The Douai Martyrs - Gerard Skinner

The Douai Martyrs are a group of one hundred and fifty-nine men who were martyred for the Catholic Faith in England and Wales between 1577 and 1680. The vast majority of the martyrs were priests who were trained at Douai College in northern France before risking their lives by returning to Britain to minister undercover, trying to avoid capture by the State and a barbaric death.

Beatifying many of the Douai Martyrs in 1987, Pope St John Paul II declared:

'Each of them chose to be 'God's servant First'. They consciously and willingly embraced death for love of Christ and the Church. They too chose the Kingdom above all else. If the price had to be death they would pay it with courage and joy.

Blessed Nicholas Postgate welcomed his execution 'as a short cut to heaven'. Blessed Joseph Lambton encouraged those who were to die with him with the words 'Let us be merry, for tomorrow I hope we shall have a heavenly breakfast.' Blessed Hugh Taylor, not knowing the day of his death, said: 'How happy I should be if on this Friday, on which Christ died for me, I might encounter death for him.' He was executed on that very day, Friday 6 November 1585. For them this price was small compared to the riches they could bring to their people in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.'