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Saint Thomas Garnet

detail of a holy card of Saint Thomas Garnet, date and aritst unknown; swiped from Santi e Beati Memorial

23 June
25 October as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
1 December as one of the Martyrs of Oxford University

Profile

Son of Richard Garnet, an Oxford don. Nephew of Henry Garnet, superior of all Jesuits in England, and in charge of the network of covert priests working among the Catholics who had refused to take the oath of Supremacy. Court page to the Count of Arundel as a boy. Because Catholic colleges had been turned over to aggressive Protestants, young Thomas went to the continent in 1593 to attend the newly opened Jesuit college at Saint Omer in the Low Countries. He studied for four years at the college of Saint Alban at Valladolid, Spain where he was ordained. Joined the Jesuits in 1604, but before he could begin his novitiate he was arrested for priesthood and lodged in the Tower of London. Exiled from England in 1606. He returned soon after to minister to covert Catholics, and worked near Warwickshire for six years, but his ministry ended in arrest during the round-up following to the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. A plot was hatched to break Thomas out of jail, but he wrote his superior asking that the plotters not try. One of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.