Today we remember Blessed George Napier (-1610) Blessed George Napier was born at Holywell Manor in Oxford and studied at Corpus Christi College. He later went to Douai and was ordained priest in 1596. He returned to England secretly in 1603 and worked as a priest in Oxfordshire. He was arrested at Kirtlington on 19 July 1610 after he had brought the sacraments to a sick Catholic woman; the possession of the holy oils and a breviary was considered sufficient evidence of priesthood and he was condemned to death at the Oxford assizes. While imprisoned in Oxford Castle, he reconciled a condemned criminal to the Church and prepared him for a Christian death. This was reported to the judges, who angrily brought forward the date of George Napier’s execution, lest he should influence other prisoners in the same way. When the martyr was told, he said that he would be glad to do the same for the judges if ever they required it “for he came into the county to execute his functions and to save men’s souls.” He was hanged, drawn and quartered at Oxford on 8 November 1610 and beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929. Psalm 68 (69) I am consumed with zeal for your house I am wearied with all my crying as I await my God. Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I am stuck in bottomless mud; I am adrift in deep waters and the flood is sweeping me away. I am exhausted with crying out, my throat is parched, my eyes are failing as I look out for my God. Those who hate me for no reason are more than the hairs of my head. They are strong, my persecutors, my lying enemies: they make me give back things I never took. God, you know my weakness: my crimes are not hidden from you. Let my fate not put to shame those who trust in you, Lord, Lord of hosts. Let them not be dismayed on my account, those who seek you, God of Israel. For it is for your sake that I am taunted and covered in confusion: I have become a stranger to my own brothers, a wanderer in the eyes of my mother’s children – because zeal for your house is consuming me, and the taunts of those who hate you fall upon my head. I have humbled my soul with fasting and they reproach me for it. I have made sackcloth my clothing and they make me a byword. The idlers at the gates speak against me; for drinkers of wine, I am the butt of their songs. Glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. I am wearied with all my crying as I await my God.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 13:27:46 +0000
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