St Richard Reynolds Saint Richard Reynolds O.Ss.S, was a Bridgettine monk of Syon Abbey, founded in Twickenham by Henry V. He was born in Devon in 1492, educated at Corpus Christi, Cambridge, and joined the Abbey in 1513, and was the only English monk well-versed in the three principal languages of Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
Richard Reynolds was martyred at Tyburn on 4th May 1535, now his feast day, for refusing the Oath of Supremacy to King Henry VIII of England. He was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970, among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
The painting was specially commissioned for the Official Opening of St Richard Reynolds Catholic College on 19th September 2013. The artist is Jared Gilbey. St Richard Reynolds is shown wearing the habit of the Order of the Most Holy Saviour, he holds the book of Psalms in his left hand and a palm reed in his right hand, a symbol of his martyrdom. To his right are the Carthusian priors and Blessed John Hailes, behind them is the Tyburn Tree; to his left is St Birgitta of Sweden who founded the Order. Also shown are Syon Abbey and The Tower of London. In a scroll above his head is a verse from Psalm 27 which Richard Reynolds quoted in his trial, Credo videte bona domini in terra viventium (I believe to see the good things of the Lord) from which our College motto is derived.
Saint Maria Elizabeth Hesselblad O.Ss.S (1870-1957) Saint Maria Elizabeth Hesselblad was born on 4 June 1870 at Faglavik in Sweden. She emigrated to New York at age 18 to study nursing. She was received in to the Catholic Church in 1902 by the Jesuit priest, Giovanni Hagen, at Washington. Two years later, Elizabeth moved to Rome and began a religious life at a Carmelite House. In 1906 she received permission from Pope Pius X to take the habit of the Bridgettines (Order of the Most Holy Saviour of Saint Bridget) the same Order as St Richard Reynolds. In 1911 she re-founded the Bridgettine Order in Rome and was joined by three young women from England to form the congregation. She restored the Order in Sweden in 1923 and in England in 1931, the same year in which she acquired the former home of St Bridget of Sweden, La Casa Santa Brigida, in Piazza Farnese, Rome, which is fittingly the Mother House of the Order today. There is a chapel there dedicated to our patron, Saint Richard Reynolds, a Bridgettine Canon Confessor of Syon Abbey. Mother Maria Elizabeth was Canonized on 5 June 2016 by Pope Francis. The Elizabeth building was dedicated to her in 2017 by Cardinal Vincent Nichols and Archbishop Peter Smith.
St Robert Lawrence One of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. After joining the Carthusians, he served as prior of the Charterhouse at Beauvale, Nottinghamshire, at the time when King Henry VIII of England broke with Rome and ordered the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Robert went with St. John Houghton to see Thomas Cromwell, who had them arrested and placed in the Tower of London. When they refused to sign the Oath of Supremacy, they were cruelly tortured and executed at Tyburn with St Richard Reynolds and another Carthusian prior, Augustine Webster, a monk at the Charterhouse of Sheen, and Blessed John Hailes, the vicar of Isleworth). The stained-glass window pictured is in the Church of St Eltheldreda, Ely Place London which depicts the three monks in the centre, Richard Reynolds on the right and John Haile on the left. Beatified in 1886, Robert Lawrence was canonized by Pope Paul VI with the other martyrs in 1970. The Lawrence Building is dedicated to St Robert Lawrence.
Blessed John Haile John Haile was the Vicar of Isleworth at the time of Henry VII. He was arrested in March 1535 and accused of the crime of treason for speaking against the King’s divorce and remarriage. The information was laid by another priest, Fern of Teddington, who was also convicted of treason, but received a pardon. John Haile was executed at Tyburn on 4 May 1535,[3] together with the first Carthusian Martyrs of London and St Richard Reynolds, the confessor of nearby Syon Abbey. He was recognised as a martyr and was beatified on the 29th of December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. Haile Building is dedicated to his memory.
St Cecilia Saint Cecilia lived in the 3rd Century in Rome. She is the patron saint of music, musicians, poets and hymns. She is one of the most revered early Roman martyrs and one of the seven women commemorated in the Canon of the Mass. We celebrate the feast day of Saint Cecilia every year on November 22. Our chapel is dedicated to St Cecilia.