Richard Flower (martyr)

Blessed Richard Flowers (Lloyd)
Born	c.1566 Anglesey, Wales
Died	30 August 1588 Tyburn, London, England
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	15 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI
Feast	30 August

The individual commonly known as Richard Flower was born Richard Lloyd, probably around 1566, to a notable family of Anglesey. He also went under the names Fludd and Graye.[1] By 1584, he is mentioned in government interrogation reports as "the chiefest reliever of priests". The law at that time declared that anyone who knowingly "shall receive, relieve, aid, or comfort a Seminary priest, are felons..."[2] Lloyd was accused of providing aid to a priest named William Horner, in the parish of St. Dunstan's, Farringdon Without. According to Christopher Grene, Lloyd gave Horner, alias Forest, a quart of wine. Grene says that since at the time of Lloyd's trial, Horner was only a supposed priest, being neither under arrest, condemned, nor outlawed, the court was unsure if he even was a priest. Lloyd was executed at Tyburn on 30 August 1588, at about twenty-two years of age.[2]

References

1. Wainewright, John. "Ven. Richard Leigh." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 3 Feb. 2014
2. "Venerable Richard Flower (Lloyd)", Lives of the English Martyrs, vol.1, (Edwin Burton and J.H. Pollen, eds.), Longmans, Green and Co., 1914, p. 425 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.