ST PAUL S POST St Paul s Province Weekly Newsletter: October 2018 Our birthday girl this week

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1 ST PAUL S POST St Paul s Province Weekly Newsletter: October 2018 Our birthday girl this week is: Anne Hammersley 31 October Margaret and Rita McStay wish to thank very sincerely all the sisters who sent Masses, sympathy cards and prayers on the death of their dearly loved brother Leonard? May he rest in peace. A special word of thanks to Sister Therese, Sister Moyà and the community and staff at Elmleigh and Villa Pacis for their support and care during this difficult time. Holy Mass will be offered for you all. Memories are the keepsakes of the heart Some people come into our lives And move our souls to dance They awaken us to understanding With the passing whisper of their wisdom They make our world more beautiful Leave footprints in our heart And we are never the same again.

2 Our Sisters: Olcan Watt Cephas Wearden Evelyn Wilson Margaret Collins Carmel Comerford Mary Sloan Please pray for Sister Francis Clare, who is in hospital with pneumonia and thankfully is a little better, although she is also suffering with very severe sciatica. Relatives/friends of Sisters: Marguerita s brother-in-law, Brendan and her brother, Pat; Damian s brother, Brendan; Anna Hainey s brother, Danny; Eily May s brothers, Tade & Jack, and her sister, Mary Philomena White; Lisa Greer, (not Green) daughter of Sue Rix; Lorraine s Mum, Mary; Kathleen Doran s niece-in-law, Kerry; Carmel Gorman s sister-in-law, Mary; The father of Sr Mary Ann (USA), who is unwell; Mary Curtin s niece, Breed; Joanna Jackson, former sister & sister-inlaw to Teresa Jackson; Berney O Grady, who is seriously ill. Francis niece-in-law, Val McCartan and Francis brother, Austin; Your prayers are asked Sr Marguerita s brother-in-law, Brendan Lynch who died peacefully in hospital this morning RIP. Brendan has had a long struggle with illness and will be sadly missed by his wife Kathleen, his family and friends. Let us hold them all in our prayers at this sad time.

3 Gabriel Priority Group: Francis, Carmel G and Rita McStay are missing. Look what you find when you search. What a lovely picture! From Carmel G Sr Miriam s leaving party as she heads for Pastures New The new conservatory open for business!

4 Why did St Paul of the Cross pray for England? Watch this space! PART 7: HOW THE CATHOLIC FAITH SURVIVED Lytham on the Fylde in Lancashire was first evangelised in the Early Middle Ages by monks of the Celtic Church, based at Kilgrimol, north of St Annes-on-Sea. Then, c.878 A.D., monks from Lindisfarne, fleeing from the Danish Viking invaders, arrived in Lytham carrying St Cuthbert s coffin, which also contained the head of St Oswald, King and Martyr. Later the people of Lytham built a church dedicated to St Cuthbert over the spot where his coffin had rested. Monks carrying St Cuthbert s Coffin Finally the coffin arrived in Durham, where the Cathedral was built over St Cuthbert s shrine. In the later 12th century Roger fitzroger of Lytham granted land to the Benedictines of Durham to build a priory in Lytham dedicated to Our Lady and St Cuthbert. In the 16th century the people of Lytham were not likely to abandon such a heritage at the whim of Henry VIII, nor did they, although the priory was plundered and its lands sold. In Present Memorial of where it rested (St Joseph s Church, Ansdell) 1606, however, they were bought by Sir Cuthbert Clifton of Westby Hall. He built a large house on the site of the priory, carefully preserving the chapel within it. Thus he provided a Mass centre within his own home. He invited a Jesuit priest to be a resident chaplain and opened a school where the Clifton family supported a number of boys before they went to one of the English seminaries on the Continent. In 1628 Sir Cuthbert obtained the clothing of St Edmund Arrowsmith and the knife used to quarter him at his martyrdom in Lancaster. In 1629, on the feast of St Winefride, he led a large pilgrimage to Holywell, probably by boat, across the Ribble estuary. In spite of the terrible penal laws, the people of Lytham remained steadfast in their Catholic Faith. In 1687, during James II s Catholic reign, Bishop John Leyburn gave the Sacrament of Confirmation to 376 Catholics there. In 1694, however, the year when St Paul of the Cross was born, Sir Thomas Clifton was arrested after joining in the Lancashire Plot to oust William of Orange and bring back King James. He was later acquitted but died in Lytham Hall as a result of his sufferings in prison. After the defeat of the Jacobites at Preston in 1715, the Jesuit chaplain, Father Ralph Hornyold, was arrested on flimsy evidence as the reputed priest of Lytham. He managed to escape, however, and retreated to Stonyhurst, while another Jesuit quietly took his place in Lytham Hall. It was a highly successful mission, for in 1750 Father John Talbot SJ reported to his Superiors that that year there had been 230 Easter Communions in Lytham. In 1753 it was even considered safe to open a Baptismal Register. The prayers of St Paul of the Cross were being highly effective! By then great social changes were taking place in England that replenished the coffers of the Catholic gentry, who had been weighed down by fines. In Lytham the Cliftons were able to drain marshlands for crops and pasture, to encourage fishing, to level the sand dunes and, through the new popularity of seabathing, to turn Lytham into a health resort. Sir Thomas Clifton became a very wealthy landowner,

5 able to build the present magnificent Lytham Hall but still keeping a chapel within it. In spite of the terrible penal laws, the people of Lytham remained steadfast in their Catholic Faith. In 1774, the year before the death of St Paul of the Cross, 148 people in Lytham were Confirmed in that chapel. By 1778 it was estimated that there Lytham Hall were 423 Catholics in Lytham. In 1793 the Reformation in Lytham was reversed when the Benedictine, Dom Richard Pope, was appointed as chaplain. Since the 1791 Act of Parliament had permitted Catholics to have public churches, in 1800 Dom Richard opened a new Catholic chapel in a tithe barn and went to live independently in The Woodlands, which still exists today on the opposite side of the Lytham-Blackpool road from St Joseph s church, Ansdell. In 1803 Dom Richard moved to another parish and Father Thomas Dawson became the first diocesan priest of Lytham. With the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, Father Joseph Walmesley was appointed to Lytham. He soon opened a fund to build a proper church, to be suitably called St Peter s. The wheel had come full circle: Henry VIII had broken with Rome, St Peter. Lytham would restore St Peter and be linked once more to Rome. When the new church s foundation stone was laid by Bishop John Briggs beside Lytham s prestigious Clifton St in 1838, the guest-speaker was the distinguished Father George Spencer, son of the second Earl Spencer of Althorp, who had helped to guide the Catholic Emancipation Act through Parliament. His theme was probably, as elsewhere, the Reunion of the Catholics and Protestants of England, with a recollection of the virtues and sufferings of the Catholic martyrs. TWO WINDOWS IN ST PETER S CHURCH: Left: St Peter Right: St Cuthbert holding the head of King Oswald. Above: Photograph of Father George Spencer He had already met Blessed Dominic Barberi in Rome. In 1846 he entered the Passionist novitiate in Aston Hall, Stone, to become Father Ignatius Spencer. The prayers of St Paul of the Cross were bearing fruit. Sr Dominic Savio CP