A group of representative English and Welsh Roman Catholics who were
martyred between 1535 and 1679, they were selected from 200 already
beatified by earlier popes.
The forty were canonised by Paul VI on 25th October 1970.
Thirteen were seminary priests, ten were Jesuits. three Benedictine, two
Franciscans and one Austin Friar; the remaining seven were lay people, four
men and three women.
The cult of some of these was spontaneous and contemporary; it is
exemplified by a famous series of paintings in the English College, Rome, by
Circiniani. This series included by express papal permission, martyrs of
England from 1535 to 1583 who were accorded the same veneration as that
given to earlier martyrs such as Boniface, Edmund and Thomas of Canterbury.
The forty include those who were executed for refusing to take the Oath of
Supremacy, or simply for being priests or because they harboured priests
Amongst them are: Edmund Arrowsmith, Philip Howard, Anne Line, Henry Morse,
John Rigby, John Stone and Margaret Ward.
Their feast day is 25th October.
Written and contributed by Phillip Lloyd.
