Universalis

Nengepeta Anuarite was born in the Belgian Congo (now in North Zaire) on 29 November 1939. In 1955 she joined the Religious Institute of the “Holy Family” (Jamaa Takatifu) where she became known as Clementine. She trained as a primary school teacher and for a few years, was the matron of a boarding school. In 1964 she, and the whole community, were kidnapped by the Simba rebels. Anuarite was killed on 1 December 1964 having refused to be the wife of the Colonel.

Alexander Briant (or Bryant) was born in Somerset (1556), and entered Hart Hall, Oxford (now Hertford College), at an early age. While there, he became a pupil of Father Robert Parsons which lead to his conversion to the Catholic Church. Having left the university he entered the seminary at Douai, and was ordained priest in 1578. He was assigned to the English mission in August of the following year to work as a priest in his own county of Somerset. After working only briefly he was arrested in April 1581 by a group who were searching for Father Parsons. After spending some time in Counter Prison, London, he was taken to the Tower where he was subjected to tortures that, even in Elizabethan England, stand out for their viciousness. The rack master admitted that Briant was “racked more than any of the rest,” and following a public outcry was imprisoned for a few days for cruelty. With six other priests Briant was arraigned, on November 16, 1581, on the charge of high treason, and condemned to death. In a letter to the Jesuit Fathers in England written from prison he says that he felt no pain during the various tortures he underwent, and adds: “Whether this that I say be miraculous or no, God knoweth, but true it is.” He also asked that he might become a Jesuit, having vowed to offer himself should he be released. Accordingly he is numbered among the martyrs of the Society. He was scarcely more than twenty-five years old on 1 December, the day of his martyrdom. He suffered with Edmund Campion and Ralph Sherwin.

Ralph Sherwin was born at Rodsley, Derbyshire (19 October 1550), and was educated at Eton College. He was a talented classical scholar and was nominated by Sir William Petre from Ingatestone to one of the eight fellowships which he had founded at Exeter College, Oxford. He graduated in 1574, being then accounted “an acute philosopher and an excellent Grecian and Hebrician.” The following year he became a Catholic and fled abroad to the English College at Douai, where he was ordained a priest in 1577. He left to go to the English College in Rome, where he studied for about three years. In April 1580, Sherwin and thirteen companions (including Edmund Campion and Robert Persons) left Rome for England; a few months later he was arrested while preaching in a private house in London and imprisoned in the Marshalsea prison, where he converted many fellow prisoners. After a month he was removed to the Tower of London, where he was twice tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow. He is said to have been offered a bishopric by Queen Elizabeth if he would abandon his Catholicism, but refused. After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial with Edmund Campion and others on a charge of treasonable conspiracy. He denied this with the comment: “The plain reason of our standing here is religion, not treason.” He was convicted in Westminster Hall on 20 November 1581. Eleven days later he was taken to Tyburn on a hurdle along with Alexander Briant, where he was hanged, drawn and quartered. His last words were Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, esto mihi Jesus! He was the first member of the English College in Rome to be martyred.

Edmund Campion was born in London on January 25, 1540, received his early education at Christ’s Hospital, and, as the best of the London scholars, was chosen aged thirteen to make the complimentary speech when Queen Mary visited the city. He then attended St John’s College, Oxford, becoming a fellow in 1557 and taking the Oath of Supremacy on the occasion of his degree in 1564. Two years later he welcomed Queen Elizabeth to the university, and won her lasting regard. He was chosen amongst the scholars to lead a public debate in front of the queen. People were now talking of Campion in terms of being a future Archbishop of Canterbury, in the newly established Church of England. Although holding Catholic doctrines, reinforced by his reading of the early Fathers, he received deacon’s orders in the Anglican Church. Inwardly “he took a remorse of conscience and detestation of mind.” Eventually he went to Douai where he was reconciled to the Catholic Church and received the Eucharist that he had denied himself for the last twelve years. The college was a centre of intellectual excellence and Campion found himself reunited with many of his former Oxford friends. His studies completed he left for Rome, travelling on foot and alone in the guise of a poor pilgrim. He then entered a novitiate with the Jesuits, and spent some years in Vienna and Prague.