What a good idea it was for the Christmas issue of the Catholic Herald to include a free DVD about the English martyrs, produced by St Anthony Communications and narrated by Fr Marcus Holden and Fr Nicholas Schofield. I watched it the other night and was reminded again of the sacrifices that some brave men and women were prepared to undergo for the love of their faith.
I learnt much that I did not know, such as the anecdote about St John Fisher who, imprisoned in the Tower of London, told his gaoler not to wake him until the time of his execution so that he could catch up on his sleep. I made me realise that Fisher was so prepared for death that he didn’t need to lose sleep over it.
