Nicholas Owen was born around 1550 into a Catholic family and grew to manhood during the time of the Penal Laws. He became a carpenter, and for thirty years or more built hiding-places for priests in the homes of Catholic families. He frequently travelled from one house to another, under the name of “Little John”, accepting only the necessities of life as payment before starting off for a new project. To minimize the likelihood of betrayal he often worked at night, and always alone. The number of hiding-places he constructed will never be known. Early in 1606 he was arrested, giving himself up voluntarily in the hope of distracting attention from some priests who were hiding nearby. After being committed to the Marshalsea, Owen was then removed to the Tower. He was executed on 2 March 1606. It was written of him that “no man can be said to have done more good of all those who laboured in the English vineyard. He was the immediate occasion of saving the lives of many hundreds of persons, both ecclesiastical and secular.”

Diadochus was an influential ascetic of the fifth century. He was born around 400 and died probably between 474 and 486. Photiké, of which he is known to have been bishop in 451, is small town in the province of Old Epira, in the north-western part of present-day Greece.

The theological virtue of hope is symbolized by the colour green, just as the burning fire of love is symbolized by red. Green is the colour of growing things, and hope, like them, is always new and always fresh. Liturgically, green is the colour of Ordinary Time, the orderly sequence of weeks through the year, a season in which we are being neither single-mindedly penitent (in purple) nor overwhelmingly joyful (in white).