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St Richard Reynolds feast day was celebrated

on Friday, 5th May. There was a memorial

Mass at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament,

Heavitree, Exeter (EX1 2QJ) at 9.30am followed

by refreshments in the Richard Reynolds Centre.

St Richard was a Bridgettine monk of Syon

Abbey who, in 1535, was the first man to refuse

to take the Oath of Supremacy making King

Henry VIII the supreme head of the Church in

England.

He was executed at Tyburn on 4th May 1535 by

being hung, drawn and quartered. The quarters

of his body were chopped to pieces and hung in

different parts of London including upon the

gateway of Syon Abbey itself at Twickenham.

The actual ornate section of gateway was

preserved by the monastic community of Syon

and is now in the Martyrs' Chapel at Blessed

Sacrament, Exeter alongside a terracotta plaque

of the saint by sculptor, Geoffrey Preston.

ABOVE: The ornate piece of Syon Abbey's gateway, which bore part of the body of St Richard Reynolds after his martyrdom,

now rests in the Martyrs' Chapel at Blessed Sacrament Church, Heavitree, Exeter

alongside the saint's memorial wall plaque by sculptor, Geoffrey Preston.

Saint Richard, one of the Forty Martyrs of England & Wales, was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970.

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