscan at Greenwich at the age of seventeen and studied at Oxford. John opposed Henry’s divorce and the suppression of religious orders. Because of this he was arrested at Newgate and ordered to agree to the Oath of Supremacy. Refusing, John was dragged on a hurdle to Smithfield and then burned to death at the stake. A wooden statue of St. Derfel was burned with John. He was beatified in 1886. St. Conall, 7th century. Abbot of Inniscoel Monastery in County Donegal, Ireland. A holy well there is named after St. Conall.