John Southworth (martyr)

Infobox Saint
name=Saint John Southworth
birth_date= 1592
death_date= death date|1654|6|28|df=yes
feast_day=27 June
venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church


imagesize=180px
caption=St.John Southworth
birth_place=Lancashire, England
death_place=
Tyburn, London, England
titles=Martyr
beatified_date= 1929
beatified_place= Rome
beatified_by= Pope Pius XI
canonized_date= 25 October 1970
canonized_place=Rome
canonized_by=Pope Paul VI
attributes=
patronage=
major_shrine=
suppressed_date=
issues=
prayer=
prayer_attrib=

John Southworth (also called Saint John Southworth, 1592, Lancashire, England - June 28, 1654, Tyburn, London) was an English Catholic martyr.

History

Father John Southworth came from a Lancashire family that chose to pay heavy fines rather than give up the Catholic faith.

He studied at the English College in Douai, now in northern France, (and then moved to Hertfordshire, St Edmunds College) and was ordained priest before he returned to England. Imprisoned and sentenced to death for professing the Catholic faith, he was later deported to France. Once more he returned to England and lived in Clerkenwell, London, during a plague epidemic. He assisted and converted the sick in Westminster and was arrested again.

He was again arrested under the Interregnum and was tried at the Old Bailey under Elizabethan anti-priest legislation . He pleaded guilty to exercising the priesthood and was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. At his execution at Tyburn, he was hanged but spared the drawing and quartering.

The Spanish ambassador returned his corpse to Douai for burial. His corpse was sewn together and parboiled, to preserve it. Following the French Revolution, his body was buried in an unmarked grave for its protection. The grave was discovered in 1927 and his remains were returned to England. They are now kept in the Chapel of St George and the English Martyrs in Westminster Cathedral in London.

Catholic ceremony

He was beatified in 1929.

In 1970, he was canonized by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

His feast day is 27th June but this is only celebrated in the Westminster diocese.

References

* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14165a.htm St. John Southworth] "Catholic Encyclopedia"
* [http://www.stthomasirondequoit.com/SaintsAlive/id758.htm St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, 4536 St. Paul Blvd. Rochester, New York 14617]

ee also

* [http://www.st-john-southworth.lancsngfl.ac.uk/St John Southworth Roman Catholic Primary School] , Lomeshaye Road, Nelson, Lancashire, BB9 0DQ