A contemporary print of someone being racked in this country.

This month, on May 4th, we celebrated the feast of over 300 English and Welsh martyrs.

Jesus told his followers that they would suffer for the sake of the Kingdom, and even be put to death. This prediction has been fulfilled countless times. Most martyrs suffered terrible tortures. Reading accounts of their suffering can terrify us everyday Christians. The question arises: how can they endure so much? Maybe we are overlooking the grace of God. See this account of the life of one young English Martyr, St. Alexander Briant.

St Alexander Briant (1556-1581) was a former pupil of one of the first Jesuits to come to England, Father Robert Parsons, who arrived here with St Edmund Campion in 1580.  Alexander entered the seminary at Douai France, and was ordained priest in 1578. He was assigned to the English mission in August of the following year to work as a priest in his own county of Somerset. At that time it was against the law for a Catholic "Seminary Priest" to enter and minister here. The penalty was death.

After working only briefly he was arrested in April 1581 by a group who were searching for Father Parsons. After spending some time in Counter Prison, London, he was taken to the Tower where he was subjected to tortures that, even in Elizabethan England, stand out for their viciousness.

The rack master admitted that Briant was “racked more than any of the rest,” and following a public outcry the torturer was imprisoned for a few days for cruelty.

With six other priests Briant was arraigned, on November 16, 1581, on the charge of high treason, and condemned to death. In a letter to the Jesuit Fathers in England written from prison he says that he felt no pain during the various tortures he underwent, and adds: “Whether this that I say be miraculous or no, God knoweth, but true it is.”

He was scarcely more than twenty-five years old on 1 December, the day of his martyrdom. He suffered with St Edmund Campion and St Ralph Sherwin. They were hung drawn and quartered.

There were about 350 people martyred during the English Reformation. In the past century more catholics have been martyred than in the whole  previous nineteen centuries.

Instead of dreading the pains of martyrdom, we need to remember that Jesus is always with us, and that he will never allow us to suffer more than we can bear.