St John Southworth

Priest and martyr. John Southworth was born in 1592 in Lancashire. He went overseas to study and was ordained in Douai in 1618.

St John returned to England in 1627 and was soon arrested. He spent three years in prison - the first of several imprisonments.

Most of his priestly work was carried out in Westminster. He was much loved for his ministry to the sick and dying, especially during the plague years. He continued his work until 1654, when he was arrested for the last time, tried and finally condemned to death.

On this day, at the age of 62, he was hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, close to where Marble Arch now stands. St John was the last secular priest to suffer in this way. His body was taken to Douai, embalmed and buried. But when the seminary was demolished, during the French Revolution, his coffin was lost. It was accidentally discovered in 1927 and taken to St Edmund's College in Ware. Three years later St John's body was placed in a shrine at Westminster Cathedral, in the parish where he spent so much of his life.

St John was canonised with the Forty Martyrs in 1970. He is a patron saint of priests, and of Lancashire.

See also: New DVD explores life of St John Southworth: www.indcatholicnews.com/news/19437