A Priest's Epitaph at Douay - George Muscot - Secular priest - Reading for 24th December

A PRIEST'S EPITAPH AT DOUAY

George Muscot - Secular Priest

Saint Henry Morse meeting with Saint John Southworth
Both priests were also reprieved on several occasions by King Charles I
after Queen Henrietta's intercession
but eventually executed for their priesthood
© 2014 Mary's Dowry Productions

"After a great many labours endured in England for the Catholic faith, with great profit to souls, here rests the very Reverend George Muscot, an English priest. Having suffered the miseries of prison for above twenty years, he was condemned to death for that faith. The hurdle was waiting for him at the prison gate when, at the intercession of the Queen of England, he was reprieved by the King (Charles I). Promoted by the Supreme Pontiff to the presidency of the English College at Douay, by his government he gave new life to its discipline, and in four years of the hardest times increased its temporal estate by 20,000 florins. At length, being increased in merits but reduced by sufferings and infirmities, he gave his poor body to the earth, his rich soul to Heaven and the fragrance of his example to all priests. He died, aged sixty-five, in the fortieth year of his priesthood, the fifth of his presidency, on the eve of the Birthday of the Lord. On that same day formerly, he had been thrown into a filthy dungeon amongst felons and kept there three days, but his stay bore good fruit. Out of ten malefactors condemned to die, nine were reconciled to the Catholic faith. May he rest in peace."

 

"He chose him out of all men living to offer sacrifice to God, incense, and a good savour, for a memorial to make reconciliation for his people." - Ecclus. 45, 20.

 

Reading for 24th December

Mementoes of the Martyrs and Confessors of England and Wales

by Henry Sebastian Bowden of the Oratory

 

Reflection

Many of our English Martyrs were trained for the Catholic priesthood in Douay. Father George Muscot, although he was not martyred, suffered in prison in England for twenty years and almost received that blessed crown as the hurdle that would have dragged him to Tyburn awaited him at the prison gates. His sufferings and work for the Catholic Faith and for the English missionary priests bore much fruit for souls. Like Father Robert Persons and Father John Gerard, Father George Muscot can be remembered with the English Martyrs as great champions for the Catholic Faith in England.

 

For films about the English Martyrs:

www.marysdowryproductions.org