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Manchester: Centenary Celebration for John Bradburne


A major celebration is to take place next Saturday to mark the 100th birthday of the man who could become the next English saint to be canonised. Holy Name church in Manchester will be hosting a special celebration on Saturday 25 September to mark the centenary of WW2 soldier and Franciscan missionary John Bradburne.

John Bradburne was born at Skirwith in Cumbria on 14 June 1921 and was the son of an Anglican vicar. He served with the Gurkhas and Chindits in the Second World War and after a conversion experience in Malaya, he became a Catholic in 1947.

After many years wandering England, Italy and the Middle East, he finally found his calling as a lay Franciscan missionary in Zimbabwe and he devoted the latter part of his life to helping forgotten leprosy patients at the Mutemwa Leprosy Settlement.

He refused to leave the leprosy settlement during the Zimbabwean civil war and was abducted and shot dead on 5 September 1979.

Since Bradburne's death, the settlement has become a major pilgrimage centre, with thousands gathering for Mass each year on the anniversary of his death.

In 2019, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome formally began the cause of his beatification.

St John Henry Newman became the first English saint in almost 50 years when he was canonised in 2019.

Bradburne is also in the Guinness Book of Records as the most prolific poet ever, having written in verse throughout his life.

Kate Macpherson, secretary of the John Bradburne Memorial Society, said: "John has been nominated for sainthood because of his amazing selfless work at Mutemwa with leprosy patients.

"John was the pilgrim who eventually found the meaning of his life not in the solitude he had long searched for but in living alongside others, and trying his best to achieve justice so that people living with leprosy - amongst the world's most marginalised people of his day - could live enriching and meaningful lives, praising God as he did."

The programme will comprise a selection of John's poems set to music specially composed by Fredrick Stocken, Gareth Treseder, Father Dominic White, Kim Porter, Philip Berthoud and many more. Their compositions will have their world premiere at the event and will be performed by The Bury Choral Society, The Zimbabwean Community Choir England & Wales, The Didsbury String Quartet, The Gurkha Band and much more. There will be poetry read by Professor David Crystal, Maria Apichelle and David Tibet and a homily given by the Bishop of Lancaster, The Right Reverend Paul Swarbrick and prayers by the Bishop of Salford, The Right Reverend John Arnold.

The John Bradburne Memorial Society will unveil the new John Bradburne Icon that has been privately commissioned as a gift to John on his birthday, painted by James Blackstone and there will be an exhibition of John's relics that will be able to be seen during the interval and after the event.

For tickets see: www.johnbradburne.com/product/centenary-celebration-for-john-randal-bradburne/


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