Henry Holland, SJ

Father Henry Holland. according to one account, was arrested in 1648, tried, and condemned to die, but had his sentence commuted to perpetual banishment. According to a more probable statement he was simply recalled by his superiors from England at that date because his age and growing deafness made him no longer suitable for active work in that dangerous period. He spent his remaining years in the College at Liege, and died there on February 29, 1656, at the age of eighty, having spent forty-seven years of his life in the Society. The Rector wrote of him after his death: ' Father Holland was a man of great innocence of life and extraordinary piety. He bore the affliction of his deafness with equanimity and cheerfulness, and endeared himself to all by his purity of life and sweetness of manners. His deafness prevented his enjoyment of conversation during the customary times of recreation, so that he spent nearly the whole of his time in prayer with God, his close union with Whom was frequently manifested by his raising his eyes and hands to heaven. He died rather from old age and decay of nature than from any real disease.' http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/bernard-henry-holland/the-lan...