BL. EDWARD JONES, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 6 MAY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY

Saints celebrated on the 6th of May

WELCOME!

BLESSED EDWARD JONES, PRIEST AND MARTYR

[Blessed Edward Jones was a] priest and martyr, born in the Diocese of St Asaph, Wales, date unknown; he died in London, May 6, 1590. 

Bred an Anglican, he was received into the Church at the English College, Reims, 1587; he was ordained priest in 1588, and went to England in the same year. 

In 1590 he was arrested by a priest-catcher, who pretended to be a Catholic, in a shop in Fleet Street. He was imprisoned in the Tower and brutally tortured by Topcliffe, finally admitting he was a priest and had been an Anglican. These admissions were used against him at his trial, but he made a skillful and learned defence, pleading that a confession elicited under torture was not legally sufficient to ensure a conviction. The court complimented him on his courageous bearing, but of course he was convicted of high treason as a priest coming into England. On the same day he was hanged, drawn, and quartered, opposite the grocer's shop where he had been captured, in Fleet Street near the Conduit. 

[Edward Jones was beatified on December 15, 1929 by Pope Pius XI.]

Source: Charles F. Wemyss Brown, Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913

⬅️ The Holy Martyrs of England and Wales

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who know how courageously your holy martyr Edward confessed the faith, may experience his goodness as he intercedes for us with you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.