Blessed Richard Whiting

Richard Whiting O.S.B (1461 – 15 November 1539) was an English monk and the last Abbot of Glastonbury. Whiting presided over Glastonbury Abbey at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536–1541) under King Henry VIII of England. The king had him hanged, drawn and quartered after his conviction for treason for remaining loyal to Rome. He is considered a martyr by the Catholic Church, which beatified him on 13 May 1895. Richard Whiting was born near Wrington. He was educated at Glastonbury Abbey, and then at the Monk's Hostel at Cambridge, graduating with an MA in 1483. Whiting was ordained deacon in 1500 and priest in 1501. He returned to Cambridge in 1505 to take his doctor's degree. He served as camerarius at Glastonbury in charge of managing the dormitory, lavatory, and wardrobe of the community. After the death of the Abbot of Glastonbury, Richard Beere, in February 1525, the community elected his successor per formam compromissi, which elevates the selection to a higher ranking personage – in this case Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Wolsey obtained King Henry's permission to act and chose Richard Whiting. The first ten years of Whiting's rule were prosperous and peaceful. He was a sober and caring spiritual leader and a good manager of the abbey's day-to-day life. Contemporary accounts show that Whiting was held in very high esteem. The abbey over which Whiting presided was one of the richest and most influential in England. About one hundred monks lived in the enclosed monastery, where the sons of the nobility and gentry were educated before going on to university. As Abbot of Glastonbury, Whiting was a peer of the realm and administrator of vast estates. Whiting signed his assent to the Act of Supremacy when it was first presented to him and his monks in 1534. Henry sent Richard Layton to examine Whiting and the other inhabitants of the abbey. He found all in good order, but suspended the abbot's jurisdiction over the town of Glastonbury.