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18th June Feast of the Dedication of St. Chad's Cathedral. St. Chad’s Cathedral was designed by Augustus Welby Pugin and was the first Catholic cathedral to be built in England since the Reformation. It was opened on the 21st of June 1841 and with the restoration of the Catholic Hierarchy in 1850 became the cathedral of the diocese. It became a Metropolitan Cathedral in 1911 and a minor Basilica in 1941. Above the high altar and contained in an ornate reliquary are the relics of St. Chad rescued from Lichfield Cathedral at the time of the Reformation. |
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19th June Optional memorial of St. Romuald, Abbot. Founder of the Order of Camaldoli and born of a noble family in c. 950, Romuald became a monk at the Cluniac monastery of S. Apollinare-in-Classe after his father Sergius had killed a man in a duel. After lengthy study of the Desert Fathers, he aimed at restoring penance and solitude to contemporary monasticism and put forward the argument that the monastic life, particularly its solitude, was the way to salvation for all. His most famous monasteries were at Avelana, which was virtually refounded by his disciple, St. Peter Damian, and at Camaldoli, which would develop into a separate congregation after his death. This, in turn, would influence St. Bruno and the Carthusian Order. Romuald’s particular contribution to the Monastic Order was to provide for the hermit life within the framework of the Rule of St. Benedict. He died alone in 1027 at Val-di-Castro. Five years after his death, and again in 1466, his body was found to be incorrupt. However, when the tomb was sacrilegiously opened in 1480, the body fell to dust. |
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20th June Optional memorial of St. Alban, Martyr. It is not known when Alban lived or when he died. Gildas and Bede attribute his martyrdom to the persecution of Diocletian in c. 305 although modern scolars have argued for the time of Decius, c. 254 or even Septimus Severus c. 209. Few details are known of his life. According to Bede he was a pagan soldier who sheltered a priest, was converted by him and was baptised. Soldiers came in pursuit of the priest, named Amphibalus. Alban and the priest changed clothes allowing the priest to escape. Alban was arrested and after refusing to offer sacrifice he was condemned to death. Before he died he converted one of his executioners. He was beheaded by another whose eyes, the legend says, fell out. He was buried nearby, where, according to Bede; " ... when the peace of the Christian times was restored, a beautiful church worthy of his martyrdom was built, where sick folk are healed and frequent miracles take place to this day." |
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21st June Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious. Patron of Youth. Aloysius was born in 1568 the son of the marquis of Castiglione and was destined for a military career. However, his piety was precocious and even at an early age he showed great tenderness towards the poor and he frequently hid himself away in corners where, after a long search he would be found at prayer. His father intended him for the army, however, while recovering from illness while a page at the court of Francesco de’ Medici in Florence he devoted himself to prayer and reading the lives of the saints. Much to his father’s intense indignation who said that he would have him scourged naked, he decided to become a Jesuit in order to devote himself to the instructing and conducting souls to God, entering the novitiate in 1585. He was professed in 1587 but in 1591 while nursing the sick at a plague hospital he fell ill and died and was buried in the Church of the Annunciation belonging to the Jesuits of the Roman College. He was beatified by Pope Gregory XV in 1621 and was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726 and declared patron of youth in 1729. |
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22nd June Feast of St. John Fisher, Bishop and Martyr. John Fisher was born in Beverley, Humberside in 1469 the son of a mercer. He was educated at Cambridge University and, after being a distinguished scholar, became a Doctor of Divinity, Master of Michaelhouse (now Trinity College), Vice-Chancellor of the University in 1501 and finally in 1504, both its Chancellor and the bishop of Rochester. He wrote four volumes against Martin Luther. He became confessor to Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII stating that no other prince or kingdom had such a distinguished prelate. His fall from grace came during the break with Rome. During the king’s attempt to divorce Catherine he clearly demonstrated the validity of the marriage and showed that it could not be legally dissolved by any power on earth. In Convocation in 1531 he protested against the new title of ‘Head of the Church of England’ for Henry VIII and in 1534 was condemned to perpetual imprisonment. His trial took place on the 17th of June 1535. He was executed four days later after pardoning his executioner, declaring that he was dying for the faith of Christ’s holy Catholic Church and reciting the Te Deum. His head was displayed on London Bridge for a fortnight before being thrown into the Thames. |
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Feast of St. Thomas More, Martyr. Thomas More was born in 1478 the son of Sir John More, a barrister and judge. He was educated at Canterbury College, Oxford and in 1501. In 1504 he entered Parliament (his constituency is unknown) and, at one stage, contemplated either joining the Friars Minor or becoming a diocesan priest. He did neither choosing instead a legal career although this period did have an influence on his later life – he would daily wear a hairshirt and recite the Little Office. He was a prolific author, his most famous work being Utopia written in 1516. In the late 1520s Henry VIII consulted Thomas More about his proposed divorce from Catherine of Aragon – More excused himself for his lack of expert knowledge. In 1529 he was appointed Lord Chancellor in succession to Cardinal Wolsey. The dispute with Henry VIII over the break with Rome and the succession of Anne Boleyn led to More’s fall from favour and eventually, with John Fisher, to his imprisonment in the Tower of London. He was executed on Tower Hill on the 6th of July 1535 declaring that he was “the king’s good servant, but God’s first”. Both he and John Fisher were beatified in 1886 and canonized in 1935. |
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