BLESSED ROGER CADWALLADOR IBD

Sinopse

Roger Cadwallador was born at Stretton Sugwas near Hereford in 1568and martyred in Leominster (Llanllieni) on 27 August 1610. He wasbeatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987.Cadwallador?s story is an intensely dramatic one. A gentleman farmer?s son,born into a family of devoted Catholics who ?kept their consciences in secret?,he grew up in the Marches which he left to study abroad. First, he went toRheims (where the English College from Douai was temporarily based) andthen to the English College at Valladolid, where in 1593 he was ordainedpriest. In October of that year he returned to minister to his countrymen inEngland and Wales.For sixteen years Cadwallador worked as a bilingual Catholic priest, mainlyin his native Herefordshire but also in the neighbouring counties ofMonmouthshire and Worcestershire. He was known as a pious, prudent andzealous missioner, noted especially for his work among the poor. Hiseducation had developed his gifts for philosophy, theology and languages: aGreek scholar, he translated into English, from the original Greek, thefifth-century Historia Ecclesiastica of Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus. This waspublished posthumously on the Continent in 1612. In Theodoret?s accounthe found the beliefs and practices of the early church to be ?that, which weCatholikes hold? as against the claims of Church of England apologists.On Easter Sunday 1610, while saying Mass in the home of a Catholic widow,he was arrested on the orders of the Protestant bishop of Hereford.Condemned for being a priest, Cadwallador was drawn on a hurdle throughthe streets of Leominster, then stripped, hung, drawn and quartered. His headwas displayed in the town centre and his quarters on the four main roads-oneat the Bargates where St Ethelbert?s Church now stands.Fully aware of the dangers which awaited young Catholic priests who returnedto England to reclaim ?the souls of his dearest countrymen?, Blessed RogerCadwallador was spared none of the ?miseries? predicted for him, yet hisattractive and cheerful character shines through it all. This is an inspirationaland heroic story of a young man who gave his life for the priesthood.Lynne Surtees was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, and though educated at theConvent school, began life as an Anglican. Married to a Church of England clergyman,she has four children (and four grandchildren). Now retired from nursing, she lives inHereford, and, received into ?all the riches of the Catholic faith?, is a parishioner ofSt Francis Xavier and an Oblate of Belmont Abbey.