Edward Jones (died 6 May 1590) was a Welsh martyr of the Roman Catholic Church. He has been beatified in 1926 with the other Douai Martyrs.
Blessed Edward Jones | |
|---|---|
 Statue of Edward Jones in the church of St Etheldreda, Ely Place, London | |
| Martyr | |
| Born | Llanelidan in Dyffryn Clwyd, Wales |
| Died | 6 May 1590 London |
| Beatified | 15 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI |
| Feast | 6 May |
Life
editHe was born in Llanelidan in Dyffryn Clwyd.[1] He was baptised an Anglican in the Diocese of St Asaph. He travelled around Europe, and during his travels he became a Catholic.
In 1587, in Reims, he was received into the Catholic Church. He studied to be a priest at Douai College. On 11 June 1588, he was ordained a priest in Loon. In December 1588, he returned to England and stayed for some time in a grocer's shop in Fleet Street.[1]
In 1590, he was arrested in that shop by Richard Topcliffe, "who pretended to be a Catholic."[1][2] He was taken to the Tower of London and tortured there. At the Old Bailey "he made a skillful and learned defense, pleading that a confession elicited under torture was not legally sufficient to ensure a conviction. The court complimented him on his courageous bearing".[2] Nevertheless, he was convicted of high treason. Together with Anthony Middleton, he was hanged, drawn and quartered on 6 May 1590, opposite the grocer’s shop where he had been captured; "over the gallows there was placed an inscription: 'For treason and favouring of foreign invasion'. When he [Jones] protested he was thrown off the scaffold ... and the butchery began".[3]
Beatification
editHe was beatified on 15 December 1929; his feast day is 6 May.[4]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c School information Archived 2018-11-01 at the Wayback Machine from BlessedEdwardJones.eschools.co.uk, retrieved 31 October 2018
- ^ a b "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Ven. Edward Jones".
- ^ Wittich, John (1988). Catholic London. Herefordshire: Fowler Wright Books. p. 122.
- ^ Catholic.org, retrieved 31 October 1590
Further reading
edit- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1910). . Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
