Saints John Jones and John Wall, Saint of the day for July 12

(c.1530-1598; 1620-1679)

The story of Saints John Jones and John Wall
These two friars were martyred in England in the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries for refusing to deny their faith.

John Jones was Welsh. He was ordained a diocesan priest and was jailed twice for administering the sacraments before leaving England in 1590. He joined the Franciscans at the age of 60 and returned to England three years later while Queen Elizabeth I was at the height of her power. Giovanni served the Catholics in the English countryside until his imprisonment in 1596. He was sentenced to be hanged, extracted and divided into quarters. Giovanni was executed on July 12, 1598.

John Wall was born in England, but was educated at the English college in Douai, Belgium. Ordained in Rome in 1648, he joined the Franciscans in Douai several years later. In 1656 he returned to work secretly in England.

In 1678, Titus Oates angered many Brits over an alleged papal plot to kill the king and restore Catholicism in that country. In that year Catholics were legally excluded from Parliament, a law which was not repealed until 1829. John Wall was arrested and imprisoned in 1678, and was executed the following year.

John Jones and John Wall were canonized in 1970.

Reflection
Every martyr knows how to save his life and yet refuses to do so. A public repudiation of the faith would save some of them. But some things are more valuable than life itself. These martyrs show that their XNUMXth century compatriot, CS Lewis, was right in saying that courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of each virtue at the point of proof, that is, at the point of the highest reality.