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Martyrs' Walk 2010 Recap Martyrs' Walk
The Martyrs Walk follows in the tradition of the Tyburn Walk, [through downtown London] organised for many decades by the Guild of Our Lady of Ransom. The Miles Jesu/Continuity Movement is proud to carry on this great tradition, and to bring a new chapter to the history of commemorating England’s Catholic martyrs. After prayers and a short historical talk, the walkers made their way, rosaries in hand, westwards along the road to Tyburn, following the exact route along which the martyrs – among them St Edmund Campion and St Ralph Sherwin – were dragged, tied to a hurdle hauled along by a horse, the martyr’s head deliberately placed under the horse’s tail so that dung might fall on it. On our Martyrs Walk we arranged stops for short historical lectures and prayer. A special stop was made at the Church of St Anselm and St Cecilia, in Holborn, where the walkers were warmly welcomed by the parish priest Fr David Barnes. This church has associations with Bishop Richard Challoner, who ministered secretly to Catholics in London in the 18th century. (He used to meet members of his flock at the nearby pub, and a plaque there marks this. He gave catechism lessons and talks to a group seated round a corner table. A mug of beer would be bought for him but he did not drink it – instead, it was afterwards always given to some poor person – it was the “bishop’s beer” and seen as being special). The church is also proud of its association with martyrs who met their deaths at nearby Lincolns Inn Fields.
The Walk then continued to the nearby (Anglican) church of St Giles-in-the-Fields. Here, we were welcomed in a most friendly and ecumenical spirit, and prayed for all – Catholic and Protestant – who met their deaths in the turbulent years of the Reformation. It is no longer possible to walk along Oxford Street on Sundays as this is now a hectic shopping day with huge crowds and heavy traffic. A detour was made along side streets and through Soho Square. We will certainly be holding the Martyrs Walk again next year, and a full programme of Catholic History Walks is planned for the Autumn of 2010 – visit this website regularly to be updated on this and other activities of the Continuity Movement. Joanna Bogle
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Copyright 2012 Miles Jesu. All rights reserved. | |
The Continuity movement in the United Kingdom is an apostolate of Miles Jesu dedicated to promoting Catholicism in one of the first countries to have accepted the faith (through the apostolic efforts of St. Augustine of Canterbury in the 6th century). An annual event is “The Martyrs' Walk” which takes place on the weekend closest to the feasts of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher (on June 22). Organized in cooperation with Vinculum members in the U.K., this year's walk drew 200 participants. Well-known British writer Joanna Bogle, who gives history talks during the Walk, shares this year's event:
The 2010 Martyrs Walk began with a good crowd gathering at St Sepulchre’s-without-Newgate, near the Old Bailey, site of Newgate Prison where so many Catholic martyrs were held in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Walk was held on June 20th, the Sunday nearest to the feast of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More. They were executed on Tower Hill in 1535 for refusing to accede to the plans of Henry VIII to force Christians in Britain to break with the Pope, the successor of St Peter. After them came many more Catholic martyrs, notably in the reign of Elizabeth I. 
Martyrs were dragged along from Newgate to the gallows at Tyburn, there to be hanged, drawn and quartered [hanged until almost dead then taken down—still conscious—when the abdomen is slit open, the entrails pulled out, and then the body dismembered] for the “crime” of holding fast to the Catholic Faith and to the unity of the Church with the successor of St Peter in Rome.
The route lies in a straight line westwards to Tyburn, which was at that time open land beyond the confines of the city. It is still an open space – Hyde Park – and Speakers’ Corner near Marble Arch commemorates the final speeches permitted by the prisoners before their execution.
We packed out the church: there was rousing singing of the popular hymn “Immaculate Mary” and Fr Nicoletti of Miles Jesu invited people to be invested with the Brown Scapular.
The Walk finished at Tyburn convent, near the site of the former gallows. Here the walkers packed into the chapel and its gallery, and numbers were such that the sisters also opened up their own area and invited people to sit in the choir stalls. Benediction was held, again with hearty singing, and then all were invited downstairs to a splendid tea, tables being laden with sandwiches and cakes and the sisters presiding at large teapots...all gratefully received by thirsty walkers.
Throughout the walk, we prayed particularly for the success of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Britain [September 2010]. We invite all readers to do the same.