St. Edmund Campion

Biography

St. Edmund Campion (1540–1581) was born in London on January 25, 1540, the son of a bookseller. A gifted student, he won a place at St. John's College, Oxford, where his eloquence made him famous. He accepted ordination as a deacon in the Church of England, but his study of the Church Fathers convinced him of the Catholic faith. In 1571 he left for the English College at Douai, was reconciled to the Catholic Church, and in 1573 walked to Rome, where he entered the Society of Jesus. Ordained a priest in Prague in 1578, he was sent back to England in 1580 with Fr. Robert Persons. Catholic worship was then outlawed, and priests risked death. Moving in disguise from house to house, he preached, heard confessions, and celebrated Mass. He wrote an open letter to the Privy Council, later called 'Campion's Brag,' declaring, 'The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God, it cannot be withstood.' Betrayed and arrested at Lyford Grange in July 1581, he was imprisoned in the Tower, tortured, and convicted of treason on false charges. He was executed at Tyburn on December 1, 1581, with Sts. Ralph Sherwin and Alexander Briant. He was beatified in 1886 and canonized by Pope St. Paul VI in 1970 among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. St. Charles de Foucauld is also honored today.

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