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Saint John Boste

Also known as

John Boast

24 July
25 October as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
29 October as one of the Martyrs of Douai
1 December as one of the Martyrs of Oxford University

Profile

Educated at Queen’s College, Oxford, England from 1569 to 1572. Fellow at Queen’s College. Convert to Catholicism in 1576 at Brome, Suffolk, England. Resigned his position at Oxford, and studied in Rheims, France in 1580. Ordained on 4 March 1581. Returned to England in April 1581 as a missioner to the northern counties, often disguised as a servant in the livery costume of Lord Montacute. Assisted in his mission by Blessed John Speed. He became the object of an intense manhunt, was betrayed by Francis Ecclesfield near Durham, England on 5 July 1593 at the home of one William Claxton, and arrested. He was sent to the Tower of London where he was crippled by being tortured on the rack. Sent to Durham in July 1594, where he was tried for the treason of being a priest. One of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.