Libby

@Laak_Van_Gogh @DannyShawNews Stephen Lawrence's case has been examined endlessly for over 30 years mate.... Ither racially notivates murdera in the 90s....not so much. I'd bet you've never even heard of Richard Everitt. thecritic.co.uk/issues/septemb…

#Art image for today’s Feast of The English Martyrs Paired with Matthew 10:17-22 “Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to councils and flog you…” ~~~~~~~ The Martyr's Picture, #Painting by Durante Alberti Oil on canvas, Painted in 1581 © The Venerable English College, Rome ~~~~~~~ Reflection on the Painting… by Father Patrick van der Vorst “Today we celebrate the Feast of the English Martyrs. Our painting, The Martyrs’ Picture, was painted in 1581 by Durante Alberti, shortly after the foundation of the Venerable English College in 1579, where the work still hangs today. It presents the Blessed Trinity above, with two great English martyrs below: Saint Thomas of Canterbury (on the left) and Saint Edmund, King of East Anglia (on the right). At the centre, a burst of divine light radiates behind God the Father, marked by a triangular halo, a symbol of the Trinity, more commonly seen in later Eastern iconography, sometimes bearing the inscription HO ON (“The One Who Is”). Christ, with arms outstretched, is held by the Father. His wounds pour blood down onto a map of the British Isles, a striking image of grace flowing into a land where so many martyrs shed their own blood, as Catholic priests were persecuted and put to death for their faith. Above, a cherub lifts the College motto: Ignem veni mittere in terram - “I have come to cast fire upon the earth.” Tradition tells us that students would gather before this image to sing the Te Deum whenever news arrived that a former student had been martyred back in England. Forty-four of those alumni have since been recognised as saints. “This painting belongs to a wider moment in the Church’s history, shaped by the reforms following the Council of Trent under Pope Gregory XIII. At a time when Catholics in England and Wales could no longer train for the priesthood at home, seminaries like the English College in Rome became lifelines; places where young men were formed in faith, knowing full well that returning home might cost them their lives. Originally a hospice for pilgrims, the building was soon transformed into a seminary under Jesuit care, sending priests back into a hostile environment where fidelity to the Catholic faith was often met with persecution and death. The painting is therefore not simply decorative: it is formative, a visual reminder of the cost of discipleship and the fire of mission. “The martyrs we honour today gave their lives in witness to Christ, living the words of the Gospel with the Spirit of the Father speaking through them. For many of us, the idea of laying down our lives for the faith feels distant. And yet, their witness is not confined to history. Even today, across the world, there are Christians who suffer and die quietly for their faith, unseen and unheard. They are the hidden martyrs of our own time. When Pope Paul VI canonised the English Martyrs in 1970, he recalled the words of Tertullian: “The blood of Christians is the seed that is sown as it was with the shedding of Christ's own blood, so it is with the sacrificial offering of her Martyrs in union with His: a source of life and of spiritual fecundity for the Church and the entire world.” Christian.art mailchi.mp/d3b455ad6fda/l…