www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Happy King Charles the Martyr's Day

Dear Friends,

For all those who are Anglican, Anglo-Catholic, Western Rite Orthodox, Catholics of the Anglican Use AND who honour St Charles the Martyr on January 30th (as do I), beginning with the triduum that starts today that marks his condemnation to death by parliament, I wish you every blessing from on high.

John Henry Cardinal Newman and other Catholic converts of the 19th century continued venerating King Charles even after their conversion.

Devotion to St Charles brought many Anglicans to Catholicism and Orthodoxy. My friend, an Episcopalian priest who is now Western Rite Antiochian Orthodox, has a shrine to St Charles in his Church with an icon written in England.
(Fr. Stephen Walinski in Omaha, Nebraska).

St Charles understood himself as the guardian of the "Orthodox Church of England."

He was on excellent terms with the Patriarchs of Constantinople as well, as he could speak Greek.

And his popular image portraying him as a martyred saint is the "Ikon Basilike" or the "Icon of the King."

I've written an Akathist in his honour that will be published shortly by the Society of King Charles the Martyr. That society boasts many Catholic and Orthodox members as well.

Happy KingCharlestide.

Alex

To paraphrase ELizabeth I about Thomas Seymour "A Man of great goodness but very little judgement"

Certainly a better and holier man then Oliver Cromwell

Dear Brian,

Right on!

Happily, people aren't canonized for their political prowess . . .

Alex

"Now for to show you that I am a good Christian, I hope there is a good man that will bear me witness that I have forgiven all the world, and even those in particular that have been the chief causes of my death. Who they are, God knows, I do not desire to know, God forgive them. But this is not all, my character must go further. I wish that they may repent, for indeed they have committed a great sin in that particular. I pray God with St.Stephen, that this be not laid at there charge. Nay, not only so, but that they may take the right way to the peace of the kingdom, for my charity commands me not only to forgive particular men, but my charity commands me to endeavor to the last gasp the Kingdom of God."

"I have delivered my conscience. I pray God that you do take those courses that are best for the good of the Kingdom and your own salvations."

---From the gallows.

HRH Charles the First, worthy of Two Crowns; Titular Head of the Church of England; and Subscriber to the Anglican Articles of Faith.

Abdur, the lover of godly St.Jude

(Lord, make me a good heretic, like Blessed Charles...I pray God with St.Stephen.)

There is an Episcopal church in Baltimore, I think it's "Grace and St.Peter's", that has a statue of His Late Martyred Majesty.

Dear Abdur,

Blessed Charles was no heretic, my friend!

He was born into the Anglican tradition and raised a Catholic, as he himself said, in that tradition.

He believed that the Pope is 'first among equals' and the Pope himself approved of his marriage to the Roman Catholic Queen Henrietta.

He also said he was the defender of the "Orthodox Church of England" as he understood it.

He subscribed to the 39 Articles of the BCP, but as John Henry Cardinal Newman has shown, those Articles are capable of a fully Catholic interpretation, once we understand the points they were getting at.

King Charles always bowed his head at the mention of the names of Jesus and Mary, he prayed several hours daily and attended Holy Communion regularly.

He died because he refused to give in to the Puritan demand that the Office of Bishops be thrown out of the Church.

So he died for a Catholic principle.

And the veneration of St Charles, King and Martyr later brought many into the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

Even the Founder of the Society of King Charles the Martyr, of which I am a member, Mrs. Grenville-Nugent, became a Roman Catholic.

John Henry Cardinal Newman and Ronald Knox, both famous converts to Catholicism in England, venerated St Charles privately and the latter continued to attend Anglican services honouring the King each January 30th.

Ronald Knox also presented the Cause of Canonization of King Charles at Rome and there is an article the Society publishes that is written by a Roman Catholic priest promoting the King's canonization by Rome.

He is a local Saint in Britain and throughout the English Commonwealth.

There are five Anglican churches dedicated to him in England with many shrines to him in other Churches.

There are over twenty Episcopalian Churches in the U.S. that are dedicated to him, even some Spanish Episcopal Churches dedicated to "San Carlos." Other Churches have shrines, as Hilde mentioned.

Toronto has a shrine to St Charles at St Bartholomew's Anglican parish on 70 Pashler Avenue.

It is a Byzantine icon of St Charles that I had made up and then publicly presented to the parish some years ago.

St Bartholomew's is very High Anglican and was actually harassed by Protestants e.g. dead chickens were thrown at its main doors etc.

Many Western Rite Orthodox continue to venerate his memory as that of a martyred Saint, as does St Mark's Western Rite Orthodox parish in Colorado.

And Fr. Walinski's parish in Omaha, Nebraska.

St Charles today is venerated as a local Saint by Orthodox Christians and Churches as well.

Alex

Dear Hilde,

The Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham also has a beautiful statue of St Charles where people may light candles in his honour.

Members of the Society of King Charles the Martyr fast on January 30th to atone for the sin of regicide and to pray for the well-being of Britain and the entire English Commonwealth, of which the United States has always remained a spiritual part of.

Alex

Dear Friends,

For those who are interested, here is an image of St Charles, together with liturgical services in his honour:

http://www.gtorrington.freeserve.co.uk/Liturgical/charles.htm

Here is the Litany of Charles, King and Martyr:

http://justus.anglican.org/resources/pc/charles/litany.html

Alex

Thanks for the clarification, Alex.

There is more than one way to be a good Catholic, and a good reformed catholic, like Cranmer, Bucer, and King Charles. C of E all, but "catholic." Which brings up the issue of European protestant or reformed catholic monarchs and the ordination of women.....just kidding..

Abdur

Dear Abdur,

Yes, King Charles would have disagreed with the approach taken by Cranmer, but the purpose of the BCP was to cover a number of theological positions under one ecclesial roof.

Although the play, Man for all Seasons, portrays Cranmer as an enemy of Thomas More, we know today that both men shared a very similar view of Papal Primacy, believe it or not.

Cranmer actually did all in his power to try and save Thomas More's life.

Alex

Well........ at the stake in 1556, Cranmer made clear his view of the Pope "and as for the Pope, I reject him as Christ's Enemy and Anti-Christ with all his false doctrine"
Cranmer's views on the Eucharist developed from a basically Lutheran position to one more reminiscent of Zwingli.

Dear Brian,

Cranmer's views became more Protestant and anti-Roman in time - he wasn't so when More was alive.

"Bloody Mary" wasn't exactly the type of Catholic Queen that endeared herself to many. Burning at the stake was her preferred method of discourse with Protestants. Even the Spanish Philip was disgusted with how she treated her Protestant subjects.

Henry VIII himself was no Protestant, but a schismatic Roman Catholic.

Henry came to hate the Pope - and the feeling was mutual.

But he always carried his rosary with him and his psalter. He had many Masses said for the repose of his beloved wife, Jane.

To this day, in a London hospital, the nuns gather each evening at 5:45 pm to say a Rosary for King Henry VIII.

A rosary in perpetuity for his soul was the only price King Henry asked of the nuns when he built their hospital . . .

Alex

Dear Alex,

Thank you for all the information. It is most interesting.

I'm a bit puzzled that HRH is venerated by Orthodox since he was way past 1054; did you mean Eastern Orthodox here? The Western Rite parishes I can understand, since many of them came from the Anglican/Episcopal Church.

When was St. Bartholomew's, Toronto harrassed with chickens? Is there a meaning to throwing defunct fowl? That's shameful that it should happen to any church.

Thank you also for the bits about Henry VIII. It gets so tiring to hear people say things that give the impression that when Henry broke with Rome suddenly England ceased to be Christian.

Hilde

Some Ango-Catholics see Henry as a liberator who plucked their national Catholic Church from the clutches of Rome. Others, curse his memory as the schismatic who tore their Church from the bosom of its Holy Mother. Why they don't 'pope' - to use Anglo-Catholic terminology I don't understand.

Spasi Khristos -
Mark, monk and sinner.

Dear Hilde,

Yes, the Western Rite Orthodox and Anglican Use Catholics are the ones who will continue to venerate King Charles - along with many Anglicans, Anglo-Catholics and Anglican Catholics.

John Henry Cardinal Newman and other famous converts of his day also continued to honour King Charles and I daresay Charles' High Church Catholic identity is what probably triggered much of the Catholic movement in Anglicanism - and the Orthodox movement as well.

One Pope, I forget who, referred to the Anglican Church in a positive way once and called it the Church of "Charles and Laud" (for Archbishop William Laud under King Charles who was also beheaded by the Puritans).

And it was Tsar Alexis IV who was actually the first, in correspondence with the King's widow, Queen Henrietta, to refer to King Charles I as "Charles the Martyr."

Russia was so horrified at the thought that the English would kill their own anointed Sovereign, that the Tsars banned English merchants from doing business in Russia for years afterwards.

Alex