In
2007 Mary's Dowry Productions created a new form of film media in which to present
the lives of the Saints on DVD. We invite you to watch our film prayerfully and
quietly and to engage your spiritual senses. Watch with your spiritual eye,
listen with your spiritual ear. Mary's Dowry Productions loves to recreate key
moments, silently and with no dialogue, from a Saint's life, using historical
costume and beautiful backdrops. Original contemplative music runs beneath a
detailed narrative that seeks to engage the viewer with the Saint. Our films
offer a window into the life of each Saint.
Saint RICHARD GWYN, the first Welsh martyr of Elizabeth I’s reign, was born about 1537 in Lianidloes, Montgomeryshire. He studied for a short time at Oxford, and then went to St. John’s College, Cambridge. Returning to Wales about 1562, he became a schoolmaster and taught in Flintshire and Denbighshire. He married and had six children. Arrested in Wrexham in 1578, he escaped, but he was arrested again in 1580. After being tried and remanded several times at the Assizes, he was finally condemned to death at Wrexham, in October1584, for refusing to recognize the Queen as head of the Catholic Church in England and persuading others to become Catholics.
Two days before his death he was offered his freedom if he would conform to the State religion. As he left the prison on his way to execution, he said to his fellow prisoners: ‘Weep not for me, for I do but pay the rent before the rent day.’ On the scaffold he forgave his executioner, acknowledged Elizabeth I to be the lawful Queen of England and denied that he had ever committed any treason against her; but he still refused to recognize her as head of the Church.
As he prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner,’ he was pushed off the ladder and cut down while still alive and disembowelled. St Richard Gwyn, Catholic layman suffered death for hearing the Mass and for being a Roman Catholic. He died at Wrexham on 15 October 1584.
Saint RICHARD GWYN, the first Welsh martyr of Elizabeth I’s reign, was born about 1537 in Lianidloes, Montgomeryshire. He studied for a short time at Oxford, and then went to St. John’s College, Cambridge. Returning to Wales about 1562, he became a schoolmaster and taught in Flintshire and Denbighshire. He married and had six children. Arrested in Wrexham in 1578, he escaped, but he was arrested again in 1580. After being tried and remanded several times at the Assizes, he was finally condemned to death at Wrexham, in October1584, for refusing to recognize the Queen as head of the Catholic Church in England and persuading others to become Catholics.
Two days before his death he was offered his freedom if he would conform to the State religion. As he left the prison on his way to execution, he said to his fellow prisoners: ‘Weep not for me, for I do but pay the rent before the rent day.’ On the scaffold he forgave his executioner, acknowledged Elizabeth I to be the lawful Queen of England and denied that he had ever committed any treason against her; but he still refused to recognize her as head of the Church.
As he prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner,’ he was pushed off the ladder and cut down while still alive and disembowelled. St Richard Gwyn, Catholic layman suffered death for hearing the Mass and for being a Roman Catholic. He died at Wrexham on 15 October 1584.
His life is presented with devotion and history by Mary's Dowry Productions and is
AVAILABLE ON DVD AT:
