Angelus of St. Francis Mason

Last updated

Angelus of St. Francis Mason (Spanish : Angelus a San Francisco), was an English Franciscan friar and writer active in the 17th century.

Contents

Life

He was born Richard Mason in the county of Wiltshire, England, in 1599. [1] Like a number of English Roman Catholics under the Penal laws who desired to enter religious life, he went to Douai in the County of Flanders, then the Spanish Netherlands. There he entered the Order of Friars Minor, being clothed in the habit and given his new name. He was professed in 1625, and ordained to the priesthood four years later.

There is the suggestion in some documents of the Order that he served for a time in Ireland after this, possibly himself being of Irish descent. [2]

Mason rapidly became eminent in the Order, being created a Doctor of Divinity and appointed successively to the high administrative offices of Definitor, Guardian and Visitor to the Franciscan province of Brabant. He was elected Minister Provincial of the English province of the Franciscan Order in 1659. In that office, he visited Paris in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain permission for the settlement there of a colony of English Franciscan Sisters from their convent in Nieuwpoort in Flanders, where he had served as their confessor. From 1662-75 he lived in England, as domestic chaplain to Lord Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour, after which period he retired to the friary at Douai, where he died on 30 December 1678. [3]

Works

Mason wrote a number of original works, in addition to compiling devotional manuals. The latter include his Sacrarium privilegiorum quorundam Seraphico P. S. Francisco ... indultorum (Douai, 1636), a guide to the indulgences granted to members of the Franciscan Order. He later wrote the Manuale Tertii Ordinis S. Francisci (Douai, 1643), a commentary and meditations on the Rule of the Third Order of St. Francis, in which he gives guidance to Franciscan tertiaries on their way of life. This he soon translated into English as The Rule of Penance of the Seraphical Father St. Francis (Douai, 1644).

Among his historical writings are "Certamen Seraphicum Provinciae Angliae pro Sancta Dei Ecclesia" (Douai, 1649), a review of distinguished English Franciscan martyrs and polemical writers, and "Apologia pro Scoto Anglo" (Douai, 1656). The last-named work has for its main scope the establishment (against John Colgan) of the thesis that Duns Scotus was not a Scotsman, but an Englishman.

His Liturgical Discourse of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (s. 1, 1670, dedicated to Henry, Lord Arundell of Wardour, "Master of the Horse to our late Queen Mother Henrietta Maria"), was abridged in the Holy Altar and Sacrifice Explained which Pacificus Baker published at the request of Bishop James Talbot in London in 1768.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baron Arundell of Wardour</span> Extinct barony in the Peerage of England

Baron Arundell of Wardour, in the County of Wiltshire, was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1605 for Thomas Arundell, known as "Thomas the Valiant", son of Sir Matthew Arundell and grandson of Sir Thomas Arundell and of Margaret Howard, a sister of Queen Catherine Howard. Arundell had already been created a Count of the Holy Roman Empire by Rudolph II in December 1595. He was succeeded by his son, the second Baron. He fought as a Royalist in the Civil War and was mortally wounded at the Battle of Stratton in 1643. His son, the third Baron, was implicated in the Popish Plot and imprisoned in the Tower of London for six years. However, after the accession of James II he was restored to favour and served as Lord Privy Seal from 1687 to 1688. His great-great-great-grandson, the eighth Baron, was an avid collector of art and accumulated immense debts in building and furnishing New Wardour Castle.

Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour, PC was a Peer of England during the 17th century, and the most famous of the Lords Arundell of Wardour. He served as Lord Privy Seal and Lord High Steward, and was appointed to the Privy Council. During the Popish Plot he suffered a long period of imprisonment, although he was never brought to trial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wardour Castle</span> 14th-century castle in Wiltshire, England

Wardour Castle or Old Wardour Castle is a ruined 14th-century castle at Wardour, on the boundaries of the civil parishes of Tisbury and Donhead St Andrew in the English county of Wiltshire, about 15 miles (24 km) west of Salisbury. The castle was built in the 1390s, came into the ownership of the Arundells in the 16th century, and was rendered uninhabitable in 1643 and 1644 during the Civil War. A Grade I listed building, it is managed by English Heritage and open to the public.

Cuthbert Constable, born Cuthbert Tunstall, was an English physician and antiquary, "the Catholic Maecenas of his age".

Cæsar Clement was an English Catholic recusant.

John Joseph Hornyold was an English Catholic bishop, titular Bishop of Phiomelia, and Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District, England for twenty-two years.

Vincent Canes (1608-1672) or was an English Franciscan controversialist, born on the borders of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, date uncertain; died in London, June, 1672.

Francis Davenport, O.M.R., also known as Father Francis of Saint Clare, was an English Catholic theologian, a Recollect friar and royal chaplain.

John Pibush was an English Catholic priest. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1929.

Thomas Pormort was an English Roman Catholic priest. He was beatified in 1987.

Edmund Catherick (c. 1605 – 13 April 1642) was an English Roman Catholic priest. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1929.

Charles Mahoney was an Irish Franciscan friar who is honoured as a Catholic martyr, one of the Eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987. His feast day, together with that of the other martyrs, is celebrated on 4 May.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Morgan (priest)</span> Welsh Roman Catholic Priest and Martyr

Edward Morgan was a Welsh Roman Catholic priest and martyr. He was declared venerable by Pope Leo XIII in 1886.

John Lockwood was an English Roman Catholic priest. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1929.

Henry Holden was an English Roman Catholic priest, known as a theologian.

Richard Gibbons was an English Jesuit scholar.

William Henry Coombes was an English Roman Catholic priest, theologian and writer.

Edward Hawarden was an English Roman Catholic theologian and controversialist.

James Harrison was an English Roman Catholic priest. He is a Catholic martyr.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Wardour Castle</span> Engagement of the First English Civil War

Wardour Castle in Wiltshire, England, was besieged twice during the First English Civil War; once in May 1643, and then again between November 1643 and March 1644.

References

Wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Richard Angelus a S. Francisco Mason". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Notes

  1. ↑ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Richard Angelus a S. Francisco Mason". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2023-08-07.
  2. ↑ There is some dispute as to the nationality of his extraction: while it is agreed that he was a native of the English county of Wiltshire, a Franciscan MS. record, dated 1721, mentions his having been "for some time dean of a Catholick deanery in Ireland", conveying a suggestion that his family may have been Irish: Gillow (Bibl. Dict. of the English Catholics) thinks that if Mason ever held a deanery in Ireland, it must have been under the Protestant Establishment, in which case Father Angelus, as he was known among his contemporaries, would have to be reckoned among the seventeenth-century converts. The MS. mentioning his "Catholick deanery", however, was written forty-three years after Mason's death.
  3. ↑ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Richard Angelus a S. Francisco Mason". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2023-08-07.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.