~1570 - 1601

While serving England’s persecuted Catholics, the Jesuit Father Roger Filcock became the confessor of the young widow (Saint) Anne Line, who had devoted her life to the sheltering of Catholic priests who were hunted by the Protestant authorities. Arrested in 1600, Father Filcock and the Benedictine priest (Blessed) Mark Barkworth were sentenced to death for their priesthood on February 26, 1601. The next day, as the two were led to their execution, Father Barkworth sang the Easter antiphon, “This is the day the Lord has made,” to which Father Filcock replied, “Let us rejoice and be glad.” Upon seeing the dead body of Anne Line, executed immediately before them, hanging from the scaffold, Father Barkworth reverently kissed her hand and her dress, saying to the deceased martyr, “You have gotten the start of us, sister, but we will follow you as quickly as we may.” After witnessing Father Barkworth’s execution, Father Filcock invoked the intercession of his now martyred brother priest before suffering the same fate: “Pray for me to our Lord, whose presence you now enjoy, that I too may faithfully run my course.”