Written by  Fr. Dennis O'Neill
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Richard Reynolds was a monk from the Bridgettine community of Syon Abbey, not far from London. He was their most widely renowned spiritual director. Cardinal Reginald Pole recorded that he was the only English monk who was an expert in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. He was also outspoken in his denunciations at the time King Henry VIII pressured Parliament into declaring him supreme head of the Church in England. He was also the first to refuse to sign the required oath which supported the king's changes. He was arrested and incarcerated in the Tower of London in April of 1535. During that same time, while the monks of the London Charterhouse (i.e. a Carthusian monastery) were discussing opposing the oath, the priors of the Carthusian houses of Beauvale (Robert Lawrence) and Axholme (Augustine Webster) came to London and then accompanied Prior John Houghton of the London Charterhouse, when he went to request an exemption from taking the  1 oath for all the Carthusians. For this, the three were summarily arrested. They were called before a special commission in April of 1535 and sentenced to death, along with Richard Reynolds. On May 4, 1535, the priors were taken to Tyburn in their religious habits and were not previously laicized from the priesthood and religious state as was the custom of the day. From his prison cell in the Tower of London, Thomas More saw the three Carthusian priors being dragged to Tyburn on hurdles and exclaimed to his daughter, "Look, Meg! These blessed fathers be now as cheerfully going to their deaths as bridegrooms to their marriage!" John Houghton was the first to be executed. After he was hanged, he was taken down alive, his heart was cut out, and then he was quartered. The same thing happened to the other two Carthusians.  After Richard Reynolds blessed them and witnessed their deaths, the same thing was done to him. The quartered remains of these martyrs were taken to various parts around London and at Syon Abbey, and they were hung up as a warning to everyone else. Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher were beheaded the following month.  Eventually the rest of the monks of the London Charterhouse all were incarcerated, starved, and eventually martyred. They are among the 40 martyrs canonized on October 25, 1970 by Pope Paul VI.  Our painting of St. John Houghton was done by Joan Bennett in 2019.
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