Saturday, December 18, 2004
St. Edmund
I am not sure why Campion so fascinates me, but I can put a finger on some clues. First, he was a man who could have had charted for him an excellent life with many of the things that men and women take for granted; position, worldly success, the esteem of peers, marriage, a family if only he would have conformed to the prevailing mores of his surrounding culture in terms of religion. Indeed, quite a career since he had attracted the favorable attention of very high men in Elisabeth I's court.
But he didn't take it. And instead chose a life of devotion and service to God and to education in a foreign land. I had been under the impression that Campion had gone abroad with the notion that he would necessarily be ordained and sent back to England, but this was not actually so. When he went abroad it was with the notion of being ordained and, after his recruitment, being ordained as a Jesuit. But as the Jesuits at that time had no English province, Campion was sent to Prague to teach, which he did faithfully for six years, before being called back to go to England to become a hero to Catholics there, a martyr and an example to use today.
And this is his prayer as they were hanging him:
"I recommend your case and mine to Almightie God, the Searcher of hearts, to the end that we may at last be friends in heaven, when all injuries shall be forgotten." (1581)
But he didn't take it. And instead chose a life of devotion and service to God and to education in a foreign land. I had been under the impression that Campion had gone abroad with the notion that he would necessarily be ordained and sent back to England, but this was not actually so. When he went abroad it was with the notion of being ordained and, after his recruitment, being ordained as a Jesuit. But as the Jesuits at that time had no English province, Campion was sent to Prague to teach, which he did faithfully for six years, before being called back to go to England to become a hero to Catholics there, a martyr and an example to use today.
And this is his prayer as they were hanging him:
"I recommend your case and mine to Almightie God, the Searcher of hearts, to the end that we may at last be friends in heaven, when all injuries shall be forgotten." (1581)
