... that is, of the Martyres Oxonienses. I began by wondering if Oxford is a unique educational establishment in having specific liturgical recognition of those of its members who subsequently achieved the corona Martyrii ... almost as one achieves the possiblity ... vocation? ... of entering into a particular commemoration simply by being referri in matriculam huius Universitatis.
But then I remembered the commemoration of the Martyres Duacenses.
And so I fell to musing on how nearly coterminous these two august categories are!
Pietas inclines me to think, in particular, of S Alexander Briant, of the Aula Cervina in this University ... and of Douay College! He made the journey to Tyburn this very day in 1581, in company with two other Douay lads, Ss Edmund Campion (Scholar and Fellow of S John's College; and Orator) and Ralph Sherwin (Fellow of Exeter College).
Decus Angliae, Decus almae Universitatis, orate pro nobis!
Presumably the old-established Catholic schools like St Edmund's and Stoneyhurst can count very many martyrs among their alumni.
ReplyDeleteIf you see St Edmund's as the organic successor to Douay, then they can count 20 saints and 133 beati, all martyrs, as 'old boys.' The fascinating history of St Edmund's is something of which we modern Roman Catholics can be immensely proud.
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