{"id":51596,"date":"2016-08-01T05:15:43","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T05:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=51596"},"modified":"2016-08-01T05:15:43","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T05:15:43","slug":"of-sacrifice-and-martyrdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=51596","title":{"rendered":"Of sacrifice and martyrdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron<\/strong> — martyrdom in the church of the proto-martyr, sacrifice at the sacrifice of the Mass ]
\n.<\/p>\n

Boom! Here you have it:<\/p>\n

\"Brightwell<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That brass rubbing<\/strong> comes from the church of St Agatha’s<\/strong> in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell<\/strong>, the village where I did much of my growing up, and commemorates one Fr John Scoeffyld<\/strong>, who was murdered, as I recall, on his way to say Mass at the Lady Chapel of that church, in 1507.<\/p>\n

I served Mass in that church — and its sister, St James, Sotwell<\/strong> — many times in my Anglican youth, and remember that brass vividly enough, though the current web accounts of the parish [1<\/a>, 2<\/a>] fail to mention it — with the exception of Fred Heyworth<\/strong>‘s History of Brightwell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

A priest, killed as he was saying Mass — for me, there’s an emotional connection there. <\/p>\n

These last days, that phrase has had a current application — in the appaling death of the French Catholic priest, Father Jacques Hamel<\/strong>, while he was saying Mass in the church of St Stephen<\/strong>, proto-martyr, in the town named for the church, Saint-\u00c9tienne-du-Rouvray<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Here’s a video of Fr Hamel, so you can get some sense of the man: <\/p>\n