Saint Edmund Campion 12-01

realcatholictv on Oct 24, 2011 English Jesuit priest and martyr.
Also known as

The Pope’s Champion
Memorial

1 December
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

Son of a Catholic bookseller named Edmund whose family converted to Anglicanism. The boy planned to enter his father‘s trade, but earned a scholarship to Saint John’s College, Oxford under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth I‘s court favorite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Sought after speaker. Queen Elizabeth offered him a deaconate in the Church of England. He declined the offer, fled to the continent, and joined the Jesuits. Ordained in 1578.
He spent some time working in Bohemia, then returned to London,England as part of a Jesuit mission, crossing the Channel disguised as a jewel merchant. Edmund worked with Jesuit brother Saint Nicholas Owen. In London he wrote a description of his new mission in which he explained his work was religious, not political; it became known as Campion’s Brag. Widely distributed, it encouraged many Catholics to remain loyal to their faith. It also led to Edmund’s arrest, imprisonment and torture in the Tower of London, and martyrdom.
Born

24 January 1540 at London, England
Died

hanged, drawn, and quartered on 1 December 1581 at Tyburn, London, England
parts of his body were displayed at each of the four city gates as a warning to other Catholics
relics at Rome, Prague, London, Oxford, Stonyhurst, and Roehampton
Beatified

9 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII
Canonized

May 1970 by Pope Paul VI
one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
catholicsaints.info/saint-edmund-campion/