Undimmed witness.

The memorial to the martyrs of Durham is by the small roundabout on Framlingate, north of the city and close to Durham City Hall. The memorial (photo above) could easily be missed, so it is better to park the car and walk over to see it. The inscription reads: "Without doubt these priests were martyrs to God."

It is good that this memorial exists, but the place where six priests and three laymen gave their greatest witness is a quarter or a mile further north, on the very crest of the hill. Here, nineteen years ago a gully named 'Dryburn' was filled in with ballast so that a new hospital, The North Durham University Hospital could be built.

On this arial photograph of the hospital, somewhere in the top part of the picture stood the ancient gallows of Dryburn, which was last used in 1805. Here on 27th May 1590, Frs Richard Hill, John Hogg, Richard Holiday and Edmund Duke were hung, drawn and quartered. These four were beatified by Pope St John Paul II in 1987.

On 4th February 1594, Mr John Speed was hung for having assisted Fr John Boste.

Then on 24th July 1594, Fr John Boste was hung, drawn and quartered. He was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970.

Then on 9th August 1600 Fr Thomas Palaser was hung, drawn and quartered, and Mr John Newton and Mr John Talbot were hung. Fr Palaser and Mr Talbot were beatified by Pope St John Paul II in 1987.

What a record! What a blessed site for healing!

All these martyrs would have been held, before execution, in the old Gaol, which was the then north Gate of the old city of Durham, part of which still exists just behind the shops near where Owengate and Saddler Street meet.

Also, we must include Fr Thomas Plumtree, who took part in the Northern Rising of 1569 and celebrated Mass in Durham Cathedral. He was captured and hung, drawn and quartered in the the Market Place at Durham on 4th January 1570. He was beatified in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII.

The Market Place (photo above) is as busy as ever, but holds no memorial to Durham's first saint.

All these martyrs are commemorated in the beautiful Church of St Godric, just to the west of the old city, and where there is Eucharistic Adoration every day.

May the life and witness of these ten men be a light for many, a light that will never grow dim.