William Davies (priest)

Blessed William Davies
Martyr
Born	c. 1555 North Wales, probably Croes yn Eirias, Denbighshire
Died	27 July 1593 (aged 37 - 38) Beaumaris Castle, Beaumaris, Anglesey, Wales
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	22 November 1987 by Pope John Paul II
Feast	27 July, 22 November (with the Martyrs of England and Wales)

William Davies (died 27 July 1593) was a Welsh Roman Catholic priest. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1987. There is a chapel in Anglesey built as a memorial to him.

Life

Davies was born in North Wales, probably Croes yn Eirias, Denbighshire, but his date of birth is not known, however one source gives the year 1555. Groes yn Eirias (meaning Torch Cross) is the old name for the area of dwellings between Llanelian and Colwyn Bay, Groes Road Colwyn Bay is a route to Llanelian Church. Eirias Park is in the same area. (It is now in Conwy County Borough.) He studied at Reims, where he arrived on 6 April 1582 just in time to assist at the first Mass of Nicholas Garlick. He received tonsure and minor orders on 23 September 1583, together with seventy-three English and Welsh students.

Ordained as a priest in April 1585, he worked as a missionary in Wales. With the protection of Robert Puw of Penrhyn Hall (d. 1629), a Recusant member of the Welsh gentry from the Creuddyn Peninsula and grandfather of the Cavalier poet Gwilym Puw, Davies secretly produced the book Y Drych Cristianogawl, a short essay on the love of God which is said to be the first book printed in Wales. The press is thought to have been located inside a cave above the Irish Sea at the Little Orme head between Llandudno and Penrhyn Bay.

In March 1592, he was arrested by priest hunters at Holyhead, with four Welsh students for the priesthood whom he was smuggling via Ireland to the English College at Valladolid. Robert Puw escaped arrest.

He was imprisoned in a dungeon in Beaumaris Castle and separated from his companions, after having confessed that he was a priest. After a month he was able to join the students for an hour in the day, and even to celebrate Mass. The jailor became lax, and they might have escaped had they so willed. Catholics from all parts came to consult him, and Protestant ministers came to dispute with him.

At the assizes he and his companions were condemned to death, on which Davies intoned the Te Deum, which the others took up. The judge reprieved the condemned "till the Queen's pleasure be known."

Sent to Ludlow, to be examined by the Council of the Marches, Davies encountered more Protestant ministers. They took him to church under pretext of a disputation, and then began the Protestant service. He sang the Ecclesiastical Latin Vespers in a loud voice.

From Ludlow he was sent to Bewdley, where he had to share his prison with felons, and thence to other jails. He was sent back to Beaumaris, and rejoined his young companions. For some six months he lived with them the life of a religious community, dividing the time between prayer and study.

At the summer assizes it was decided that the priest must die as a traitor, though he was offered his life if he would go but once to church. In spite of local opposition, the sentence was carried out and he was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Beaumaris Castle.

Veneration

Blessed William Davies' feast is celebrated on 27 July. His cassock was preserved as a relic by his companions. They, though condemned to imprisonment for life, managed in time to escape. The youngest found his way to the English College, Valladolid, where he recounted the whole story to Bishop Diego de Yepes, who wrote about Fr Davies in his Historia particular de la Persecucion en Inglaterra.

During the 2010 papal visit to the United Kingdom, Pope Benedict XVI was presented with an exact facsimile and replica of the book Y Drych Cristianogawl, which had been commissioned by Joseph Kelly, Editor of The Universe Catholic weekly as a gift to the Holy See from the Welsh people. The facsimile was produced by renowned book conservator Julian Thomas at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, using one of the only two surviving copies of the original book.

References

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Ven. William Davies". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. The entry cites:

Further reading

• Bede Camm, In the Brave Days of Old (London, 1899).
• Richard Challoner, Missionary Priests (London, 1741);
• Joseph Gillow, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., II, s v.;
  • Douay Diaries (London, 1878);
• Diego de Yepes, Hist. de la Persecucion en Inglaterra;
• David Aneurin Thomas (1971), The Welsh Elizabethan Catholic Martyrs: The trial documents of Saint Richard Gwyn and of the Venerable William Davies, University of Wales Press.