- John Adams (martyr)
Infobox Saint
name=Blessed John Adams
birth_date=c. 1543
death_date=death date|1586|10|8|mf=y
feast_day=
venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church
imagesize=
caption=
birth_place=Winterbourne St Martin inDorset
death_place=Tyburn inLondon
titles=
beatified_date=November 22 1987
beatified_place=
beatified_by=John Paul II
canonized_date=
canonized_place=
canonized_by=
attributes=
patronage=
major_shrine=
suppressed_date=
issues=
prayer=
prayer_attrib=John Adams was a Catholic priest and martyr.
He was born at
Winterbourne St Martin inDorset at an unknown date (c. 1543?) and became a Protestant minister. He later entered theCatholic Church and travelled to the English College then at Rheims, arriving onDecember 7 1579 . He was ordained a priest atSoissons onDecember 17 1580 . He set out for the mission in England onMarch 29 1581 . He is known to have worked in Hampshire but details of his later, as of his earlier life are patchy. It may be that he was taken prisoner at Rye only a short time after landing in England and that he escaped. In 1583 he was described as a man of "about forty years of age, of average height, with a dark beard, a sprightly look and black eyes. He was a very good controversialist, straightforward, very pious, and pre-eminently a man of hard work. He laboured very strenuously at Winchester and in Hampshire, where he helped many, especially of the poorer classes." Captured atWinchester , he was brought to London and arrived at theMarshalsea prison onMarch 7 1584 . His sentence this time was banishment and he was expelled with some seventy-two other priests. He arrived at Rheims onNovember 14 1585 but then set out again and was again captured, being taken to theClink in London onDecember 19 the same year. This time, as was to be expected, he was not treated so lightly, especially since that year the Act had been passed making it a capital offence to be a Catholic priest in England. The sentence of hanging, drawing and quartering was completed atTyburn, London onOctober 8 1586 . His fate was shared by two fellow priests, John Lowe andRobert Dibdale , and maybe his own brother, a layman. This latter fact is not certain and the forename is not in any case known. All three priests were declared Blessed (the last stage prior to sainthood) by PopeJohn Paul II onNovember 22 1987 .ources
*The most reliable compact source is Godfrey Anstruther, "Seminary Priests," St Edmund's College, Ware, vol. 1, 1968, pp. 1-2.
*catholic, with corrections and adaptations.
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