Celebrations at Venerable English College

The Rector of the Venerable English College here in Rome Monsignor Nicholas Hudson is hosting celebrations this weekend to mark six centuries and a half since the founding of the English and Welsh Hospice in Rome.

Monsignor Hudson shares the story with Veronica Scarisbrick , explaining the weekend events as he goes along. Highlighting in a special way the legacy of witness come 1570 : ..." when Queen Elizabeth I of England was excommunicated, very quickly it became prohibited in England and Wales to train men for the Catholic priesthood so the continuing Catholic community had to look abroad ..."..

This explains he remarks how while the foundation of a hospice on this site in 1362 first brought here many pilgrims , among whom characters as famous as John Milton or the priest hunter Thomas Cromwell, the split with Rome two centuries later soon brought to this house many future martyrs. A spiritual legacy still very much alive today : "...On the first day that students come to the College I take them to see the Martyr's picture ...and the reason for that is that in the first century of the College's existence between 1581 and 1678, forty four of the students from this House were martyred by being hanged, drawn, quartered.."

Whenever news of this reached the house, Monsignor Hudson adds , the community would gather around this picture and sing a 'Te Deum Laudamus' . A powerful moment to be repeated during anniversary celebrations: "..our thoughts will be reunited ...with those students of the first century who used to intone the very same prayer of praise to God before the very same Martyr's picture..."

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