But perhaps you will say, I weep not so much for your death as I do for that you are hanged, drawn and quartered. My sweet mother, it is the favourablest, most honourable and happiest death that ever could have chanced unto me. I die not for knavery but for verity; I die not for treason but for religion; I die not for any ill demeanour or offence I committed but only for my Faith, for my conscience, for my Priesthood, for my blessed Saviour Jesus Christ and, to tell you truth, if I had ten thousand lives, I am bound to lose them all, rather than to break my faith, to lose my soul, to offend my God.
Blessed William Hart, last letter to his mother prior to his execution.
This martyr has been stuck at “blessed” since before WWI.
That should be some comfort to those of us who are impatient for the canonization of people like Fulton Sheen.
Imagine as mother getting that letter from her son. She must have cried over the ghastly manner of his death, but been proud and rejoiced that William
would see the Beatific Vision.