- John Woodcock (martyr)
Infobox Saint
name=Blessed John Woodcock
birth_date=1603
death_date=death date|1646|8|7|df=y
feast_day=
venerated_in=Roman Catholicism
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birth_place= Leyland,Lancashire ,England
death_place=Lancaster Castle , Lancaster,Lancashire ,England
titles=
beatified_date=November 22 1987
beatified_place=
beatified_by=John Paul II
canonized_date=
canonized_place=
canonized_by=
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patronage=
major_shrine=
suppressed_date=
issues=
prayer=
prayer_attrib=John Woodcock was born in Leyland,
Lancashire ,England in. His parents, Thomas and Dorothy Woodcock, the latter aCatholic , were of the middle class. Woodcock converted to Catholicism about 1622, and after studying atSaint-Omer for a year was admitted to theEnglish College ,Rome , on20 October 1629 .On
16 May ,1630 , he joined theOrder of Friars Minor Capuchin inParis , but soon afterwards transferred himself to the EnglishFranciscan s atDouai . He received the habit fromHenry Heath in 1631 and was professed byArthur Bell a year later. For some years he lived atArras as chaplain to a Mr. Sheldon.Late in 1643 he landed at
Newcastle-on-Tyne , and was arrested on the first night he spent inLancashire . After two years' imprisonment inLancaster Castle , he was condemned on6 August 1646 , on his own confession, for being a priest, together with two others,Edward Bamber andThomas Whittaker .On
7 August ,1646 , in an attempted execution, he was flung off a ladder, but the rope broke. He was then hanged a second time, was cut down and disemboweled alive. TheFranciscan Sisters atTaunton possess an arm-bone of the martyr.John Woodcock was among the
eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales beatified byPope John Paul II on22 November 1987 .
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