John Constable (1776–1837). View of
Salisbury, circa 1820, 35 X 51, Louvre
Museum
Bienheureux Jean Hambley, prêtre et martyr
Né vers 1560, il était protestant. Alors qu’il avait une vingtaine d’années, un ami lui prêta un livre traitant de la religion catholique, qui le ramena à la foi de ses pères. Il partit sur le continent pour être ordonné prêtre. A son retour en Angleterre en 1586, il fut arrêté et condamné à mort, perdant courage, il accepta de s'en tenir à la religion protestante. Libéré, il revint à la foi catholique et fut arrêté à nouveau, mais il obtint sa libération en dénonçant d'autres catholiques. En 1587, il est arrêté une troisième fois et demeure fidèle. Il subit courageusement le martyre, à Salisbury en 1587, sous la reine Élisabeth Ière.
Bienheureux Jean Hambley
Prêtre et martyr, à Salisbury en Angleterre (+ 1587)
Né vers 1560, il était protestant. A une vingtaine d'années d'âge, un ami lui prêta un livre traitant de la religion catholique qui l'amena à adopter cette foi et à se déplacer à l'étranger pour devenir prêtre. A son retour en Angleterre en 1586, il fut arrêté et condamné à mort, perdant courage, il accepta de s'en tenir à la religion protestante. Puis libéré, il retourna à la foi catholique et fut arrêté à nouveau, il obtint sa libération en dénonçant d'autres catholiques. En 1587, il est encore arrêté mais on lui donne une lettre qui l'émeut et dont il refuse de révéler le contenu. A partir de ce moment, il exprime continuellement sa foi, montre des remords pour son instabilité et subit courageusement le martyre qui lui est imposé. Il fait partie du groupe de martyrs béatifiés par le pape Jean-Paul II le 22 novembre 1987.
Commémoraison du bienheureux Jean Hambley, prêtre et martyr, à Salisbury en Angleterre. En 1587, sous la reine Élisabeth Ière, un jour inconnu de ce mois aux environs de la Pâque du Seigneur, à cause de son sacerdoce, il fut livré aux supplices du gibet, communiant ainsi aux souffrances du Christ.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/11548/Bienheureux-Jean-Hambley.html
29 October as
one of the Martyrs
of Douai
22 November as
one of the Martyrs
of England, Scotland, and Wales
Profile
Priest in
the apostolic vicariate of England. Martyred in
the persecutions of Queen Elizabeth
I.
Born
c.1560 in
Bodmin, Cornwall, England
hanged c.29 March 1587 in
Salisbury, Wiltshire, England
10 November 1986 by Pope John
Paul II (decree of martyrdom)
22 November 1987 by Pope John
Paul II
Additional Information
Mementoes
of the English Martyrs and Confessors, by Father Henry
Sebastian Bowden
books
Book of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
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
MLA Citation
“Blessed John Hambley“. CatholicSaints.Info. 24
April 2019. Web. 12 March 2021.
<https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-john-hambley/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-john-hambley/
Ven. John Hambley
English martyr (suffered 1587), born and educated in Cornwall, and converted by reading one of Father Persons' books in 1582. After his course at Reims (1583-1585), he returned and worked for a year in the Western Counties. Betrayed and captured about Easter, 1586, he was tried and condemned at Taunton. He saved his life for the moment by denying his faith, then managed to break prison, and fled to Salisbury. Next August, however, the Protestant bishop there, in his hatred of the ancient Faith, resolved to search the houses of Catholics on the eve of the Assumption, suspecting that he might thus catch a priest, and in fact Hambley was recaptured. Being now in a worse plight that ever, his fears increased; he again offered conformity, and this time he gave up the names of most of his Catholic friends. Next Easter he was tried again, and again made offers of conformity. Yet after this third fall he managed to recover himself, and suffered near Salisbury "standing to it manfully, and inveighing much against his former fault". How he got the grace of final perseverance was a matter of much speculation. One contemporary, Father Warford, believed it was due to his guardian angel, but another, Father Gerard, with great probability, tells us that his strength came from a fellow-prisoner, Thomas Pilchard, afterwards himself a martyr.
Pollen, John Hungerford. "Ven. John
Hambley." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1910. 28 Mar. 2015
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07121a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for
New Advent by Christine J. Murray.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. June
1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal
Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07121a.htm
Three Falls and Final Perseverance: Blessed John
Hambley
For good reason, of course, I often emphasize the great endurance and fortitude of the Catholic Martyrs of England and Wales after the Reformation and during the Recusancy era. But today's martyr, Blessed John Hambley, gave in thrice, renouncing his Catholic faith--one time at great cost to the Catholic laity who had protected him:
English martyr (suffered 1587), born and educated in
Cornwall, and converted by reading one of Father Persons' books in 1582. After
his course at Reims (1583-1585), he returned and worked for a year in the
Western Counties. Betrayed and captured about Easter, 1586, he was tried and
condemned at Taunton. He saved his life for the moment by denying his faith,
then managed to break prison, and fled to Salisbury. Next August, however, the
Protestant bishop there, in his hatred of the ancient Faith, resolved to search
the houses of Catholics on the eve of the Assumption, suspecting that he might
thus catch a priest, and in fact Hambley was recaptured. Being now in a worse
plight that ever, his fears increased; he again offered conformity, and this
time he gave up the names of most of his Catholic friends. Next Easter he was
tried again, and again made offers of conformity. Yet after this third fall he
managed to recover himself, and suffered near Salisbury "standing to it
manfully, and inveighing much against his former fault". How he got the
grace of final perseverance was a matter of much speculation. One contemporary,
Father Warford, believed it was due to his guardian angel, but another, Father
Gerard, with great probability, tells us that his strength came from a
fellow-prisoner, Thomas Pilchard, afterwards himself a martyr.
Some Notes:
~Since he "fell three times" I cannot help but think of the three falls of Jesus that occur in the traditional Stations of the Cross, especially since Blessed John Hambley's third fall came after Easter (thus the illustration above)!
~In 1582, he might have read Father Parsons' "A Brief Discourse Containing Certain Reasons Why Catholics Refuse to Go to [the Established] Church" or "The First Book of the Christian Exercise, Appertaining to Resolution".
~The Bishop of Salisbury in 1587 was John Piers. According to that wikipedia article, Piers had work to do in Salisbury: "At Salisbury, by command of the Queen, he brought the ritual and statutes of his cathedral into conformity with the spirit of the Reformation, with changes away from Catholic practice." He was appointed in 1571, more than ten years after the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, and Catholic practices remained in Salisbury!
~Remember that we just read about Blessed Thomas Pilchard and his incredible sufferings as a martyr, on March 21.
The Stations of the Cross and Blessed John Hambley
In spite of his three falls, Blessed John Hambley
eventually repented and suffered for Jesus and His Church, uniting himself to
the Cross of Christ.
Stephanie Mann BlogsMarch 29, 2017
Each Lent I look forward to participating in the Way
of the Cross at one particular parish in our diocese which also celebrates a
half hour of Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction. This parish uses the
reflections and prayer of St. Alphonsus Liguori. We sing the Stabat Mater verses
between each station, using the translation by the Oratorian Edward Caswall,
one of Blessed John Henry Newman’s converts.
The development of this devotion began in the medieval era when following the actual Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem was impossible because of Arab occupation; it was not safe to be a Christian in the Holy Land. Not all of us, even when it’s safe, can travel to the Holy Land to celebrate the events of Holy Week, so this devotion is a way for us to be there in our imagination. Many meditations have been published to guide us through the Stations, which present a combination of scriptural and traditional events and encounters on the way to Calvary. As the Vatican website explains, the 14 stations we are most familiar with date from the seventeenth century, fostered by the Franciscans in Spain.
The Three Falls of Je
Jesus falls three times
during the Way of the Cross. In his meditation on
the Ninth Station, when Jesus falls the third time, Blessed John Henry Newman
says these falls are Satan’s revenge for his own falls:
We are told in Holy
Scripture of three falls of Satan, the Evil Spirit. The first was in the
beginning; the second,
when the Gospel and the Kingdom of Heaven were preached to
the world; the third will
be at the end of all things. . . .
These three falls--the
past, the present, and the future--the Evil Spirit had in mind
when he moved Judas to
betray Our Lord. This was just his hour. Our Lord, when He
was seized, said to His
enemies, "This is your hour and the power of darkness." Satan
knew his time was short,
and thought he might use it to good effect. . . . he smote Him once, he smote
Him twice, he smote Him thrice, each successive time a heavier blow.
When I attend Stations this Friday, however, I will remember Blessed John Hambley, an English priest who was executed on March 29, 1587. He too fell three times before he suffered and died in Salisbury during the reign of Elizabeth I.
The Three Falls of Blessed John Hambley
All the priests who came to England knew that they
could suffer imprisonment, torture, and horrendous execution. They had the
example of their protomartyr, Father Cuthbert Mayne in 1577, and then of
Fathers Edmund Campion, Ralph Sherwin, and Alexander Briant—and others—in 1581.
Nearly every year they learned of another priest being martyred. The Venerable
English College in Rome, where many priests studied, started the tradition of a
seminarian preaching a sermon on martyrdom before the pope on the feast of St.
Stephen, the first martyr. The founder of the Oratorians, St. Philip Neri,
greeted the students in the streets with the salutation, “Salvete flores
martyrum” (Hail! flowers of the martyrs).
But Father John Hambley, in spite of all these
examples, was not ready to suffer. He had given up everything to become a
Catholic and a priest, but the threat of physical suffering undid him,
according to the 1914 edition of The
Lives of the English Martyrs. He was born around 1560 in an Anglican family,
but a Catholic friend encouraged him to read a book by Father Robert Persons,
SJ and soon he became a Catholic. Because he had stopped attending Church of
England services, he left his native Cornwall and then left England for the
Continent. Hambley studied for the priesthood in Reims and was ordained on
September 22, 1584. On April 6, 1585 he returned to England as a missionary
priest under the guidance of Father John Cornelius, SJ (who would be martyred
in 1594).
Before Easter in 1586, he was arrested in Taunton,
Somerset, tried for being a priest, convicted, and sentenced to death. To save
his life, Hambley promised to renounce his Catholic faith; then he escaped from
prison. Recaptured on August 14, he faced the same horrible death of being
hanged, drawn and quartered—and he fell again. He not only promised to become
an Anglican, but he told the authorities everything he knew. Hambley told them
about where he said Mass, who attended, who helped him; he told them the names
of 15 other priests serving in England and others who are studying abroad.
Strangely, the judges did not trust his statements,
perhaps because he gave them so willingly, so Hambley was held in prison in
Salisbury until the next public trials, the Assizes, in March of 1587. The
judge asked him again if he was ready to renounce the Catholic faith, and
Father Hambley said he was—his third fall. Awaiting release, he was given a
letter; after he read it, he changed. The next day, he told the judge that he
would not renounce the faith and that he regretted his weakness. This time, the
threat of “a most cruel death” did not move him to cowardice, and he suffered
execution bravely.
Who sent the letter, what the letter said—these are
questions that have never been answered. Father John Gerard, SJ believed that
another priest, Blessed Thomas Pilchard, had written the letter to strengthen
Hambley’s resolve before his own execution on March 21 the same year in
Dorchester.
Both Thomas Pilchard and John Hambley were beatified among the 85 Martyrs of England and Wales by Pope St. John Paul II. In spite of his three falls, at the end Hambley repented and suffered for Jesus and His Church, uniting himself to the Cross of Christ. Blessed John Hambley, pray for us!
Stephanie Mann Stephanie
A. Mann is the author of Supremacy and Survival: How Catholics Endured the
English Reformation, available from Scepter Publishers. She resides in Wichita,
Kansas and blogs at www.supremacyandsurvival.blogspot.com.
SOURCE : https://www.ncregister.com/blog/the-stations-of-the-cross-and-blessed-john-hambley
Beato Giovanni Hambley Sacerdote e martire
>>>
Visualizza la Scheda del Gruppo cui appartiene
Diocesi di Oxford, 1560 circa – Salisbury, 1587
Martirologio Romano: A Salisbury in Inghilterra,
commemorazione del beato Giovanni Hambley, sacerdote e martire, che, durante il
regno di Elisabetta I, a motivo del suo sacerdozio, in un imprecisato giorno di
questo mese intorno alla Pasqua del Signore, nel supplizio del patibolo si
conformò alla passione di Cristo.
