Pilgrim Ways

most notable twentieth-century successors should, however, be a Benedictine monk. That Westminster should once again have a Catholic cathedral church is his lasting memorial.

Signs And Symbols Moving along the north transept the pilgrim enters the chapel of St.Joseph, Mary's husband.

This patron of workers stood by Mary when she might easily have been rejected, having been found to be pregnant. Here in his chapel Cardinal Hinsely was buried in 1943. The red hat which symbolises the rank of a cardinal is left to hang over his tomb, and as it decays it reminds each of us of our own mortality. St.George and the English Martyrs is the next chapel. St.Thomas More and St.John Fisher, the martyrs from the reign of Henry VIII, stand on either side of the cross. Executed in 1535, they were canonised in 1935. An inscription reads: "Te martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus" (the white robed army of martyrs praises you). In this chapel lie the remains of St.John Southworth. Born in 1592 at Samlesbury Hall, near Preston, in Lancashire, he studied at the English seminary at Douai in France (see Chapter Fifteen, Lancashire). In 1636 he, and the remarkable Jesuit priest, Henry Morse, organised relief after the plague broke out among the poor of Westminster. Southworth became known as "the parish priest of Westminster." In 1636 he was imprisoned and on June 28th, 1654, after several further spells in prison was executed. At the gallows he said: "Good people, I was born in Lancashire. This is the third time I have been apprehended and now being to die, I would gladly witness and profess openly my faith for which I suffer. Hither I was sent by my lawful superiors to teach Catholic faith for which I suffer. Hither I was sent by my lawful superiors to teach Christ's faith, not to meddle with any temporal affairs. Christ sent his apostles, His apostles their successor, and their successor is me." Then looking at the crossbeam above his head he stated: "This gallows I look on as His cross, which I gladly take to follow my dear Saviour. My faith is my crime, the performance of my duty the occasion of my condemnation." The Spanish Ambassador purchased his body, apparently acting on behalf of the Duke of Norfolk. It was taken to the continent, to Douai, and rediscovered by labourers building a new road in 1927. After a brief time at the convent at Tyburn his remains were placed in a glass coffin at Westminster Cathedral.

May We Rest In Peace.

Finally, we come to the chapel of the Holy Souls. This solemnly reminds us that we, too, will die. Here is the clue to continuing life: the communion of the saints, whether, as Pope Paul VI put it "they still make their pilgrim way on earth, whether their life over, they undergo purification or they enjoy the happiness of heaven." (The Credo of the People of God, 1968).

The chapel takes us from Adam, our progenitor, to Christ, the Second Adam. Here is the Archangel Rapahel, whose name means God has healed. Here is Michael, holding the Devil in chains. Here are St.Paul's words to the Corinthians (3,13-15) reminding us that the builder will be saved but only as through fire. And here, too, as we leave the pilgrim's way are the often uttered words of the Catholic faithful in remembering their dead: "Requiem aeternam dona eis domine et lux perpetua luceat eis" (Eternal rest give unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them). Perhaps the pilgrim, surveying London from the top of the Cathedral's tower, might consider the significance of this wonderful buiding. What was an extraordinary leap of faith by a community which, despite Newman and Manning, was still contemptuously dismissed as "the Italian Mission to the Irish." Yet, despite all the odds against them English Catholics were determined to create a building which expressed their enduring faith in God.