Sancta ergo et salubris est cogitatio pro defunctis exorare, ut a peccatis solvantur.
(II Mach. xii, 46)
As mentioned below (and thanks to Kiran for first alerting me to this noteworthy man), Robert Peckham was a sixteenth century Englishman, who died in Rome, having left all he loved in England, on account of her having miserably defected from the Catholic Faith.
His anniversary of death falls to-morrow, and I have arranged with Fr Brendan, one of the priests at Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, to have a Requiem Mass said for him at 8.15 am on Thursday morning the 17th (this being the first free day). Hopefully I will serve this Mass. (If anything comes up and the Mass time changes I will hopefully put a note here.)
In case any may scoff and say, What the benefit of a Mass said so many ages later? - I would contend that his friends put up that memorial inscription in his honour not merely to perpetuate his memory and teach future generations something of how godly virtue spurs one to do even the hardest things, but to elicit prayers on his behalf. Would that one day someone remember me after I am dead and gone!
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