MEMORIAL OF THE SIX WELSH MARTYRS AND THEIR COMPANIONS; SAINTS CHRYSANTHUS AND DARIA; SAINTS CRISPIN AND CRISPINIAN AND SAINT GAUDENTIUS OF BRESCIA, BISHOP ~ FEAST DAY ~ OCTOBER 25TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of the Six Welsh Martyrs and their Companions; Saints Chrysanthus and Daria; Saint Crispin and Crispinian and St. Gaudentius of Brescia, Bishop. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for God’s Divine Grace and Mercy upon us all. We pray for shoemakers, cobblers and all workers. We pray for the poor, the needy and the most vulnerable in our communities and around the world. We pray for peace, love, justice and unity in our marriages, our families and our world. We pray for the sick and dying, especially those who are mentally and physically ill and those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the souls of the faithful departed. We pray for all widows and widowers. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, the Bishops, the Clergy, for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world…. Amen🙏
THE SIX WELSH MARTYRS AND THEIR COMPANIONS: The Welsh Martyrs are the priests, St. Philip Evans and St. John Lloyd, St. John Jones, St. David Lewis, St. John Roberts, and the teacher, St. Richard Gwyn, and 34 English companions who were executed for their Faith during the Catholic persecution in England and Wales from 1535-1679. The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales were selected from among the hundreds of Catholics who gave their lives for the faith during the dark days of persecution in England. The Forty were canonized by Pope Paul VI on October 25, 1970. Six of the Forty were Welsh and celebrated this day as a feast in Wales. These six comprised of a married man, a Franciscan, a Benedictine, two Jesuits and a diocesan priest. The rest of the forty were English martyrs and celebrated on May 4.
St. Richard Gwyn was born about 1537 in Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire. He was a teacher and a married man. He and his wife, Catherine, had six children. He was executed at Wrexham on October 15, 1584. St Richard Gwyn is the Protomartyr of Wales.
St. John Jones, OFM was born at Clynog Fawr, Caernarvonshire around the year 1530. He entered the Franciscan Convent at Greenwich and, at its dissolution in 1559, he went to the Continent and was professed at Pontoise, France. He died for the Faith at Southwark on July 12, 1598. At his execution, he had to wait an hour because the hangman had forgotten to bring the rope!
St. John Roberts, OSB, born at Trawsfynydd, Merionethshire, was the first prior of St Gregory’s, Douai. He was sent upon the English Mission in December 1602, arriving in England in April 1603. He was probably the first monastic to enter England since the Reformation. He was executed at Tyburn on December 10, 1610.
St. Philip Evans, SJ was born in Monmouth in 1645. He entered the Society of Jesus on September 7, 1665. He was ordained at Liege and sent upon the English Mission in 1675. He diligently and joyfully served the area of South Wales for four years before his arrest at the house of Christopher Turberville at Sker, Glamorganshire on 4th December 1678. He was martyred at Cardiff on July 22, 1679. He was thirty-four years old.
St. John Lloyd was Brecon born and studied at Ghent and Valladolid. He was ordained a priest at Valladolid in 1653. He returned to Wales and labored in Brecon and Monmouthshire for 24 years. In November of 1678, he was captured at a house at Penllyn, Glamorganshire. He and St Philip Evans shared a cell at Cardiff Castle until their martyrdom at Cardiff on July 22, 1679.
St. David Lewis was born in 1616 at Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. He attended the local Grammar school where his father, Morgan Lewis, was headmaster. Ordained in 1642, David entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1645. He returned to Wales and, based at the Cwm, he served the Catholics of the area for 34 years. He was arrested at Llantarnam on 17th November 1678 and martyred at Usk on August 27, 1679. St David Lewis was the last Welsh martyr.
The Six Welsh Martyrs and their Companions ~ Pray for us 🙏
SAINTS CHRYSANTHUS AND DARIA. MARTYRS: A husband and wife who carried on an active apostolate among the noble families of Rome during the third century. When they were denounced as Christians, they underwent various tortures with great constancy, and they were buried alive in a sandpit in the year 283. Daria received baptism through the efforts of her husband Chrysanthus. In Rome, they were instrumental in bringing many to the faith, for which cause they were cruelly martyred. Chrysanthus was sewn inside an ox’s hide and placed where the sun shone hottest. Taken to a house of ill-fame, Daria was protected by a lion while she passed the time in prayer. Finally, both were buried alive in a sand-pit and thereby together gained the crown of martyrdom. They were buried in the Jordan cemetery on the Via Saleria, Rome; at the same site were buried sixty-two soldiers who died as martyrs and also a group of faithful who had gathered together for the holy Sacrifice on the anniversary of saints’ deaths but were cut down by the enemies of Christ. Patron Saint of Eissel, Germany; Salzburg, Austria.
Saints Chrysanthus and Daria, Martyrs ~ Pray for us 🙏
SAINTS CRISPIN AND CRISPINIAN, MARTYRS: Sts. Crispin and Crispinian (d. 286 A.D.) were brothers, believed to be twins, from a noble Roman family who evangelized Gaul in the middle 3rd century. They died in the persecution of Diocletian by the sword. They were Christians and went as missionaries into Gaul (present-day France). Taking the Apostle St. Paul as their example, they earned their living through a trade, dividing their time between ministry and work. Their craft was shoe-making, and because they asked little pay for their shoes they were loved and esteemed by all. Sts. Crispin and Crispinian used their work as an opportunity to share the Christian faith with the pagans they encountered, and many were converted through their witness. They worked from Soissons, preached in the streets by day and made shoes by night. The group’s charity, piety and contempt of material things impressed the locals, and many converted in the years of their ministry. During the persecution of the Roman Emperor Diocletian they were denounced as Christians and brought before the co-emperor, Maximanus Herculius. The emperor tried to persuade them to abandon their faith with promises and threats, but to no effect. The brothers were then given over to the governor who was notorious for his cruelty. They were stretched on the rack, their flesh was cut, and awls were driven under their fingernails. They were then thrown into a river with a millstone tied to their necks, but they both miraculously survived and swam back to shore. They were caught and finally beheaded. They were martyred in Rome in 286 by torture and beheading, under emperor Maximian Herculeus, being tried by Rictus Varus, governor of Belgic Gaul and an enemy of Christianity. A great church was built at Soissons in the 6th century in their honor; Saint Eligius ornamented their shrine. St. Crispin’s day has been immortalized by Shakespeare’s Henry V speech before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. St. Crispin and Crispinian are the patron saints of shoemakers, saddlers, and tanners.
Patron Saint of Cobblers; glove makers; lace makers; lace workers; leather workers; saddle makers; tanners; weavers. Their feast, known as St. Crispin’s Day, is October 25th.
Saints Crispin and Crispinian, Martyrs ~ Pray for us 🙏
SAINT GAUDENTIUS OF BRESCIA, BISHOP: St. Gaudentius was born at Brescia, Italy about the middle of the 4th century, and was Bishop of Brescia from 387 until 410. He was a theologian and author of many letters and sermons. St. Gaudentius was educated under St. Philastrius, Bishop of Brescia, whom he terms his “father”. After earning a reputation for sanctity, he travel to the East where he gained even more fame. He was the successor of Saint Philastrius. He studied under Saint Philastrius, Bishop of Brescia, Italy. He preached throughout Italy and in the East, respected wherever he went for his oratory and leading the Christian life. When Philastrius died near the end of the 4th century, the people of Brescia chose St. Gaudentius as their bishop. He was consecrated by Saint Ambrose of Milan in 387. St. Gaudentius was a powerful preacher and wrote many pastoral letters, and ten of his twenty-one have survived and come down to us, offering ample testimony to this fact. He governed his See with prudence and humility, inspiring his flock to imitate the Divine Master. In 405, the Saint was sent with two other delegates by Pope innocent I and the Emperor Honorius to the East to defend St. John Chrysostom before Arcadius. However, the party was prevented from reaching Arcadius and never formally interceded for John; the three men were shipped back home on a vessel so unseaworthy that it almost sank and had to be left at Lampsacus. Subsequently, st. John wrote St. Gaudentius a letter of thanks for his efforts even though they had not borne fruit. This saintly man died about 410 of natural causes and was called by Rufinus: “the glory of the Doctors of the age in which he lives”.
PRAYER: God, Light and Shepherd of souls, You established St. Gaudentius as Bishop in Your Church to feed Your flock by his word and form it by his example. Help us through his intercession to keep the faith he thought by his word and follow the way he showed by his example. Amen 🙏