Richard was a non-Catholic Welshman (from Wales). He studied in Cambridge and when he had finished college he became a teacher. Then Richard adopted the Catholic faith and decided to join the priesthood.

After becoming a priest he was made the Chamberlain of his monastery. A few years later he was chosen to be the abbot of Glastonbury (which is similar to a Parish-Priest).

At this time Queen Elizabeth I ruled England and Wales. Because most people in Wales were still Catholic, the queen and her officials tried to crush the faith by cruel laws.

Priests or people who were loyal to the Holy Father - the Pope, were put in prison and many were tortured and killed.

Soon Richard became a hunted man. He escaped from jail once, and a month later was arrested again. They said to him, “You will be freed, if you give up the Catholic faith.” But Blessed Richard refused.

They took him to a non-Catholic church by force and he upset the preacher’s whole sermon by clanking his chains loudly. The angry officers locked him up for eight hours, and many came to abuse and insult him.

He was again put in prison and tortured. The queen’s men wanted him to give them the names of other Catholics whom they could arrest, but Richard would not.

When he was taken to court, men were paid to tell lies about him and he was sentenced to death. Then his wife and baby were brought to court.

“Do not imitate your husband,” the poor woman was told. She bravely said, “If you want more blood, you can take my life with my husband’s. If you give more money to your witnesses, they will definitely find something against me, too.”

As Blessed Richard was being martyred, he cried out in terrible pain: “Holy God, what is this? Jesus, have mercy on me!” Then he was beheaded.

Blessed Richard wrote some beautiful poems when he was in prison. In them, he begged his countrymen of Wales to be loyal to the Catholic faith. Blessed Richard died a martyr in 1539.

Abraham was a rich nobleman of Edessa, born in the year 300. Ceding to his parents’ desire, while still very young he married, but escaped to a cell near the city as soon as the feast was over. His family searched for him for seventeen days and were still more astonished when they found him. “Why are you surprised?” he asked them. “Admire instead the favor God has granted me, the grace to bear the yoke of His service, which He has wanted to impose on me without regard to my unworthiness.” He walled up his cell door, leaving only a small window open for the food which would be brought to him from that time on.

The wealth which fell to Saint Abraham by the death of his parents ten years after his retirement, he gave to the poor by the good offices of a friend, to whose probity he entrusted the commission. Since many were seeking him out for advice and consolation, the Bishop of Edessa ordained him priest, overruling his humility. Soon after his ordination, he was sent to an idolatrous city which had hitherto been deaf to every messenger. He was insulted, beaten, and three times banished, but he returned each time with fresh zeal. For three years he pleaded with God for those souls, and in the end prevailed. Every citizen came to him for Baptism. After providing for their spiritual needs he went back to his cell, more than ever convinced of the power of prayer.

In that cell, then, for fifty years, he would continue to sing God’s praises and implore mercy for himself and for all men. Saint Ephrem wrote of him that a day did not pass without his shedding tears; but that despite his constant and severe penance, he always maintained an agreeable disposition and a healthy and vigorous body. He never reproved anyone with sharpness, but all he said was seasoned with the salt of charity and gentleness.

His brother on dying left an only daughter, Mary, to the Saint’s care. He placed her in a cell near his own, and devoted himself to training her in perfection. After twenty years of innocence she grew lax and fled to a distant city, where she drowned the voice of her conscience in sin. For two years the Saint and his friend Saint Ephrem prayed earnestly for her. Then Abraham went in disguise to seek the lost sheep, and had the joy of bringing her back to the desert a true penitent. She received the gift of miracles, and her countenance after death shone as the sun. Saint Abraham died five years before her, in about 360. All of Edessa came for his last blessing and to secure his relics.