Feb 12 Thomas Hemerford d. 1584 beat. 1929; John Nutter and John Munden d. 1584 beat. 1929

Thommy and John

Good morning
I love you

I just looked at the Blog and realized I hadn’t posted st Thomas More, 12/28. I’ve got some catching up to do….

February 12 Bl. Thomas Hemerford d. 1584 beat. 1929

By name and date you know Thomas Hemerford is an ‘english martyr’. And, of course, Thomas Hemerford followed the usual vocational trail – a native of Drosetshire, educated at Oxford, and studied for the priesthood at the English College in Rome where he was ordained in 1583.

Imagine these men’s vocation. Called to be a priest – in their home such a vocation without kneeling to the queen of the house would be traitorous. Regardless of the monarch’s whim, will, power, perfidy, these men followed their vocation – a road that they knew would circle around again, back home, with the hope that their efforts of caring for their own and their people’s Catholicism would also find a time, place, change of the monarch’s heart – or else, exile or martyrdom….

Thomas Hemerford didn’t last long as a priest in England. Was it worth it? It? His vocation – his pursuit of his vocation, his giving himself to God’s will, not his monarch’s not his own – he made God’s will his own will. Sure beats making the homeland monarch’s will his will….

Thomas Hemerford was arrested soon after his return, condemned for being a priest, a Catholic with the will to profess his faith regardless of the monarch’s condemnation. He was hung drawn and quartered at Tyburn…..



Bl. John Nutter & John Munden d. 1584 beat. 1929

In the same hanging as Thomas Hemerford, John Nutter and John Munden.

John Nutter, from Lancaster, was ordained at Reims in 1581.

John Munden, a native of Dorset [not Dorsetshire  ], was ordained at Reims in 1582.

These two priests plus Thomas Hemerford plus one other whose name I cannot find were martyred at Tyburn in 1584.