Homily at the Canonization of Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
The homily Paul VI preached when he canonised forty Catholics put to death in England and Wales in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is the Catholic Church’s own statement of why it honours them as martyrs.
Paul VI declared the forty to be saints on 25 October 1970 and names Edmund Campion as one of them. The homily says that they were loyal to their country and faithful subjects of the royal power, which all of them recognised as legitimate in everything belonging to the civil and political order, and that their loyalty to the civil authority came into conflict with their fidelity to God and to what their conscience held about the Eucharist and the prerogatives of Peter’s successor. In its closing words, spoken in English, the pope hopes that the blood of these martyrs may help to heal the separation of the Anglican and Catholic churches.
It is a document of 1970, not a source for the events. It is cited for the judgement the Catholic Church passes on those deaths, as the Execution of Justice in England is cited for the judgement of Elizabeth’s government.
Cited in
- 25 February 1570, firm date