TWICE HANGED
BLESSED JOHN WOODCOCK
ENGLISH MARTYR
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| St. Alexander Briant - Mary's Dowry Productions Screenshot © 2012 |
On hearing his sentence, Blessed John Woodcock exclaimed,
"PRAISE BE TO GOD! GOD BE THANKED!"
The priests Thomas Whitaker and Edward Bramber were condemned at the same time. The following night Father Woodcock spent in prayer and contemplation. At the dawn of day, he and his companions were led out in the usual way to execution. An immense and noisy crowd followed them. Catholics present were greatly heartened by their constancy, and not a few others were astonished at it. Father Woodcock was the first to mount the ladder. After he had said a few words on the Catholic Faith he was interrupted and cast off.
It is said that, by some accident or through the carelessness of the executioner, the rope broke, and he fell to the ground. At the sheriff's order he mounted the ladder again, and, after being thus hanged a second time, was cut down and butchered alive; Lancaster, 7th August 1646.
"Thy dead men shall live, my slain shall rise again; awake and give praise, ye that dwell in the dust." - Isa. 26. 19.
Reading from the Mementoes of the Martyrs and Confessors of England and Wales by Henry Sebastian Bowden - 5th August.
For films about the lives and missions of the English Martyrs on DVD visit:
www.marysdowryproductions.org
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