The Royal Martyr




This year Sexagesima Sunday co-incides with the old Anglican commemoration of King Charles the Martyr. Up until 1859 this day was among the State Services in the Prayer Book, i.e., "certain solemn days for which particular services are appointed". According to the rubric "If this Day shall happen to be a Sunday, this Form of Prayer shall be used and the Fast kept the next day following." (The "Form of Prayer" mentioned can be found here.) So I am not, in fact, a day late in mentioning the late king's commemoration.

Charles proved too royal and too Catholic in his old High Church Anglican faith and was executed by the Puritan revolutionaries. He wasn't a Roman, although his wife, Henriette Marie of France, was, yet he died upholding certain essential elements of the Catholic faith against those who denied them.

Would it be unwarranted and too mean-spirited of me, not to mention "divisive", if I suggested that King Charles's martyrdom reminds one that those who hate liturgy, smash statues, burn paintings and books, denude churches of any art or interest or reverence don't always stop there? Yes, it probably would. So I won't do that. Ignore this paragraph.

There's an Anglican Society of King Charles the Martyr which has a website here. Project Canterbury provides several historical texts associated with King Charles here.

However, I am a day late in metioning Sexagesima Sunday which was yesterday. The Catholic Encyclopaedia gives a brief description here. The liturgical Mass texts in Latin and English can be found here and here. (You'll need both links for both sides of the pages.)