Bl. Matthew Flathers

 This week the Diocese of Columbus, along with Catholics across the country, are engaging in a week of prayer for Vocations. In honor of that, today I will share a Saint chosen especially for my favorite seminarian, Matthew. However, instead of St. Matthew the Evangelist, who most of you will know about already, I have chosen another man named Matthew.

Matthew Flathers was born in Yorkshire, England about 1580. The Catholic Church had been outlawed in England about two decades earlier, so he went to Douai, France for his seminary education. He was ordained on March 25, 1606, in Arras in Northern France. Three months later, he was sent on mission to his native England. He was captured almost immediately by agents of the Government. The recent Gunpowder Plot (1605) had made them particularly vigilant in hunting down Catholic Priests. He was brought to trial on the charge of receiving Orders abroad and was condemned to death. His sentence was commuted to banishment.

Matthew was determined to serve the Catholic faithful of his native land, so after a brief exile, he secretly reentered England. After ministering for a short time to Catholics in Yorkshire, he was once again apprehended. He was brought to trial at York and was offered his life on the condition that he take the recently enacted Oath of Allegiance. He refused and he was sentenced to death for being Ordained abroad and for exercising priestly functions in England. This time the sentence was carried out - with exceptional barbarity. He was executed by drawing and quartering. This was always a horrific form of execution, but in Fr. Flathers' case it was done with such brutality that the Protestant onlookers were horrified and sympathized with the martyred priest.  

Matthew Flathers was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II along with 55 other priests who were educated at Douai and gave their lives ministering to English Catholics during the time that being a priest in England carried a death sentence. Blessed Matthew's feast day is March 21; the feast day of the Douai Martyrs is November 22. 

Blessed Matthew Flathers, pray for us.