Today we have quite a treat reading about an amazing saint. His name is St Robert Southwell, and we find him in the pages of In Caelo et in Terra. He wanted for years to be a Jesuit, and finally was admitted after many deterrents. This was during a time when Catholics were severely persecuted in England. He was living in France at the time, and asked permission to go minister to the clandestine Catholic people living in England. He ministered to them for years without getting caught, writing catechisms and even poetry while hiding from the priest hunters. It wasn't until they tortured one of the Catholics that St Southwell had ministered to, who gave up his location, that they caught him.
Before he went to England, he told his superior that even though he did desire the ultimate divine reward of martyrdom, he was not sure he would be able to stand up to torture. I feel his pain (pun realized but not exactly intended). I too would be honored to receive the greatest honor a Christian can get - to be martyred for Jesus. But I don't like pain. I'm pretty sure I would collapse under torture and say all kinds of things I don't mean. Fortunately God is much smarter than governments, and even governments realize that things said while under torture don't really count.
But St Robert Southwell DID stand up to ten rounds of torture without giving up the location of the other Catholics, before he was finally hanged for refusing to give up his faith. With Jesus, he proclaimed, "Into Your hands I commend my spirit," as he died. You can read more about him here.
God, thank You for the great gift and inspiration that this man was to us. St Robert Southwell, pray for us.
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