London: Talk on 'Anne Line - Shakespeare’s Tragic Muse'

St Anne Line

A new biography has just been written on St Anne Line by Martin Dodswell who will be giving a talk on his book at 3.30pm in the Parish Hall of St Anne Line Parish, South Woodford this Sunday 2 February – followed by Benediction in the church at 4.30pm.

It is very appropriate that Martin Dodswell is giving his talk in the only parish dedicated to St Anne Line in London where she was martyred in 1601 - and on Candlemas Day. Candlemas Day, known more formally as the Feast of the Presentation and in the past as the Feast of the Purification of Our Lady.

It commemorates the time that Mary and Joseph took the baby Jesus to the temple to offer the sacrifice required in the law and were greeted by the holy widow Anna and the prophet Simeon (Luke 2:22-38).

Candlemas is also the day on which the holy widow Anne Line was arrested 413 years ago when there was a raid on the rooms she rented in Fetter Lane, London. It was the eve of her 18th wedding anniversary.

At the scaffold she repeated what she had said at her trial, declaring loudly to the bystanders: "I am sentenced to die for harbouring a Catholic priest, and so far I am from repenting for having so done, that I wish, with all my soul, that where I have entertained one, I could have entertained a thousand."

St Anne Line, who was a convert rom Calvinism, is the patron saint of widows and of priests' housekeepers. Her Feast Day is on Monday 3 February.

St Anne Line Parish is in Grove Crescent, South Woodford, London, E18 2JR. There is ample parking at the church. It is close to South Woodford Station (Central Line) and to both the MII and the A406.The Parish Hall is at the back of the Church - entrance via the car park.

See also: http://theneatherdsdaughter.wordpress.com/about-4/