Bl. Matthew Flathers

Matthew Flathers, of Weston, England, was ordained a priest in Arras, France on the solemnity of the Annunciation, March 25, 1606. Almost immediately after returning to England to begin his priestly ministry there, he was captured by the Protestant authorities, and then banished from the country. But determined to serve the Catholics of his native land, come what may, Father Flathers soon secretly re-entered England. He was quickly re-arrested and this time sentenced to death for being a priest. At York, he was executed by drawing and quartering, always a brutal procedure, but in Father Flathers' case it was done with such exceptional barbarity that the Protestant onlookers were horrified and sympathized with the martyred priest. Thereafter the Protestants of York extended their sympathy to the whole Catholic population. One city councilman declared that he wanted to see all the bloodshed against Catholics ended.

Mathew Flathers (Matthew; alias Major) (c. 1580 – 21 March 1607) was an English Roman Catholic priest. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1987.

Life

Born at Weston, West Riding of Yorkshire, Flathers was educated at Douai and ordained at Arras on 25 March 1606. Three months later he was sent to the English mission, but was discovered almost immediately by the agents of the Government; after the Gunpowder Plot, the English state was particularly active in hunting down Catholic priests.

He was brought to trial, under the statute of 27 Elizabeth, on the charge of receiving orders abroad, and condemned to death. By an act of clemency, this sentence was commuted to banishment for life; but after a brief exile, Flathers returned to England and his mission. After ministering for a short time to Catholics in Yorkshire, he was again apprehended.

Brought to trial at York on the charge of being ordained abroad and exercising priestly functions in England, Flathers was offered his life on condition that he take the recently enacted Oath of Allegiance. On his refusal, he was condemned to death and taken to the common place of execution outside Micklegate Bar, York, where he was hanged, drawn, and quartered.