Sisters of Martyrs: A Sidelight on Dominican History

Extract

John Bridgewater, the martyrologist, writing in 1588, makes the interesting statement that the Dominican convent at Dartford numbered in its ranks not only a sister of St John Fisher, but also some sisters of the Carthusian martyrs. He is enumerating those Catholic women who had suffered persecution under Elizabeth, among whom Elizabeth Cressner, the Prioress of Dartford and her nuns occupy a rightful place. The passage in question is contained in an appendix at the end of the Concertatio Ecclesiae Catholicae, published at Trier in 1588. This book being rare, we give the extract as it stands:—“Elizabetha Chresnera Priorissa monialium D. Dominici cum toto conventu, in quo erat soror Sanctissimi Martyris Ioannis Roffensis Episcopi et sorores aliquot Carthusianorum martyrum”

That St John Fisher had a sister in this convent (a royal foundation by Edward the third) is fairly well known; but that there were sisters of the Carthusian martyrs in the community is less so. On checking up on Bridgewater’s assertions we have found that no less than eight of the nuns were related to martyrs of Henry the Eighth in one way or another—a fact which, no doubt, goes far to explain their subsequent heroic history.

As Bridgewater himself was ordained priest in Queen Mary’s reign and left England in 1576, he could hardly fail to know something of the Dartford nuns who were refounded under her and afterwards, like him, went into exile for the Faith. But a study of the list of nuns who received pensions at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539 amply bears ‘ out his statement.