JESUIT BURIED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1930, Page 9

JESUIT BURIED.

First Martyr Beatified At Westminster. EXECUTED BY CROMWELL. (" Times " Cables.) (Received 11 a.m.) LONDON, May 2. The first martyr buried at Westminster Cathedral was John Southworth, a Jesuit who was executed at Tyburn, where he was hanged, beheaded, and quartered in 1654, under the orders of Oliver Cromwell. It may be said to be a homecoming, as Southworth was known as the Parish Priest of Westminster, where he worked for years among the poor during the outbreak of the plague, anomtino- many of those who were infected. The Earl of Arundel secured portions of the body which had been placed m a leaden coffin and taken to Douai Seminary, where Southworth was educated. The coffin was rediscovered in 1927, when X-rays, revealing scars, ot martyrdom, established the identification of the remains. To-day, thousands assembled at tne cathedral, where were hung banners showing the martyrdom. The body, arrayed in - the red vestments of the martyr, and placed in a glass-sided teak nasket with the face covered, was carbj- wiests on their shoulders to the Chapel of St. George, Cartoal fnllnwinz An immense crowd subse qnentfy thronged the chapel, hoping to touch the casket with its scapulars and rosaries.

At the Congregation of Rites in the Vatican City in November,. 1929, tne Cardinals and the Pope e h R o mall decision to beatify all tn S Hpath. Catholics.who were jondemned to death S? I?ChX it SToiiver Cvomwell On December 15, 136 martyrs were thus honoured, including three women, ff fc nSer, 85 were executed by Queen Elizabeth's orders. The claims of 134 more English martyrs to beatification are being investigated:-