Saint Alban-Barthélémy
Roe et Thomas Green, prêtres et martyrs
Membre de la Communion
anglicane et élève à Cambridge, Alban Roe se convertit au catholicisme. Il
poursuivit ses études au séminaire anglais de Douai et devint bénédictin en
1612, dans l'actuel Ampleforth. Pendant vingt-huit ans, il travailla dans la
mission anglaise avant d’être arrêté. Après dix-sept années d’incarcération, il
fut pendu à Londres-Tyburn, en 1642, sous le roi Charles Ier. Avec lui périt
Thomas Green, emprisonné durant quatorze ans.
Saint Alban-Barthélémy
Roe
Un des quarante martyrs
d'Angleterre (+ 1642)
Membre de la Communion
anglicane et élève à Cambridge, il se convertit au catholicisme. Il poursuivit
ses études au séminaire anglais de Douai et devint bénédictin en 1612, dans
l'actuel Ampleforth. Pendant 28 ans, il travailla dans la mission anglaise et
fut arrêté. Il subit le martyre à Londres-Tyburn, comme tant d'autres.
Il fait partie des Quarante
martyrs d'Angleterre et du Pays de Galles qui ont été canonisés en
1970.
À Londres, en 1696, saint
Alban Roe, bénédictin, et le bienheureux Thomas Green, prêtres et martyrs. Sous
le roi Charles Ier, l’un après dix-sept ans, l’autre après quatorze ans passés
en prison, et tous deux d’un âge déjà avancé, furent ensemble pendus pour le
Christ au gibet de Tyburn.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/5273/Saint-Alban-Barthelemy-Roe.html
Bartholomew Roe
(VENERABLE ALBAN).
English Benedictine martyr,
b. in Suffolk, 1583; executed at Tyburn, 21 Jan., 1641. Educated in
Suffolk and at Cambridge;
he became converted through
a visit to a Catholic prisoner at St.
Albans which unsettled his religious views. He was admitted as a
convictor into the English College at Douai,
entered the English Benedictine monastery at
Dieulward where he was professed in
1612, and, after ordination,
went to the mission in 1615. From 1618 to 1623 he was imprisoned in
the New Prison, Maiden Lane, whence he was banished and went to the English Benedictine house
at Douai but
returned to England after
four months. He was again arrested in 1625, and was imprisoned for
two months at St.
Albans, then in the Fleet whence he was frequently liberated on parole, and
finally in Newgate. He was condemned a few days before his execution under
the statute 27 Eliz. c. 2, for being a priest.
With him suffered Thomas Greene, aged eighty, who on the mission had taken the
name of Reynolds. He was probably descended from the Greenes of Great Milton,
Oxfordshire, and the Reynoldses of Old Stratford, Warwickshire, and was ordained deacon at Reims in
1590, and priest at
Seville. He had lived under sentence of death for
fourteen years, and was executed without fresh trial. They were drawn on the
same hurdle, where they heard each other's confessions,
and were hanged simultaneously on the same gibbet amidst great demonstrations
of popular sympathy.
Sources
GILLOW, Bibl. Dict.
Eng. Cath., III, 36; V, 437; CHALLONER, Missionary Priests, II, nos. 166,
167; POLLEN, Acts of the English Martyrs (London, 1891), 339-43.
Wainewright,
John. "Bartholomew Roe." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1912. 21 Jan. 2017 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13109d.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Joseph E. O'Connor.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil
Obstat. February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John
Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2021 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13109d.htm
Saint Alban Roe
Fr Alban Roe was
baptised Bartholomew sometime in 1583, in Suffolk. He attended Cambridge
University, and while there experienced something that caused his conversion to
Catholicism.
While visiting in St
Albans, he heard that a Catholic recusant had been put in prison there for his
beliefs, and chose to visit the prisoner, in order to argue him out of his
superstitious ways. It did not work out like that, and the Catholic prisoner
instead, persuaded Bartholomew that he needed change.
In February 1608 he
took up a place in the English College (a seminary) in Douai, eager to become a
priest. He was expelled in 1611, however, for criticising the principal.
It so happened that a
Benedictine house was given permission to establish itself at Douai in December
of 1608, and it seems likely that young Bartholomew was acquainted with it. At
any rate, wishing to avoid further embarrassment in Douai, he joined the
noviciate at another English monastery, St Lawrence’s at Dieulouard in 1613.
Once ordained he went to England where he worked in secret as a priest.
In 1618 however he
was imprisoned for being a priest in England - a ‘crime’ which carried the
death penalty. Fortunately, he was released by King James I in a general
amnesty in 1623 and banished. He returned to England however, and was
re-arrested in 1625 and imprisoned in St Alban’s where his adventure had begun
so many years before.
Luckily for him,
his friends had him removed to the Fleet prison in London where circumstances were
much better. Indeed, like many others, he was allowed out into the streets of
London by day so long as he gave his word (Fr. ‘parole’ ) that he would
return by nightfall. He used his freedom to minister to many.
While King Charles
I governed without parliament, no imprisoned priests were executed. When the
Long Parliament convened, however, the hangings began again in earnest (20
between 1641 and 1646 including Fr Alban). On the 21st January 1642, he and Fr
Thomas Reynolds, a priest in his 80s, offered their last mass and were led to
the gallows. They gave each other absolution.
Just before his
death, Alban asked the sheriff if his life would be spared if he renounced his
Catholic religion and became an Anglican. The sheriff swore he would be spared
if he did. Alban then said to all: “See, then, what the crime is for which I am
to die, and whether my religion be not my only treason... I wish I had a
thousand lives; then would I sacrifice them all for so worthy a cause.” They
were allowed to hang until they were dead before being quartered.
SOURCE : http://www.abbey.ampleforth.org.uk/the-community/our-patrons
Alban Bartholomew Roe,
OSB, Priest M (RM)
Born in Bury Saint
Edmunds, Suffolk, England, c. 1583; died at Tyburn, England, 1642; canonized by
Pope Paul VI in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
Bartholomew Roe was a
student at Cambridge when he met an imprisoned Catholic and was so impressed by
his faith that he was converted to Catholicism. He studied at Douai in France,
but was dismissed for an infraction of discipline. Then he became a Benedictine
monk at Dieulouard (Dieuleward, now Ampleforth), France, in 1612, taking the
name Alban, was ordained, and sent on the English mission.
Father Alban was arrested
in 1615, imprisoned, and then banished; but he was back in England four months
later and again arrested in 1618 and imprisoned in the New Prison until 1623,
when he was released through the intercession of the Spanish ambassador.
Father Alban was exiled a
second time. After a short stay at Douai, he returned to England and worked
until his arrest in 1625 during the reign of King Charles I. He spent the next
17 years in prison until he was finally tried, convicted on January 19 of being
of Catholic priest, and two days later hanged, drawn, and quartered together
with Blessed Thomas Reynolds. Apparently, Alban Roe had a lively disposition;
he laughed and joked on the scaffold at Tyburn (Attwater2, Benedictines,
Delaney).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0121.shtml
Blessed Thomas Reynolds M (AC)
(also known as Thomas Green)
Born at Oxford; died 1642; beatified 1929. Thomas's true name was Green, but
like many Catholics of his time used an alias. After being educated for the
priesthood at Rheims, Valladolid, and Seville, he was ordained in 1592 and
returned to the English mission, where he worked for nearly 50 years (for once
the alias worked!). He must have been about 80 years old when he was hanged,
drawn, and quartered for his priesthood at Tyburn together with Saint
Bartholomew Roe (Attwater2, Benedictines).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0121.shtml
Statues polychromes sur le jubé de la cathédrale de Saint-Alban (de gauche à droite) d'Oscar Romero, Alban Roe, Amphibalus, Alban, George Tankerfiels, Elisabeth Romanova et Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Sculpture
in St Albans Cathedral, depicted holding a hand of
playing cards
25
October as one of the Forty
Martyrs of England and Wales
29
October as one of the Martyrs
of Douai
Profile
Convert to Catholicism. Studied at
the English College at Douai, France,
but was dismissed for an infraction of discipline. Benedictine priest in 1612 at
Dieulouard, France. Missionary to England.
He was arrested and exiled in 1615 for
his work. Returning to England in 1618,
he was arrested again.
He sat in prison until 1623 when
the Spanish ambassador obtained
his release on condition that Alban leave England.
Soon after, Alban returned to his homeland and continued his covert
ministry. Arrested again
in 1625,
he lay in prison for
17 years before being tried and condemned to death for
the crime of priesthood.
One of the Forty
Martyrs of England and Wales, dying with Blessed Thomas
Reynolds.
Born
1583 in Bury
Saint Edmunds, Suffolk, England
hanged,
drawn, and quartered on 21
January 1642 at
Tyburn, London, England
8
December 1929 by Pope Pius
XI (decree of martyrdom)
15
December 1929 by Pope Pius
XI
25
October 1970 by Pope Paul
VI
Additional
Information
Mementoes
of the English Martyrs and Confessors, by Father Henry
Sebastian Bowden
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
A
Calendar of the English Martyrs of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition
spletne
strani v slovenšcini
MLA
Citation
“Saint Alban Bartholomew
Roe“. CatholicSaints.Info. 2 September 2022. Web. 21 January 2023. https://catholicsaints.info/saint-alban-bartholomew-roe/
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-alban-bartholomew-roe/
.jpg)
Portrait (based on a modern model) of Blessed Thomas Reynolds (+1642), priest and martyr, in the Royal English College, Valladolid
Also
known as
Richard Reynolds
Thomas Green
29
October as one of the Martyrs
of Douai
1
December as one of the Martyrs
of Oxford University
Profile
Studied at Rheims, France,
and at Valladolid and Seville in Spain. Ordained in 1592 in
Cadiz, Spain,
he returned to England to
minister to covert Catholics,
but was arrested and exiled in 1606.
He returned and worked in secret until his arrest in 1628.
He spent fourteen years in prison before
being martyred with Blessed Edward
Stransham.
Born
c.1562 at Oxford, England as Thomas
Green
hanged,
drawn, and quartered in 31
January 1642 at
Tyburn, London, England
8
December 1929 by Pope Pius XI (decree
of martyrdom)
15
December 1929 by Pope Pius XI
Additional
Information
Mementoes
of the English Martyrs and Confessors, by Father Henry
Sebastian Bowden
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
A
Calendar of the English Martyrs of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
The Royal
English College of St Alban
fonti
in italiano
Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition
Readings
I dare look death in the
face. – Blessed Thomas to his executioners when offered a blindfold
MLA
Citation
“Blessed Thomas
Reynolds“. CatholicSaints.Info. 11 October 2021. Web. 21 January 2023.
<https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-thomas-reynolds/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-thomas-reynolds/
Ss Thomas Green and Alban Roe
January 31, 2011 by joyfulpapist
Thomas Green (alias
Reynolds) and Alban (born Bartholomew) Roe were missionary priests secretly
serving Catholics in post-Reformation England. They were quite unlike in most
respects, but they died as brothers, martyrs for their priesthood.
St. Thomas Reynolds, fat
in body but suffering infirmities caused by his hard apostolic life, was about
eighty when he was hanged. He was a secular priest, ordained at about thirty.
In 1606 the British
government rounded up forty-seven Catholic priests, and because they were
breaking the law just by being priests, it sent them into exile. Thomas, like
most of the forty-seven, came back to England in secret and carried on his
hazardous ministry for nearly fifty years.
Arrested as a priest once
again in 1628, he was sentenced to death for that “crime,” but then kept in
jail for fourteen years. He had served his flock lovingly, by example as well
as by word. Despite that zeal, he was personally a timid man, afraid of the
long-deferred death that he knew awaited him.
His companion on the
scaffold was to be a Benedictine monk – Alban Roe. From his youth, Bartholomew
Roe had been one of those daring people who thrive on adversity. As a
Protestant student at Cambridge, Roe (born 1583) visited a Catholic jailed for
his faith, apparently hoping to convert him. Instead, the would-be converter
was himself won over to Catholicism.
Once received into the
Church, Bartholomew went to the Netherlands to enroll at Douai seminary as a
candidate for the Catholic priesthood.
Somehow or other, he got
into hot water with the seminary authorities and was dropped for
“insubordination” in 1611. Still desiring to become a priest, Roe, armed with
testimonials in his favor from his fellow students at Douai, joined the English
Benedictine community of St. Laurence, in Lorraine. Once ordained a priest, he
was sent back to work on the English mission.
Dom Alban proved an able
missionary during the few years he was free, despite the fact that he irked a
few prim people by his easy manners. He was captured in 1612 and held five
years in prison. The Spanish ambassador secured his release, but the government
warned him to leave the country for good, or else … He did go to Douai, but
soon sneaked back into England as Thomas Reynolds had. After only two years of
work he was again arrested in 1627, and imprisoned at St. Alban’s prison-the
very place where he had received the grace of faith.
The rest of his life he
spent as a prisoner. However, when he was transferred to a minimum-security
jail in London, he was able to carry on a valuable apostolate in the prison
itself and even, to an extent, on the outside. This situation lasted until the
days of the anti-Catholic Long Parliament. On January 19, 1642, he was tried as
a priest and “seducer of the people,” and condemned to be hanged, drawn and
quartered.
It was then that Thomas
Reynolds and Alban Roe were brought together. Reynolds told Roe of his fears of
dying. Roe replied with powerfully comforting words.
The two were told to get
ready for the trip to the Tyburn Hill gallows on January 21, 1642 (January 31
in the reformed calendar). “Well, how do you find yourself now?” the monk asked
his aged companion. “In very good heart,” Reynolds replied. “Blessed be God for
it, and glad I am to have for my comrade in death a man of your undaunted
courage.”
Having mounted the
gallows, Reynolds stated that he forgave his enemies; and he moved the sheriff
deeply by praying that he (the sheriff) would merit the “grace to be a glorious
saint in heaven.”
Roe, in his turn, greeted
the people cheerily. “Well, here’s a jolly company!” he exclaimed with a fine
contempt for death. He told bystanders that his religion was the sole cause of
his death. If he should reject Catholicism even now, he said, he would be
released. His last word of conversation was a joking remark made to one of his
prison turnkeys.
The two priests had
already absolved each other. Now they recited the psalm “Miserere” alternately.
As the traps were sprung and their bodies fell, each called out “Jesus!” They
were allowed to die before their bodies were disemboweled and cut up. A
gracious concession!
Saints Thomas Reynolds
and Alban Roe had fortified each other in the cruel hour of death. God expects
us all to be supportive of each other. That is love, isn’t it?
–Father Robert F.
McNamara
SOURCE : https://joyfulpapist.wordpress.com/tag/st-alban-roe/
The
One Hundred and Five Martyrs of Tyburn – 21 January 1642
Venerable Bartholomew Alban Roe, Benedictine priest
Venerable Thomas
Green or Reynolds, secular priest
The Benedictine Monk,
known in religion as Father Alban, was born in Suffolk and brought up as a
Protestant. All his life he was full of zeal, and it was in the attempt to
refute the ‘errors’ of a man imprisoned at Saint Alban’s for holding the
Catholic Faith that he received the initial grace of his own conversion. After
this interview, in which his adversary gained the victory, he was never at
peace until he found himself in the safe port of the True Church. Having
entered the Benedictine Order in Lorraine, he prepared himself with assiduity
to exercise the apostolate in England. He spent a great part of his life in
prison, once in Maiden Lane, afterwards at Saint Alban’s, whence he was removed
to the Fleet Prison, where he remained for seventeen years. He never lost his
dauntless gaiety, and amid his many and severe sufferings of mind and body he
never ceased to labour for souls.
Venerable Thomas Reynolds
was born in Oxford, and studied abroad for the sake of the Catholic Religion no
longer tolerated in his own country. He returned after receiving Holy Orders,
and, passing through many vicissitudes, he was condemned to death at the
advanced age of eighty years, fifty of which he had spent in the ministry of
the priesthood. His companion in martyrdom, Father Alban Roe, met him with a
cheerful countenance before the hurdle that was to convey them both to Tyburn.
The two martyrs made their confessions to each other and recited the “Miserere”
alternately. “Friend, pray let all be secure and do thy duty neatly, I have
been a neat man all my life,” the old priest said to the executioner. “I dare
look death in the face,” said Father Roe, when they would have bound his eyes.
– from The One Hundred and Five Martyrs of Tyburn, by
The Nuns of the Convent of Tyburn, 1917
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/the-one-hundred-and-five-martyrs-of-tyburn-21-january-1642/
Article
Both were converts,
Reynolds from Oxford, Roe from Cambridge. Reynolds was ordained at Seville, and
returned to England about 1590. For fifty years he laboured in the Mission, was
banished, imprisoned, sentenced, reprieved, then suddenly ordered for
execution. He was very infirm from age, his great size, and many sufferings.
When the summons came he earnestly prayed for fortitude. Roe became a
Benedictine at Dieulwart, Lorraine, was there ordained, braved all dangers on
the English Mission, was banished, and finally imprisoned for seventeen years.
To add to the miseries of his long confinement, he suffered from the stone, and
endured cheerfully two operations. He was at last led out to execution with
Father Reynolds. Lying down on the hurdle by his side, he felt his pulse, and
jokingly asked him how he felt. “In good heart,” said Father Reynolds, and
blessed God for giving him a companion of such undaunted courage. Their way to
Tyburn was like a triumphal procession. The Catholics threw themselves on their
knees, begged their blessings, and kissed their hands and garments. Thus both
together won their crowns.
MLA
Citation
Father Henry Sebastian
Bowden. “Venerable Reynolds, Priest, and Venerable Roe, O.S.B., 1641”. Mementoes of the English Martyrs and Confessors, 1910. CatholicSaints.Info.
21 April 2019. Web. 21 January 2023. <https://catholicsaints.info/mementoes-of-the-english-martyrs-and-confessors-venerable-reynolds-priest-and-venerable-roe-o-s-b-1641/>
Sant' Albano Roe Sacerdote
benedettino, martire
>>>
Visualizza la Scheda del Gruppo cui appartiene
Martirologio Romano: A
Londra in Inghilterra, sant’Albano Roe, dell’Ordine di San Benedetto, e beato
Tommaso Green, sacerdoti e martiri: sotto il re Carlo I, il primo dopo aver
passato diciassette anni in carcere e l’altro quattordici, ormai vecchi,
insieme furono sospesi per Cristo al patibolo a Tyburn.
Fu uno dei numerosissimi
martiri, ecclesiastici e laici di ogni condizione, dal semplice prete o frate
all’alto prelato, come pure dall’umile popolano al facoltoso aristocratico, che
patirono per la fede cattolica in Inghilterra nel XVI e XVII secolo, anche se
il martirologio inglese non ha certo il suo inizio nella persecuzione scatenata
da Enrico VIII nel 1535 con lo scisma d’Inghilterra e conclusasi con la fine del
regno di Carlo II nel 1681, ma comincia già al tempo di Diocleziano e si
arricchisce durante le invasioni successive degli Anglosassoni e dei Normanni. L’«Atto
di supremazia» del 1534 rese definitiva la separazione dell’Inghilterra da
Roma; proclamato quindi il re unico capo della Chiesa inglese, venne
contemporaneamente sancito che chiunque si fosse rifiutato di riconoscere la
sua supremazia spirituale si sarebbe reso colpevole di alto tradimento e come
tale sarebbe stato punibile con la morte, cercandosi in tal modo di nascondere
il motivo religioso sotto il movente politico. Ebbe così inizio il lungo bagno
di sangue dell’Inghilterra cattolica durato quasi un secolo e mezzo, inaugurato
con un gruppo di Certosini londinesi il 4 maggio 1535 e nel quale morirono
quanti preferirono salire sul patibolo piuttosto che rinnegare la fede dei loro
padri e negare obbedienza al pontefice romano. Bartolomeo Albano Roe nacque a
Suffolk nel 1585 e fece gli studi a Cambridge. Fu convertito al cattolicesimo
dalle risposte di un carcerato cattolico che egli voleva convertire al
protestantesimo. Lasciò allora il suolo patrio e si laureò in teologia nel
Collegio Inglese di Douai in Francia, che il futuro cardinale Guglielmo Allen
aveva fondato nel 1568 appunto per la formazione dei giovani sacerdoti da
inviare poi nella loro patria per tentare di convertire nuovamente coloro che
avevano abbracciato l’anglicanesimo; per la stessa ragione era stato
trasformato in seminario nel 1578 l’antico Collegio Inglese di Roma, auspice
sempre l’Allen, e che si meritò il titolo di Seminarium martyrum: tutti
sapevano che il ritorno di quei giovani preti in Inghilterra equivaleva a una
sentenza di morte. Emessa la professione nel 1612 e ordinato sacerdote,
Bartolomeo Roe tornò in patria, ma fu presto arrestato. Dopo cinque anni di
carcere venne liberato nel 1623 grazie all’intervento dell’ambasciatore di
Spagna, ma fu esiliato. Non si diede per vinto, e dopo appena pochi mesi tornò
in Inghilterra. Tradito, fu nuovamente chiuso in carcere, dove esercitò il
ministero sacerdotale tra i compagni di sventura. Dopo qualche tempo gli fu
concesso il permesso di uscire liberamente dalla prigione, ed egli se ne valse
per darsi all’apostolato. Fu scoperto e condannato a morte. Salì sul patibolo
il 21 gennaio 1642. Nel monastero di Downside si conserva un panno imbevuto del
suo sangue.
Fonte : Giornale di Brescia
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/92119
Beato Tommaso Green Sacerdote
e martire
>>>
Visualizza la Scheda del Gruppo cui appartiene
Oxford, Inghilterra, 1558
circa – Londra, Inghilterra, 21 gennaio 1642
Thomas Green si preparò
al sacerdozio missionario per riportare il cattolicesimo in Inghilterra,
studiando nei collegi di Reims, Valladolid e Siviglia. Esiliato, tornò in
patria in segreto, ma venne incarcerato per quattordici anni. Subì il martirio
per impiccagione insieme al benedettino dom Alban Roe il 21 gennaio 1642,
all’età di ottant’anni. È stato beatificato nel 1929.
Martirologio Romano: A Londra
in Inghilterra, sant’Albano Roe, dell’Ordine di San Benedetto, e beato Tommaso
Green, sacerdoti e martiri: sotto il re Carlo I, il primo dopo aver passato
diciassette anni in carcere e l’altro quattordici, ormai vecchi, insieme furono
sospesi per Cristo al patibolo a Tyburn.
Thomas Green nacque nella
città di Oxford verso il 1558 e, come altri giovani universitari educati
secondo la religione dei padri, mal si adattava all’anglicanesimo. Così, per
prepararsi a diventare sacerdote e missionario nella sua stessa terra, si
trasferì nel collegio retto dai Gesuiti a Reims, in Francia. Di lì passò negli
altri due centri di formazione situati a Valladolid e a Siviglia.
Ordinato nel 1592, partì
per l’Inghilterra. Nel 1606 il governo inglese catturò quarantasette sacerdoti
cattolici, per il solo fatto di essere tali, e li costrinse all’esilio. Padre
Green, che era tra costoro, come la maggior parte di essi riuscì a tornare in
patria clandestinamente. Esercitò il suo ministero per circa cinquant’anni
sotto il falso nome di Reynolds, finché, nel 1628, non venne arrestato.
Ricevette la condanna, ma non venne giustiziato, anche se non gli venne
formalmente concesso l’indulto. Per questo motivo, a partire dal 1635 ottenne
dei permessi per uscire dal carcere, che impiegò per proseguire la sua
missione.
Tuttavia, quando re Carlo
I riuscì a convocare nuovamente il Parlamento, le misure contro i prigionieri
si fecero più aspre. Il 19 gennaio 1642 padre Green venne condannato
definitivamente, insieme al benedettino dom Alban (al secolo Bartholomew)
Roe. Al suo compagno di prigionia confidò che aveva paura di affrontare la
morte, dopo che era stata a lungo differita. Di rimando, l’altro l’incoraggiò
con parole consolanti.
Il 21 gennaio fu il
giorno fissato per l’esecuzione. «Ebbene, come ti trovi ora?», domandò il
monaco al suo compagno, anziano come lui (aveva ottant’anni). «Di buon umore»,
replicò padre Green. Dom Roe rispose: «Sia benedetto Dio per questo, e sono
felice di avere come compagno nella morte un amico di coraggio indomabile come
te». Oltre alle pene passate nei lunghi anni di prigionia, i due dovettero
patire anche il freddo e il peso delle gogne a cui furono costretti durante il
tragitto verso la forca.
Una volta salito il
patibolo, padre Reynolds dichiarò che perdonava i propri nemici e commosse lo
sceriffo invocando Dio per meritare la «grazia di essere un glorioso santo in
paradiso». I due sacerdoti, dopo essersi confessati e assolti a vicenda,
recitarono il Miserere alternandosi. Il loro ultimo grido, quando si aprirono
le botole sotto i loro piedi, fu il nome di Gesù.
Mentre dom Roe è stato
canonizzato nel 1970, padre Green venne incluso nel gruppo di candidati agli
altari che furono riconosciuti martiri con decreto dell’8 dicembre 1929 e
dichiarati Beati il 15 dicembre 1929.
Autore: Emilia
Flocchini
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/96392
Albano Roe, Santo y Tomás
Green, Beato
Sacerdotes y Mártires, 21
de enero
Por: . | Fuente: santiebeati.it
Sacerdotes y Mártires
Martirologio Romano: En
Londres, Inglaterra, san Albano (Alban Bartolomé) Roe, de la Orden de San
Benito, y beato Tomás Green, presbíteros y mártires, los cuales, ya ancianos,
durante el reinado de Carlos I dieron su vida por Cristo, siendo ahorcados en
Tyburn después de haber pasado en la cárcel diecisiete años el primero y
catorce el segundo (1642).
Breve Biografia
San Albano Bartolomé
Fecha de canonización: 25
de Octubre de 1970 por el Pope Paulo VI.
Fue uno de los numerosos mártires de entre clérigos y laicos de toda condición,
(del simple cura o fraile al alto prelado, del humilde pueblerino al adinerado
aristócrata), que padecieron por la fe católica en la Inglaterra de los siglos
XVI y XVII, aunque en honor a la verdad hay que indicar que el martirologio
inglés ciertamente no tiene su inicio en la persecución azuzada por Enrico VIII
desde 1535 con el cisma de Inglaterra ni tampoco concluye al final del reinado
de Carlo II en el 1681, realmente da inicio en el tiempo de Diocleciano y se
acrecienta durante las invasiones de los anglosajones y los normandos.
El «Acta de Supremacía» de 1534 hace definitiva la separación de Inglaterra de
Roma; proclamado por lo tanto al rey como único jefe de la iglesia inglesa, al
mismo tiempo se legisló para que quienquiera que se negase a reconocer la
supremacía espiritual del rey pudiera ser culpable de alta traición y como tal
ser condenado a morir, buscando de ese modo esconder el motivo religioso bajo
el móvil político. Así tuvo inicio un largo baño de sangre de la Inglaterra
católica que duró casi siglo y medio.
Los primeros mártires fueron un grupo de cartujos londinenses ejecutados el 4
de mayo de 1535 por cuanto prefirieron subir sobre el cadalso antes que renegar
la fe de sus padres y negar obediencia espiritual al romano pontífice.
Albano Bartolomé Roe nació en Suffolk en el 1585 y realizó sus estudios en
Cambridge. Fue convertido al catolicismo por las respuestas de un preso
católico que él quiso convertir al protestantismo. Entonces dejó el suelo patrio
y se licenció en teología en el Colegio Inglés de Douai en Francia, que el
futuro cardenal Guillermo Allen fundó en la 1568 con la intención de formar
jóvenes sacerdotes que luego regresarían a su patria para intentar convertir de
nuevo a los que abrazaron el anglicanismo; con la misma intensión fue
transformado, en 1578, el antiguo Colegio Inglés de Roma, siempre bajo el
auspicio de Allen, y que mereció ser conocido como “Seminarium martyrum”: todos
sabían que a el retorno de aquellos jóvenes presbíteros a Inglaterra equivalía
a una sentencia de muerte.
Emitida la profesión en el 1612 y ordenado sacerdote, Bartolomé Roe volvió a su
patria, pero fue detenido muy poco tiempo después. Estuvo cinco años en la
cárcel siendo liberado en 1623 gracias a la intervención del embajador de
España, pero fue desterrado. No se dio por vencido, y después de pocos meses
volvió a Inglaterra. Traicionado, fue encarcelado de nuevo, ejerció el
ministerio sacerdotal entre los compañeros de prisión. Después de algún tiempo le
fue concedido el permiso de salir libremente de la prisión lo que él aprovechó
para realizar su apostolado. Fue descubierto y condenado a muerte. Subió al
cadalso el 21 de enero1642. En el monasterio de Downside se mantiene un paño
mojado con su sangre.
Reproducido con autorización de Santiebeati.it
responsable de la
traducción: Xavier Villalta
Beato Tomás Green
Fecha de beatificación: 15
de diciembre de 1929 por el Papa Pío XI.
Tomas Reynolds Green nace alrededor del año 1562 en Oxford, Inglaterra. Estudió
en Reims (Francia) y en Valladolid y Sevilla (España). Recibió la ordenación
sacerdotal el año 1592 y regresó a Inglaterra con el ministerio de lograr la
conversión de los ingleses al catolicismo, pero fue capturado y exiliado en
1606. Retornó a su patria y trabajó en secreto hasta que fue nuevamente
arrestado en el año 1628. Pasó catorce años en prisión hasta que fuera ahorcado
y luego descuartizado el 31 de enero de 1642.
SOURCE : http://es.catholic.net/op/articulos/36692/albano-roe-santo-y-tomas-green-beato.html#modal
