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Only heaven knows whether John Bradburne will eventually join the Blessed William Apor, Szilárd Bogdánffy and John Scheffler on the register of martyrs. This extraordinary character was very close to me. I have never forgotten his inimitable French, describing himself as "un vieux clou fou, mais toujours votre ami" (a crazy old nail, but always your friend). I can only conclude my reminiscences with:

Rest in peace, dear John! May the choir of the angels make you rejoice with Bach cantatas in your heavenly hermitage.

John Bradburne called himself a religious jester, a buffoon and a troubadour, to whom the epithet "God's Fool", coined by Julien Green for St Francis of Assisi, truly applied.

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Anonymous
December 17th, 2012
6:12 AM
I have fun reading the article though I am not religious.

Michael Barger
October 1st, 2012
12:10 PM
Impressed by your invaluable scholarship I am even more deeply moved by your full accounts of these marvelous saints. This is a major contribution for which I am deeply grateful.

Lago1
September 4th, 2012
2:09 PM
"John Paul made the notion more elastic by removing execution as an essential ingredient of martyrdom. For him, it was enough that clerics, especially bishops, died in Communist jails." I don't think this statement is correct. For example Saint Philip Howard was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as one of the "40 martyrs of England and Wales". Yet he was not executed. Instead he died of dysentery in the Tower of London.

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