Walter Colman

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Walter Colman (1600 – 1645) was an English Franciscan friar.

[edit] Life

Colman was born in Cannock, Staffordshire, to a noble and wealthy family. When quite young, he left England to study at the English College at Douai. In 1625, he entered the Franciscan Order at Douai, receiving in religion the name of Christopher of St. Clare, by which he is more generally known. Having completed his year of novitiate, he returned to England at the call of the provincial superior, Father John Jennings, but was immediately imprisoned because he refused to take the Oath of Allegiance. Released through the efforts of his friends, he went to London, where he was employed in the duties of the ministry and where, during his leisure moments, he composed La dance machabre, or, Death's Duel (London, 1632 or 1633), an elegant metrical treatise on death, which be dedicated to Queen Henrietta Maria, consort of Charles I. When the persecution broke out anew in 1641, Colman returned to England from Douai, where he had gone to regain his health. On December 8 of the same year he was brought to trial, together with six other priests, two of whom were Benedictines and four members of the secular clergy. They were all condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered on December 13, but through the interposition of the French ambassador the execution was stayed indefinitely. Colman lingered on in Newgate Prison for several years until he died, exhausted by starvation and the hardships of the dungeon where he was confined.

[edit] References

This article incorporates text from the entry Walter Colman in the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913. That entry was written by Stephen M. Donovan.

  • Thaddeus, The Franciscans in England (London, 1898), 62, 72, 106
  • Ignatius Fennessy, ‘Coleman , Walter (1600–1645)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5978>, accessed January 24, 2008.
  • Hope, Franciscan Martyrs in England (London, 1878), xi, 123 sqq
  • Mason, Certamen Seraphicum (Quaracchi, 1885), 211, 228
  • Leo, Lives of the Saints and Blessed of the Three Orders of St. Francis (Taunton, 1887), IV, 368.
Persondata
NAME Colman, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Walter Whitgreave, Christopher of St Clare
SHORT DESCRIPTION English Roman Catholic Friar Minor
DATE OF BIRTH 1600
PLACE OF BIRTH Cannock, Staffordshire, England
DATE OF DEATH 1645
PLACE OF DEATH London, England