Media outlets in Wales like the BBC and Golwg360 thought the fact that the Welsh language was spoken in an official capacity for the first time in Westminster Cathedral was the worthy story on Saturday, and not the fact that the British State used to execute Christians. The great and the good of England and Wales gathered in that great non-conformist cathedral to celebrate the martyrdom of John Roberts, Trawsfynydd.

Roberts started out his journey of faith with the Church of England and was therefore granted access to St John’s College, Oxford. He was there for only two years and left without graduating, choosing instead to study law at the Inns of Court. In 1598 he travelled to Paris and it was there that he converted to Catholicism – a very dangerous thing for a British person to do at the time. He returned to England in 1603 intent on doing what can be best described as mission work but was arrested and deported.

This happened on a number of occasions and finally in 1610 he was captured for the final time just as he was concluding mass. He was found guilty under an act that forbade Catholic priests from ministering in England and was hanged, drawn and quartered. He was made a saint in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.

John Roberts was a passionate Christian and was, of course, a nonconformist during a time when it was especially dangerous to be so. How ironic, therefore, that the great and the good of the English and Welsh establishment were there on Saturday to commemorate the 400^th anniversary of his martyrdom – a line-up headed up by Archbishop Rowan Williams (who spoke Welsh) and Welsh Assembly Presiding Officer Dafydd Ellis Thomas (himself a high Anglican).

Would the man himself have been pleased with such an auspicious occasion? I’m not sure either way. I am sure, however, that he would have wanted the fact of religious freedom to have been celebrated and that nonconformity is today an accepted practice; especially in Wales, maybe – for since the Church of England was disestablished here in 1920, we are all nonconformists now.

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