NEWS - Religion: Yorkshire honours martyr
"I die not for the Plot, but for my religion." These are the words of 82-year-old Father Nicholas Postgate's final speech on the gallows at York on 7 August 1679, just minutes before he was hanged, drawn and quartered on the charge of being a Catholic priest.
Fr. Postgate, who was beatified in 1987 by Pope John Paul II as one of the 85 English and Welsh Martyrs, returned to his homeland of Blackmoor, North Yorkshire, after being chaplain for many years to the Constable's, a wealthy East Yorkshire Catholic family. For the last 20 years of his priesthood, Fr. Postgate served his own rural communities as a roaming priest, saying mass and faithfully administering the sacraments.
The threat of an horrific execution became reality for the locally popular priest after a fictitious plot that English Catholics were planning to kill the King was invented by Titus Oates. Despite Oates' unsavory reputation, his words were believed and the anti-Catholic agitation was stepped up.
Whilst baptising a baby at Littlebeck near Whitby, the authorities burst in and arrested Fr. Postgate. A search of the house found relics, altar breads and Catholic books. His fate was sealed.
On a sunny Sunday afternoon last weekend, more than 400 Catholics from across the Diocese of Middlesbrough converged on a farmer's field in Ugthorpe, North Yorkshire, to celebrate an outdoor mass in honour of their courageous priest.
The annual Postgate rally alternates between the two picturesque villages of Egton Bridge and Ugthorpe, where Blessed Nicholas Postgate lived in an isolated, thatched cottage.
As is tradition, a case with the damaged hand of the martyr was carried in by the Abbot of Ampleforth, Rt Rev Cuthbert Madden. A chalice belonging to Blessed Postgate was also used at the mass, celebrated by Bishop John Crawley, along with 18 other priests.
Preaching, retired priest Fr. Anthony Storey, from Hull, said Blessed Postgate had many lessons for Catholics in the modern day world.
"A witness at his trial was a woman who had seen him say mass," Fr. Storey said.
"She felt ashamed at what she had done and visited Nicholas Postgate in prison. He gave her forgiveness and gave her money to get back up here to North Yorkshire.
"May Nicholas Postgate be praying for us and baptise us with new life."
Fr. Postgate, who was beatified in 1987 by Pope John Paul II as one of the 85 English and Welsh Martyrs, returned to his homeland of Blackmoor, North Yorkshire, after being chaplain for many years to the Constable's, a wealthy East Yorkshire Catholic family. For the last 20 years of his priesthood, Fr. Postgate served his own rural communities as a roaming priest, saying mass and faithfully administering the sacraments.
The threat of an horrific execution became reality for the locally popular priest after a fictitious plot that English Catholics were planning to kill the King was invented by Titus Oates. Despite Oates' unsavory reputation, his words were believed and the anti-Catholic agitation was stepped up.
Whilst baptising a baby at Littlebeck near Whitby, the authorities burst in and arrested Fr. Postgate. A search of the house found relics, altar breads and Catholic books. His fate was sealed.
On a sunny Sunday afternoon last weekend, more than 400 Catholics from across the Diocese of Middlesbrough converged on a farmer's field in Ugthorpe, North Yorkshire, to celebrate an outdoor mass in honour of their courageous priest.
The annual Postgate rally alternates between the two picturesque villages of Egton Bridge and Ugthorpe, where Blessed Nicholas Postgate lived in an isolated, thatched cottage.
As is tradition, a case with the damaged hand of the martyr was carried in by the Abbot of Ampleforth, Rt Rev Cuthbert Madden. A chalice belonging to Blessed Postgate was also used at the mass, celebrated by Bishop John Crawley, along with 18 other priests.
Preaching, retired priest Fr. Anthony Storey, from Hull, said Blessed Postgate had many lessons for Catholics in the modern day world.
"A witness at his trial was a woman who had seen him say mass," Fr. Storey said.
"She felt ashamed at what she had done and visited Nicholas Postgate in prison. He gave her forgiveness and gave her money to get back up here to North Yorkshire.
"May Nicholas Postgate be praying for us and baptise us with new life."
posted by marsden at 4:42 PM
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