Saint of the day June 20

 

Saint of the day June 20

https://www.jesuit.org.sg/june-william-harcourt-john-gavan-anthony-turner-sj/

Bl. Anthony Turner, 1679 A.D. Martyr of England. The son of a Protestant minister, he was born in Leicestershire and educated at Cambridge. A convert to Catholicism, Anthony went to Rome and joined the Jesuits in Flanders and was ordained in 1661. He returned to England and labored in Worcester until he was arrested in the so-called Titus Oates affair. Convicted on perjured evidence, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn on June 20. Anthony was beatified in 1929.  

Bl. William Harcourt, 1679 A.D. Jesuit martyr of England, also called William Barrows. Born in Lancashire in 1609, he studied at St. Omer, France, where in 1632 he became a Jesuit. Returning to England in 1645, he labored in London on behalf of the Catholic mission for more than thirty years. Condemned falsely for complicity in the so-called Popish Plot, he was executed at Tyburn with five other Jesuits, He was beatified in 1929.  

https://www.jesuit.org.sg/june-william-harcourt-john-gavan-anthony-turner-sj/

Frs Harcourt, Gavan and Turner were three of the five Jesuits who were caught in the web of lies concocted by Titus Oates who falsely accused them of assassinating King Charles III and attempting to overthrow the government. Although the story was patently fictitious, the Jesuits paid with their lives.

Fr William Harcourt’s real name was Barrow , but on the English mission he was known as Harcourt or Waring. He was born in Lancashire and as a youth, attended the Jesuit College in Saint-Omer in Flanders. He entered the English novitiate at Watten in 1632, completed his theological studies in Flanders and was ordained there in 1641. He returned to England in 1644 and was assigned to work in London. For the next six years, he served as procurator of the English Province and in 1678 became superior of the London Jesuits. When the alleged Jesuit plot against the king was revealed in 1678, he avoided capture although he was actively sought by the local officials. He persuaded his Jesuit brethrens to leave London and go elsewhere while he stayed on as he felt duty bound to remain with those imprisoned. He changed his residence almost daily and used many disguises. He was betrayed by a female servant at one of the houses where he lodged and the local officials came and arrested him on May 7, 1679, At the time of his imprisonment in Newgate, Fr Harcourt was nearly seventy and had served thirty-five years on the English mission.

Fr John Gavan, a Londoner studied in Saint-Omer, Flanders and was affectionately called “Angel” by his fellow-students because of his youth, innocence and candor. He entered the Jesuits at Watten in 1660 at twenty, pursued his philosophical studies at Liege and theology in Rome and was ordained in 1670. He returned to England the following year and worked in Staffordshire for the next eight years with Wolverhampton as the centre of his activity. As he was an accomplished preacher and tireless labourer in the Lord’s vineyard, he made many converts to the faith and was known as “Little Rome.” When the Oates’ plot broke, Fr Gavan’s name was mentioned and a 50 pounds reward was offered for his capture and priest-hunters were soon in hot pursuit of him. Disguised as a servant he left for London and from there, crossed over into Belgium. He was however discovered and was arrested and incarcerated within Gatehouse Prison in Jan 1670. He was just thirty-nine years of age.

Fr Anthony Turner was born in Leicestershire, son of a Protestant minister. He studied at Cambridge University, where he and his brother Edward were converted to Catholicism, following their mother’s example. After the death of their father, the two brothers went to Rome and entered the English College, intending to study for the priesthood. Later he went to Flanders and joined the novitiate of the English Jesuits, studied theology at Liege and was ordained in 1659. He returned to preach in England and exercised his priestly ministry there for eighteen years in the Worcestershire area. Having been raised a Protestant as a boy, Fr Turner was keen to discuss and convert those of the established Protestant religion. He longed to suffer for the Catholic faith, even if it meant martyrdom. His chance came when the Oates plot became public in Sep 1678 but his superiors urged him to leave the country. When he was unable to find a Jesuit who could give him the money to get out of the country, he gave his last coin away to a beggar before turning himself in as a priest and Jesuit. Although he was not mentioned in the Oates plot, the authorities put him in Newgate where he was tried with his Jesuit brethrens. His brother Edward followed him into the Society in 1657 and died in Newgate Prison in 1681. Fr Turner was 51 at the time of his imprisonment.

At the trial at Old Bailey on June 13, 1679, Fr Gavan was the spokesman for himself and for Frs Harcourt, Turner, Whitbread and Fenwick (the latter two Jesuits’ feast day fall on June 18. Although Fr Gavan adequately answered the fabricated testimonies of Oates and others, the truth was not believed and at the behest of the judge, the jury found the five Jesuits guilty of high treason.

All five remained unfazed and stood steadfastly by their faith and refused to accept the king’s pardon if they were to renounce their faith. They were all hanged until they were dead. Their quartered bodies were buried by their Catholic friends in the churchyard of St Giles-in-the-Fields. They were beatified by Pope Pius XI on Dec 15, 1929.

Bl. Thomas Whitbread, 1679 A.D. English Jesuit and martyr. A native of Essex, England, he studied at St. Omer, France, and entered the Jesuits in 1635. Back in England and using the alias Thomas Harcourt, he served as provincial of the Jesuit mission until his arrest on the entirely false charges of complicity in the Popish Plot. Thomas was tried for sheltering the plotters and was convicted of the charge of attempting to murder the king. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn.  

https://www.jesuit.org.sg/june-thomas-whitbread-john-fenwick-sj/

Bls. John Fenwick and John Gavan, 1679 A.D. Jesuit Martyrs of England. John Fenwick was born in Durham and educated at Saint-Omer. He became a Jesuit in 1656. John Gavan was born in London and entered the Jesuits in 1660. They were involved in the Titus Oates Plot hysteria, falsely charged with complicity, and put to death at Tyburn with three Jesuit companions.

BL John Fenwick:

Born: circa 1626

Died : June 20, 1679

Beatified : December 15, 1929

Fr Thomas Whitbread, the provincial superior of the English Jesuits, Frs John Fenwick, William Harcourt, John Gavan and Anthony Turner, the martyrs of England, were falsely accused of plotting to assassinate King Charles III and overthrow the government. They were the innocent victims of a plot hatched by the infamous Titus Oates whom the provincial had refused to accept into the Society. Oates sought revenge and began to plot against the Jesuits and succeeded.

Thomas Whitbread was a native of Essex but he attended the Jesuit College at Saint-Omer in Flanders. He entered the Society in 1635 and was ordained in 1645. Two years later he returned to England and enjoyed a fruitful apostolate of more than 30 years. In 1678, during the first year of his term as provincial superior of the Jesuits in England, Fr Whitbread visited the communities on the continent that trained Catholics from England. At Saint-Omer he encountered Titus Oates, a student at that school who asked the provincial to admit him into the Society of Jesus. Oates, a deposed Anglican minister who converted to Catholicism and studied at the English College in Valladolid, Spain was not accepted by Fr Whitbread who also ordered him to be expelled from Saint-Omer because of unsatisfactory behavior there. Oates returned to London where he joined forces with Israel Tonge, who harbored suspicions of the Jesuits’ plotting against the king. Tonge and Oates invented the story of a plot by the Jesuits to assassinate the king, overthrow the government and re-establish the Catholic religion. They were able to present this accusation to the king in mid-August, 1678, but he did not find it credible. So Oates fabricated more details and presented the revised accusation to the king’s privy council on September 27, setting into motion a deadly chain of events.

Meanwhile, the wild accusations Oates made fanned a flame of fear that made people hysterical with tales of Irish and French Catholic conspirators crouching in cellars ready to jump out and slit the throats of good Protestant subjects of the king. The general outcry was enormous; before it ran its course, some 35 innocent people had been executed; hundreds more perished in prison, some of them victims of the plague.

John Fenwick’s family name was Caldwell and he was born in Durham. As his parents were Protestants he was raised in that established religion. While growing into manhood he studied the religious differences in England and when he was convinced of the truth of the Catholic faith, embraced it. His parents evicted him from their home when they were unable to talk him out of his new religion. Alone he travelled to the Jesuit College in Saint-Omer in 1654 and studied seriously. On September 28, 1656, at twenty-eight he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Watten. After his philosophical and theological studies at Liege, he was ordained in 1664. He returned to Saint-Omer College and was the college procurator until he was sent on the English mission in 1674. He was stationed in London and served as the college procurator until his arrest on September 28, 1678.

In the dead of night on September 28, Oates led an armed force of parliamentary soldiers and seized Frs John Fenwick and William Ireland. Then before dawn the next morning, Oates and his men also arrested Frs Whitbread and Edward Mico who were seriously ill after they contracted the plague from their recent trip to Antwerp. However as they were too ill to move and also because they were under the protection of the Spanish ambassador in whose residence they lived, soldiers were posted to guard both the two bedridden men. By December Fr Whitbread’s health had improved enough that he could be moved to Newgate Prison where Frs Fenwick and Ireland were; Father Mico had by this time died of maltreatment.

The three Jesuits were brought to trial on Dec. 17, 1678, at the Old Bailey. Oates testified that he had seen the three priests at a tavern planning to kill the king, overthrow the government and re-establish the Catholic religion. The three men had indeed met from April 24-26, at the palace of St. James, where the Jesuit Fr Claude La Colombière was chaplain to the Duchess of York. Their topic was picking a Jesuit to travel to Rome and present the regular triennial report on the province to the superior general.

Oates had probably heard of the meeting when he was at Saint-Omer, but he was certainly not present at St. James Palace. When the only other witness, failed to corroborate completely Oates’ testimony, there was insufficient evidence to find the Jesuits guilty. The court then took the extraordinary step of postponing their trial to a later date, despite the fact that witnesses had already been heard. The three Jesuits were sent back to prison. In 1679 three more Jesuits were arrested on the basis of more false evidence provided by Stephen Dugdale, a convicted embezzler. Fathers William Harcourt, John Gavan and Anthony Turner were included in the original charge of plotting against the king. Oates again claimed that he had witnessed the meeting at the White Horse Tavern. Father John Gavan served as the spokesmen for the Jesuits, and answered the deceitful claims of the prosecution. The defence produced 16 witnesses from Saint-Omer testifying that Oates had not been at the college on that day and not even in England. Despite the clear weight of the evidence on the side of the defence, the court instructed the jury to believe the prosecution witnesses rather than those of the defence. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, condemning the five Jesuits to die for treason.

The execution took place on Friday, June 20 at Tyburn. Father Whitbread said: “I do declare to you here present and to the whole world, that I go out of the world as innocent and as free from any guilt of these things laid to my charge in this matter, as I came into the world from my mother’s womb…..As for those who have most falsely accused me….I do heartily forgive them, and beg God to grant them His holy grace, that they may repent of their unjust proceedings against me.” He was followed by Fr Fenwick and the other three Jesuits who made their final statements, and then they all stood quietly in prayer on the gallows, nooses around their necks, waiting for the cart to pull away from them. Suddenly a rider burst onto the scene crying, “A pardon, a pardon.” He gave the sheriff a document announcing the king would pardon them provided they admit their guilt and tell all about it. The martyrs thanked the king for his merciful intentions, but firmly noted that they could not acknowledge any guilt for a plot that never existed. They would not accept pardon if it meant they had to lie. They paused for private prayer again, and then the cart pulled away. The bodies were pulled down and quartered. Their butchered bodies were claimed by friends who gave them burial in the churchyard of St. Giles-in-the-Fields.

Frs Thomas Whitbread and John Fenwick together with their three Jesuit brethren were beatified by Pope Pius XI on December 15, 1929.

Bl. Balthasar de Torres,  Roman Catholic Martyr of Japan. A Jesuit, he was born in Grenada, Spain, and entered the Society in 1579. He worked in India, at Goa, and Macao and went to Japan in 1606.  When the persecution of Christians began, Balthasar was arrested and condemned. He was burned alive in Nagasaki. Feastday June 20

Bl. John Baptist Zola, Roman Catholic Martyr of Japan. He became a Jesuit and was sent to India in 1602. Four years later he entered Japan, only to be banished in 1614. Upon returning to Japan, he was arrested and burned alive at Nagasaki. Feastday June 20

Bl. John Kinsako, Roman Catholic Martyr of Japan, A novice of the Jesuits. He was burned alive at Nagasaki. Feastday June 20

Bl. Peter Rinshei, Roman Catholic Martyr of Japan. A native Japanese, he entered the Jesuit college at Arima, Japan, and assisted Blessed Francis Pacheco as his catechist. Arrested by the Japanese authorities, he was imprisoned with Blessed Francis, who admitted him to the Jesuits just before Peter was burned alive at Nagasaki. Feastday June 20

Bl. Paul Shinsuki, Roman Catholic Martyr of Japan. He became a Christian and entered the Jesuits. Among his notable students was Blessed Paul Navarro. Arrested by the Japanese officials, he was burned alive at Nagasaki. Feastday June 20

Bl. Michael Tozo, Roman Catholic Martyr of Japan, A native of Japan who became a catechist and aide to Blessed Balthasar Torres. Loyal to the faith, Michael was burned alive at Nagasaki. Feastday June 20

St. Francis Pacheco, Roman Catholic Jesuit Priest and Japanese Martyr. A native of Ponte da Lima, Portugual, Pacheco entered the Society of Jesus in 1584 and was subsequently sent to Macao. There he was ordained and concentrated his efforts on missionary work on the island. He then went to Japan, the main focus of his labors. After a brief first visit, he left the islands but returned with Bishop Louis Cerquiera as vicar general to the recently constituted diocese, of which Cerquiera was head. The bishop died in 1614 and Pacheco was forced to leave Japan following the formal expulsion of all foreign clergy. Under the risk of penalty, Pacheco returned to Japan in a disguise and served for a short time before receiving appointment as episcopal administrator. He held the post briefly, as he was soon arrested and burned alive with eight other Christians at Nagasaki. Feastday: June 20

 Fr Pacheco was the most experienced Jesuit who died a martyr during the Great Persecution in Japan between 1617 and 1632. At the time of his arrest, he was provincial superior of the Jesuits and apostolate administrator of the diocese and his imprisonment was a serious loss to the Christian community struggling to survive the persecution.

Fr Pacheco was born in Ponte di Lima, near Braga, Portugal. As a youth he heard of the exploits of missionaries in Japan and dreamed of imitating them. While at the Jesuit school in Lisbon, he also watched the annual departure of the Jesuit missionaries and this further strengthened his resolve to be one and thus he decided to join the Society in 1585. His request to go to the missions was only granted seven years later and his first stop was Goa, India where he continued his studies. He then went on to Macau to further continue his studies before being ordained.

Fr Pacheco finally set forth for Japan in 1604 and spent four years in the capital of Osaka, Miyako (today’s Kyoto) before taking up his next appointment as head of the Jesuit college in Macau. In 1614, he returned to Japan and became vicar general to Bishop Luis de Cerqueira, and was based in Nagasaki until the promulgation of the shogun’s decree in 1614 banishing all foreign missionaries and forbidding Japanese Christians to practice their religion. Fr Pacheco’s exile in Macau was a short one as he returned secretly to Japan the following year, disguised as a merchant, and took up missionary work at Takaku and the islands of Amakusa and Kani. During those years of fierce persecution he sadly saw thousands of Christians give up their religion under governmental pressure and fear of torture. He also witnessed the terrible deaths of his brother Jesuits and hundreds of Christians who remained steadfast in their faith, though it meant beheading or death by slow fire. Fr Pacheco knew that the longer he remained in Japan the closer was his martyrdom.

Following his appointment as the Jesuits’ provincial superior, Fr Pacheco moved his residence from Nagasaki to the seaport of Kuchinotsu in Arima which had better security and better contact with the Jesuits in Japan. The search for Jesuit missionaries was intensified when more spies were recruited by Shogun Iyemitsu. Fr Pacheco was betrayed by his former host, an apostate who because of the reward money and hoping to gain favour with the district governor revealed where he was staying. With 200 soldiers surrounding the house Fr Pacheco and two of his catechists, Paul Kinsuke and Peter Kinsei were arrested with two others staying in the next house. The Jesuits, the catechists, their hosts and families were all arrested and placed in a dungeon in Shimabara where they had to endure the damp and cold winter. Within a few days, Fr John Baptist Zola and his catechist, Vincent Kaun were added to their number.

While in prison, Fr Pacheco admitted the four catechists into the Society and transformed his group of prisoners, including the lay persons into a quasi-religious community with set time for rising, prayer, meditation, fasting and doing penance to prepare and strengthen them for the martyrdom to come. Their greatest sorrow was their inability to celebrate Mass, recite the breviary and recite the rosary as all these had been taken away from them. Finally on June 20, 1626, the prisoners were brought to Nagasaki where two other prisoners, Fr Balthazar de Torres, SJ and his catechist, Michael Too were included. The final number was nine Jesuits and nine Christians and all were escorted to the Martyrs’ Hill where the executions were to take place. The Jesuits rejoiced in seeing each other and embraced for the last time. They were the first to die. The government kept the Christians aside hoping that some would apostatize but watching the martyrs die only strengthened their faith. They were kept in a prison in Nagasaki, determined to die for Christ. They were martyred on July 12, 1626.

Fr Pacheco and his eight Jesuit companions, together with the nine Christians were included among the 205 martyrs beatified by Pope Pius IX on May 7, 1867.

https://www.jesuit.org.sg/june-francis-pacheco-sj-8companions/

Bl. Peter Rinshei, Roman Catholic  Jesuit Martyr of Japan

Bl. John Baptist Zola, Roman Catholic  Jesuit Martyr of Japan.

Bl. John Kinsako, Roman Catholic Jesuit Martyr of Japan

Bl. Michael Tozo, Roman Catholic Jesuit Martyr of Japan

Bl. Paul Shinsuki, Roman Catholic Jesuit Martyr of Japan. 

All burned alive with eight other Christians at Nagasaki Feastday June 20

St. Govan, 6th century. Hermit who lived on a cliff at St. Govan’s Head, Dyfed, Wales. He was a disciple of St. Ailbhe and in some lists is called Cofen or Gonen.  

St Helena, Benedictine Abbess Tier Germany