Alban Roe: Difference between revisions
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*[http://www.abbey.ampleforth.org.uk/the-community/our-patrons Story of Saint Alban Roe] on Ampleforth's website |
*[http://www.abbey.ampleforth.org.uk/the-community/our-patrons Story of Saint Alban Roe] on Ampleforth's website |
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*{{CathEncy|wstitle=Bartholomew Roe}} |
*{{CathEncy|wstitle=Bartholomew Roe}} |
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*[http://saints.sqpn.com/sainta8y.htm Patron Saints Index: ''Saint Alban Bartholomew Roe''] |
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090211072530/http://saints.sqpn.com/sainta8y.htm Patron Saints Index: ''Saint Alban Bartholomew Roe''] |
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Revision as of 13:59, 4 January 2018
Saint Alban Roe | |
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Priest and Martyr | |
Born | Roman Catholic Church | 20 July 1583
Beatified | 15 December 1921, Rome by Pope Pius XI |
Canonized | 25 October 1970, Rome by Pope Paul VI |
Feast | 21 January 25 October |
Saint Alban Roe (20 July 1583 – 21 January 1642) was an English
Early life
Details of Fr.Roe’s life are scanty. He was not typically monastic, but of an explosive and unpredictable temperament.[2] Yet in spite of all this the outstanding characteristic of his life was cheerfulness and tenacity, and his sanctity is unquestionable.[3]
Bartholomew Roe was born in 1583, in Suffolk. He was brought up a Protestant and with his brother James converted to Catholicism; both became Benedictine monks.
The disruption caused by the
Conversion
His conversion experience was unusual: he tried to convert an imprisoned Catholic to Protestantism, but found himself defeated in argument. From this time, according to Challoner, "Mr. Roe was very uneasy in mind upon the score of religion; nor did this uneasiness cease till by reading and confessing with Catholic Priests he was thoroughly convinced of his errors and determined to embrace the ancient faith. Having found the treasure of God’s truth himself, he was very desirous to impart the same to the souls of his neighbours."[5] Consequently, in 1607 he entered the English College at Douai to study for the priesthood.
He had a very interesting attitude: he wasn’t only content to rub people up the wrong way, but to make sure they noticed. When the Prior had some cupboards removed from near to his bed, Roe declared: "There is more trouble with a few fools than with all the wise; if you pull down, I will build up; if you destroy, I will rebuild." [6]
He was expelled in 1610 due his temperament, ‘we consider the said Bartholomew Roe is not at all fitted for the purposes of this College on account of his contempt for the discipline and for his superiors and of his misleading certain youths living in the College and also of the great danger of his still leading others astray, and therefore we adjudge that he must be dismissed from the College’.[7]
Roe didn’t leave quietly, but used his considerable skills to organise a campaign against the authorities. A significant body of monks seem to have seen him as some sort of hero and backed his appeal to the President.[8] This allowed him later in 1613 to join the English Benedictine Community of St.Lawrence at Dieulouard in Lorraine, being ordained in 1615. There is no record of him being at all troublesome at Dieulouard. He became a founder member of the new English Benedictine Community at St.Edmund, Paris, hence his religious name Fr. Alban of St. Edmund.
Ministry and arrest
He was professed in 1612 and after ordination (1615) joined the missions and worked in London, being arrested and deported shortly after his arrival.
He returned in 1618 and was imprisoned until 1623, whereby his release and re-exile was organised by the Spanish Ambassador,
Trial
In 1641 he was transferred to close confinement within the strict
Challoner details his initial refusal to enter a plea.
The judge was so put out he suspended the sentence and sent him back to prison for a few days. This didn’t work either because as a celebrity he had a constant stream of visitors, one of whom smuggled in the necessary for him to say mass in his cell.
Execution
At Tyburn he preached in a jovial fashion to the crowd about the meaning of his death. He was still playing to the crowd, holding up the proceedings by asking the Sheriff whether he could save his life by turning Protestant. The Sheriff agreed. Roe then turned to the crowd declaring "see then what the crime is for which I am to die and whether religion be not my only treason?"
His remark to one of his former gaolers was "My friend, I find that thou art a prophet; thou hast told me often I should be hanged."
He created quite an impression by his death and when his remains were quartered there was a scramble to dip handkerchiefs into his blood and pick up straws covered in his blood as
Canonisation
He was declared venerable on December 1929 by Pope Pius XI and beatified one week later on 15 December. Blessed Alban Roe was canonized nearly 40 years later on 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales with a common feast day of 25 October. His feast day is also celebrated on 21 January, the day of his martyrdom.
The communities of St. Lawrence and St. Edmund returned to England at the end of the 18th century, during the upheavals of the French revolution. St. Lawrence settled in Yorkshire at what was to become Ampleforth Abbey. St. Edmund settled at Douai Abbey, Reading.
References
- ^ "Book of Martyrs," New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1948
- ISBN 0-85244-011-1, p255; chapter "Three Seventeenth Century Martyrs" by Dom Geoffrey Scott of Douai Abbey.
- ^ Blessed Alban Roe, Dom James Forbes of Ampleforth, 1960, p3.
- ^ Scott, p246-247.
- ^ Memoirs of Missionary Priests, Bishop Challoner, 1878, p129.
- ^ Scott, p256.
- ^ Scott, p256.
- ^ Forbes p5.
- ^ Scott, p257, and Forbes p11.
- ISBN 0-85183-297-0, p13
- ^ Challoner, p132
- ^ Bartholomew Roe, quoted in 1919 Online Catholic Encyclopaedia, www.newadvent.org/cathen/13109d.htm
- ^ Challoner, p132-134
- ^ Challoner, p134.
External links
- Story of Saint Alban Roe on Ampleforth's website
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- Patron Saints Index: Saint Alban Bartholomew Roe