Martyrs of the Diocese
The Feast of the Blessed Martyrs of the Diocese is celebrated on 24th July
During the 16th and seventeenth centuries England saw a period of turbulence and religious persecution. (For a comprehensive history of this period see History of the Diocese written by Rev David Milburn.)
Many Christians - priests and lay people - were arrested and became prisoners of conscience; many were executed for remaining true to their conscience and Faith.
Many Catholics in the North were imprisoned under appalling conditions. In Newcastle the prison at Newgate and the castle in Durham were dirty, dark and full of disease. Prisoners were kept shackled to a wall in an overcrowded, roofless, cold and often flooded cell.
Some like John Boste for example (one of the 40 English Martyrs) were taken to London to the Tower where they suffered brutal torture. Then they were brought back physically broken to face execution in Durham or Newcastle. Execution was barbaric - by hanging, drawing and quartering
.
In 1590 four priests were executed together at Durham; their names were Edmund Duke, Richard Hill, John Holliday and John Hogg. An interesting legend suggests that :
"After the execution, it was noticed that a small stream near the site had completely dried up, and so the area is known as "Dryburn" to this day."
John Boste is one of the best known Northern Martyrs. John Boste studied at Oxford, becoming a Catholic in 1576, and being ordained at Reims in 1581. John came back to England where he worked in the North East and became the object of a massive manhunt. He was betrayed, arrested, and taken to London. There he was crippled on the rack and returned to Dryburn near Durham. On July 26 1594, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Dryburn. John was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as a martyr of Durham.
John Ingram suffered the same treatment as John Boste and was also executed on July 26th 1594, but his execution took place in Gateshead at a gallows near where is now the church of the Holy Trinity.
George Swallowell was executed on 29 July 1594 in the market place in Darlington.
Thomas Percy, senior, was executed in London in 1537, and his son, Blessed Thomas Percy, junior, was executed 35 years later at York in 1572. Both had joined rebellions to restore the Catholic faith in England, which ended in failure.
Joseph Lambton, another priest martyr, was a member of the famous Durham family. He was arrested soon after his arrival in England following his ordination in Rome, and executed on the Town Moor in Newcastle on 27th July 1593. (See also a fascinating "Justice Trail" by Northumbria Criminal Justice Board - pdf 2 Mb)
Three Catholics: Thomas Palaser, John Talbot and John Norton were arrested at a house in Lamesley, Gateshead in 1600. (See also historic landscape conservation project in Lamesley.)
Thomas Palliser was a priest who had been ordained in France and was ministering in the North East and staying and praying at the house of John Norton and his wife, who was also arrested but later released as she was pregnant. John Talbot was with the group at prayer in the house.
The three were imprisoned and executed on Wednesday 9th August 1600 at the gallows site in Durham , on the crest of the hill at the north side of Durham City.
The brutality, religious intolerance and persecution that was we associate with the martyrs was over four hundred years ago but today there are still human rights violations, torture, discrimination, false imprisonment and persecution in parts of the world.
Amnesty International have a vision of a world in which every person enjoys at least basic human rights and freedom. Amnesty works to prevent abuses and to promote freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination.
Prisoners were kept in appalling conditions. Prisons were dirty, dark and full of disease. prisoners were kept shackled to a wall in a roofless, cold and often overcrowded cell.
Execution was barbaric, by hanging, drawing and quartering.
In Newcastle the gallows were on the Town Moor.
Men were ordained on the Continent then returned secretly to England to minister.
Northumberland countryside where many of the martyrs will have travelled through.