St. Nicholas Owen, S.J. is first encountered in 1581 in connection with the martyrdom of Edmund Campion, whose servant he may have been. At all events, he maintained Campion’s innocence of treason with such force that he himself was imprisoned. He must have been tough to survive the appalling conditions, which killed one of his fellow prisoners. Yet he was a small man who walked with a pronounced limp after a pack horse fell on top of him and broke his leg. From 1586 Owen was in the service of Fr Henry Garnet, the Jesuit Provincial, with whom he travelled extensively, staying at Catholic houses where he constructed supremely well-disguised hiding places. A few authentic examples survive: for example, at Sawston Hall near Cambridge, Huddington Court in Worcestershire and Coughton Court in Warwickshire. To maintain security Owen would never discuss this work. While constructing a priest-hole he would ostentatiously engage in repairs in some other part of the house during the day, and work on his hiding places at night. In 1594 Owen accompanied another priest, Fr Gerard, to London, to help him with the purchase of a house. While in town, however, they were betrayed by a servant of the Wiseman family, for whom Owen had constructed a refuge at Broadoaks in Essex. The authorities, aware that Owen was a repository of many secrets of recusant life, tortured him most horribly, but without extracting any compromising information. After his release he helped Fr Gerard escape from the Tower of London by means of a rope strung across the moat. The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 again made Owen a wanted man. With three other Jesuits he took refuge at Hindlip Hall in Worcestershire. When the house was raided, 100 men were employed to search for them, but failed to find the priest-hole. After eight days the starving Owen slipped out of the hiding place unobserved and tried to pass himself off to his captors as a priest in order to save Fr Garnet. The ruse failed, and Owen was mercilessly tortured in the Tower, until on March 22 1606 his entrails burst out when he was on the rack, and he expired.
Link (here) to The Catholic Herald to read the full story.
2 comments:
Poor Owen, But one remembers the martyrs burnt in Oxford during the reign of Bloody Mary and Spanish inquistion. The theocracies of Spain, Ireland, Iran etc.No attending Mass if one uses 'artificial contraception, Transubstantion: belief that the bread and wine undergo physical change into the blood and flesh of Christ!! Museums in the USA show humans among Dinosaur. .Now we have more brainwashed extremists prepared to kill themselves and murder for their God believing they will go straight to a Paradise full of virgins and streams of wine .Huguenot Christians murdered by encouragement of the Sun King.Galileo imprisoned? for saying that the earth went around the sun. All as bad as Marxist brainwashing of the very young. As long as God is part of the equation all argument, criticism becomes null and void for some.Heretics were burned alive and executed just as Fr Owen and the Jesuits stated, " Give me the child and I'll show you the man" I think that is correct.It is something most mothers accept for the most part.
The Buddha, an enlightened man, preached that it is a SIN to be knowingly ignorant just. Jesus the man,preached that To love one's neighbour was the greatest commandment. In the face of 1000's years of accrued knowledge (Science) it is amazing that young children are still being taught that the earth was created in 7 days. Nuff said
The Protestant Inquisition was a thousand times worse than the Spanish Inquisition. Protestants should apologize to more than one hundred thousand women burned as witches under the Protestant inquisition of Luther, Calvin and the Tudors. As for Galileo was born, lived and died as a fervent Catholic.
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