Saturday 30 November 2013 Saint Andrew, Apostle - Feast About Today Psalm week: 2. St Andrew the Apostle He was born in Bethsaida, in Galilee, and worked as a fisherman. He may have been a disciple of St John the Baptist. He became one of the first to follow Jesus and introduced his brother, Simon Peter, to him. As one of the twelve Apostles he was widely venerated in ancient times, and became patron saint of Scotland because according to legend some of his bones were brought there and buried at the place where the town of St Andrew’s now stands. Other saints: St Cuthbert Mayne (1543-1577) Cuthbert Mayne was born at Yorkston, near Barnstaple, Devonshire 1543 and was executed at Launceston, Cornwall, 29 November, 1577. He was the son of William Mayne; he was educated at Barnstaple Grammar School and Oxford, where he got to know a number of men who were favourable to the Catholic cause, notably Edmund Campion and Gregory Martin, who themselves went over to Douai. He was persuaded of the truth of the Catholic cause but held back initially for fear of losing his appointments and his income. Late in 1570 a letter from Gregory Martin to Cuthbert fell into the Bishop of London’s hands. He at once arranged for Cuthbert and others mentioned in the letter to be arrested. Being warned, Cuthbert managed to escape and got to Douai. There he was received into the Catholic Church, and was ordained priest in 1575. He soon left for the English mission. He went to live with Francis Tregian, of Golden Manor, in St. Probus’s parish, Cornwall, who was subsequently imprisoned for harbouring him. Cuthbert was arrested in June, 1577, taken to Launceston and put on trial in September. He was found guilty of high treason, and was sentenced accordingly. The trial attracted considerable attention partly because he was the first so-called ‘seminary priest’ to be tried; a legal distinction was made between ‘Marian’ priests who had been ordained in England, and ‘seminary’ priests who had studied and had been ordained overseas. His execution was delayed because one of the judges altered his mind after sentence and sent a report to the Privy Council. They submitted the case to the whole Bench of Judges, which was inclined to Jeffries’s view. Nevertheless, for motives of policy, the Council ordered the conviction to stand “as a terror to the papists” and a warning to priests coming from abroad. A rough portrait of the martyr still exists.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 23:00:01 +0000