James Bell (priest)

Blessed James Bell
A statue of Blessed Fr. James Bell in St. Werburgh's Church, Birkenhead.
Martyr and Priest
Born 1520
Warrington, Lancashire, England
Died 20 April 1584(1584-04-20)
Lancaster Castle, Lancaster, Lancashire, England
Venerated in Roman Catholicism
Beatified 15 December 1929, Rome by Pope Pius XI
Feast 20th April; 4th May as one of the 'Holy English Martyrs'.

James Bell (1524-20 April 1584) was an English Catholic priest and the only one of the Marian Priests that is known to have suffered martyrdom.[1]

He was born at Warrington in Lancashire, in 1524, was educated at Oxford University, where he was ordained priest in Queen Mary's reign. For some time he refused to conform to the alterations in religion made by Queen Elizabeth; but afterwards, adopting the tenets of the Reformation, he exercised the functions of a minister of the church of England for twenty years, and was beneficed in several parts of the kingdom.

In 1581 he applied to a lady to solicit her good offices to procure for him a small readership, of which her husband was the patron. This lady, being a catholic, upbraided him with his cowardice, and exhorted him to lead a life in accordance with his sacred profession. Moved by her words he sought reconciliation with the Catholic Church in 1581, and laboured zealously as a priest for two years among the poorer class of Catholics, in nearly all of the Catholic Houses and Mass-centres in Lancashire, after "spending some months devoting himself to penance and spiritual exercises, applying himself to the study of the Breviary, the ceremonies of the Holy Mass, the Sacraments and the other duties of his priesthood".[2]

In January 1584 he was apprehended by a pursuivant at Golborne, and imprisoned in Salford Gaol.[2] He was later brought to trial at the Lent Assizes at Lancaster. He behaved with great courage, and on being convicted said to the judge:

'I beg your lordship, for the love of God, to add to the sentence that my lips and the tops of my fingers may be cut off for having sworn and subscribed to the articles of heretics, contrary both to my conscience and to God's truth.'[3]

He was hung and quartered, at Lancaster Castle [3] on 20 April 1584. John Finch, a layman, suffered at the same time and place for being reconciled to the Catholic Church, and denying the Queen's spiritual supremacy.

Fr.James Bell was among the 108 martyrs beatified by Pope Pius XI on 15 December 1929.

Cult

Blessed James Bell is commemorated on the Martyrs' Plaque in Lancaster Cathedral;[4] in a stained glass window of St. Mary's Church, Warrington;[5] there is a statue of him in the Lady Chapel of St. Werburgh's Church, Birkenhead and up until its demolition in the early 1990's, St Benedict's Church, Warrington had a building named the 'Bell Hall' near its former school.;[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://lastwelshmartyr.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/blessed-james-bell-marian-priest-and.html
  2. 1 2 Myerscough, John. A (1958) A Procession of Lancashire Martyrs and Confessors, Burns and Oates, Glasgow
  3. 1 2 http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02411a.htm
  4. ↑ http://billingtonlancaster.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/1584-blessed-james-bell-and-blessed.html
  5. ↑ Wright, Tim & Jane (2015) St Mary's Priory Church, Warrington Guide Book
  6. ↑ Toole, Dr Janet (2002) The Parish is Really a Beehive
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Bell, James (1524-1584)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, December 05, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.