Father Richard Strange SJ was born in 1611 and entered the Jesuits
in 1631. It may be of interest to append a few characteristic
anecdotes of the Saint, drawn from the evidence of 'witnesses who
knew him well. As to his outward appearance, Brother Robert, the
sacristan at St. Bartholomew's, London, describes him as ' having
an angelic face, a complexion white and ruddy, a good beard and a
long nose, with flaxen hair.' Hugh the Barber tells the Papal
Commissaries, not without a certain pride, that his master' was no
hypocrite or humbug, trying to make himself out better than other
people; that in dress and other things he was not different from
his equals; that when at the Universities he wore indoors a mantle
and a cassock like what Prelates wear (for he was Archdeacon of
Stafford). Out of doors he had furred garments and a furred
coverlet to his bed' After the Saint's death, William Gandro, his
body-servant, and the heir to his wardrobe, says that so anxious
were the Saint's relatives to get keepsakes of him, that he had to
tear to pieces both cassock and tunic, but the mantle and hood he
kept for himself, though a Welsh rector offered twenty pounds for
it. A story is told of the Saint's hair-shirt, which he inherited
from his uncle, the Bishop of Worcester. The Saint did not find it
hard enough or knotty enough for him, so he sent it to Oxford to
have it roughened and hardened. This he wore to the day of his
death, and Robert of Gloucester, the witness, says it was the
hardest that could be found. The same witness says that once he
ventured to expostulate with the Saint on his excessive abstinence,
saying, ' You eat and drink too little, my lord; you wont be able
to last out. Getting no answer he repeated the remark, when the
Bishop said, 'Eat and drink what you like, and hold your tongue and
leave me in peace.' Robert rejoined, ' My lord, I will not do so,
because I don't want you to die, for I should lose the promotion I
am hoping for from you.' St. Thomas answered, 'You want to flatter
me.' But it would seem that he did get his promotion, for he became
the Bishop's official, and was in some sense the occasion of his
master's death and his own excommunication.
General
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