English Saints – Snapdragon

October 2022

Page 5 Snapdragon Championing the cause of English Saints “THE wiTnEssEs who have preceded us into the Kingdom, especially those whom the church recognises as saints, care for those whom they have left on earth. When they entered into the joy of their Master, they were “put in charge of many things”. Their intercession is their most exalted service to God’s plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraph 2683 Italics mine) So clearly we should invoke the saints. It is not really an optional extra “we can and we should” but the question I would like to pose is this. To which saints should we address our prayers?

There is of course no shortage of saints and no doubt we all have our favourites, Thérèse of Lisieux, Francis of Assisi, Padre Pio etc. Indeed the Universal Calendar of the church provides us with a host of witnesses: Ignatius of Loyola, Philip Neri, Maria Goretti, Francis de Sales, Anthony of Padua, St John Bosco. Now all these saints, apart from displaying heroic virtue and leading holy and faithful lives, have something else in common. None of them is English!

Now bearing this in mind I would like to offer another quotation from the Catechism. It is from the paragraph immediately following the one already quoted. ”A distinct spirituality can arise at the point of convergence of liturgical and theological currents, bearing witness to the integration of the faith into a particular human environment and its history.”

Surely this is a most apt description of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and it is with this in mind that I make an appeal for all in the Ordinariate to foster our “distinctive spirituality” not in a spirit of Ecclesiastical jingoism, but rather that as a real element of our “Anglican Patrimony” we should get to know and love our English saints.

Be honest, what do you know about St Guthlac? Yes,

as I suspected, not very much! Yet until he was succeeded by Edward the Confessor he was the most popular saint in England. I will not say anything else about him; you can discover more about him as you discover more of your “Anglican Patrimony”. The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales are better known, and though all Martyrs are equal some are more equal than others! What I mean is, Edmund Campion is much better known (perhaps partly because of Evelyn Waugh’s biography) than say John Kemble. John was one of the oldest priests to be executed at eighty years old. Before his captors led him away he asked for a last drink and smoke of his pipe, a courtesy which was extended to him due to the esteem he had with both protestant and Catholic locals. To this day in parts of St Guthlac Herefordshire where he ministered “Having a Kemble” is local jargon for the final pint and smoke of the day. And what do you know of Saint John of Bridlington? I thought so, a bit like Guthlac? Well, Saint John of Bridlington was the last Englishman to be canonised before the reformation. John Wardle’s booklet will tell you all about him. We also have Bede, Cuthbert, Aidan and Oswald, Chad and his brother Cedd, Anne Line, Margaret Ward. England the Dowry of Mary has no shortage of home-grown saints so let us get to know and love them and ask for their help to intercede for us and the whole world.