ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE IN HONOUR OF ST DAVID LEWIS

St John Kemble and St David Lewis were kinsmen.   David Lewis was a Jesuit priest and John Kemble a secular priest.   Both priests served the Welsh Mission in a time when to be a Catholic was to risk much but to be a Catholic priest was to risk all!   During the Titus Oates Plot the cousins were arrested, tried and convicted of High Treason. To be a Catholic priest and to say Mass was considered High Treason! They were sentenced to the usual punishment for High Treason, to be hanged, drawn and quartered.   On 22nd August 1679 eighty year old Fr John Kemble was executed at Widemarsh Common, Hereford. Just five days later, on 27th August 1679 David Lewis was executed at Usk. He is the LAST WELSH MARTYR. 

 

On 25th October 1970, Pope Paul VI canonised John Kemble and David Lewis along with thirty-eight other Martyrs. Collectively they are known as The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

 

 

This year, the Annual pilgrimage in honour of ST DAVID LEWIS will take place on SUNDAY 25th AUGUST 2013.

3:00 p m: Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at Catholic Church of St Francis Xavier and St David Lewis, Porth-y-Carne Street, Usk.  Following Benediction, pilgrims will process from the Church to the grave of St David Lewis in the churchyard of St Mary's Priory Church, Usk.