Ambrose Barlow

Infobox Saint
name=Ambrose Edward Barlow
birth_date=1585
death_date=death date|1641|9|10|df=y
feast_day= 25 October (as part of the 40 Martyrs)
venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church


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birth_place=Barlow Hall, near Manchester, England
death_place=Lancaster, England
titles=
beatified_date=15 December 1929
beatified_place=Rome
beatified_by=Pope Pius XI
canonized_date=25 October 1970
canonized_place=Rome
canonized_by=Pope Paul VI, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
attributes=
patronage=
major_shrine=
issues=
Saint Ambrose (Edward) Barlow (1585 – September 10 1641), was a Catholic priest and martyr.

Early life and education

Barlow was born in Barlow Hall near Manchester, the fourth son of Sir Alexander Barlow, knight, of Barlow Hall, and his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Uryan Brereton, knight, of Handforth Hall, Cheshire. He was baptised at Didsbury Church on 30 November, 1585. Barlow adhered to Anglicanism until 1607, when he converted to Catholicism. Barlow was educated at the Benedictine monastery of St. Gregory in Douai, France, and entered the English College in Valladolid, Spain, on September 20, 1610. He later returned to Douai where his elder brother (William) Rudesind Barlow was a professed monk. Barlow also professed in 1614 and was ordained a priest in 1617.

Mission and martyrdom

After his ordination to the priesthood in Douai, Barlow was sent to England on the mission in south Lancashire. He resided chiefly at Wardley Hall, the seat of the Downe family, just off the A6 road near Worsley, Manchester, and at Morley's Hall, a mansion of the Tyldesley family, in the parish of Leigh, approximately seven miles from Manchester. Pursued by the authorities and Anglican churchmen, Barlow was imprisoned at least four times for his proselytisation. He was caught for the fifth and final time on Easter Sunday, 25 April, 1641 and was arrested by the Vicar of Eccles. He was paraded at the head of his parishioners, dressed in his surplice, followed by some 400 men armed with clubs and swords. Although he had been preaching at the time of his apprehension, and could possibly have escaped in the confusion, he voluntarily yielded himself to his enemies. He was taken to Lancaster Castle and, after four months' imprisonment, was tried on September 6th or 7th, and sentenced the following day after confessing to being a Catholic priest. On Friday September 10 he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Lancaster.

Hagiography and relics

Challoner (see below) compiled Barlow's biography from two manuscripts belonging to St Gregory's Monastery, one of which was written by his brother Dom Rudesind Barlow, President of the English Benedictine Congregation. A third manuscript, entitled "The Apostolical Life of Ambrose Barlow", was written by one of his pupils for Dom Rudesind, and is presently in the Library of Owens College in Manchester; it has been printed by the Chetham Society. There also exist two portraits of Barlow and one of his father, Sir Alexander. Many of his relics are also preserved, a hand being at Stanbrook Abbey near Worcester and his skull in Wardley Hall.

In 1970 Ambrose Barlow was canonised by Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, whose feast day is 10 October.

ources

(in 1913)
*Allanson, Biographical MSS. (preserved at Ampleforth Abbey), I
*Joseph Gillow, "Bibliographical Dictionary Eng. Cath." (London, 1885)
*Fletcher Moss, "Pilgrimages to Old Homes" (Didsbury, 1903)
*"idem", "History of Didsbury" (Manchester)
*"idem", "Chronicles of Cheadle, Cheshire" (Didsbury, 1894)
*Charles Dodd, "Church History of England" (Brussels, 1739).

(modern)
*Butler's "Lives of the Saints", ix (revised ed, 2000)
*Bede Camm, "Nine Martyr Monks" (1931)
*Richard Challoner (ed. John Hungerford Pollen), "Memoirs of Missionary Priests" (1924)
*"New Catholic Encyclopedia" (1967)
*Rhodes, W.E. (ed), "The Apostolical Life of Ambrose Barlow" (Chetham Society, 1909)