In the Archdiocese of Birmingham, the Feast of St John Wall is kept. Originally from Lancashire, he was trained at Douai and served in the Worcester Mission. He had joined the Franciscans, taking the name Fr Joachim of St Anne, the names of the parents of Our Lady, whom we commemorate today.

Canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, his body at his death in 1679 was given to his friends and buried beside the church of St Oswald in Worcester, while his head was taken to the Franciscan Friary of Douai.

May Our Lady, and St John Wall, pray for us, and may God bless you this day.