BODY OF A MARTYR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19892, 10 March 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

BODY OF A MARTYR.

WOMJERFUL PRESERVATION. STORY OF RE DISCOVERY. The body of the Venerable John Southworth, the Soman Catholic priest who was hanged at Tyburn for his faith in 1654, was found, upon its recent removal from France to England, to be in a remarkable state of preservation, having been embalmed shortly after the execution. " I have seen a photograph of it," wrote the special correspondent of the Daily Chronicle, " and the features of this old hero of his faith are perfect, while the parted lips display a magnificent set of teeth. The face shows no signs of having shrunk. The limbs, too, are firm and round except where they have been maimed by the executioner} for Southworth was not only sentenced to bo hanged, but drawn and quartered. It was only through the influence of the Duke of Norfolk that the Catholics were able to remove the remains from Tyburn to Douai, which from its foundation in 1568 was the great training centre fdr English Catholic priests. During tho French Revolution the body of Southworth was secretly buried with other relics, including a portion of the hair shirt of Thomas a Becket. "When the priests were ultimately driven out of Douai they came to England, where they founded St. Edmund's College, where the body now rests. , v Eventually the college of Douai became the property of the municipality in 1826, and the site was sold in lots for building purposes. . It was in the course of excavations last July that the leaden coffin was discovered and broken open without any special care, under the impression that it contained treasures. When the body was revealed, the cooperation of the English Catholics was invited, and a closo examination of the body established that it was that of the Venerable John Southworth. Copies of the plan of the burial of the relics and treasure of the college m 1791 were obtained and the spot where the leaden casket was found tallied exactly with the burial-pi&ee indicated in the plan.