Flemish
engraving of Edward Oldcorne (1561–1606), English Jesuit
priest, 1608
Bienheureux Edouard
Olcorne, jésuite, martyr
Natif d'York, il fut
ordonné prêtre à Rome est accepté dans la Compagnie de Jésus en 1587. Il
travailla dans les Midlands à partir de 1588 et fut condamné à mort à Worcester
pour une participation fictive à la conspiration des Poudres.
Bienheureux Edouard
Oldcorne
Martyr (+ 1606)
Né en 1561 à York, il fit
des études de médecine, quitta l'Angleterre pour étudier en France puis alla au
séminaire à Rome.
En 1588, il prit le
risque de rentrer en Angleterre avec un petit groupe de prêtres. En 1589 Edouard
est envoyé à Hindlip Hall près de Worcester. Il y reste 18 ans risquant sa vie
pour aider les gens, les convertir ou les ramener à la foi catholique. En 1591
la reine Elizabeth proclame que tous les prêtres étant des espions doivent être
expulsés en Espagne.
Des prêtres, y compris le
père Edouard Oldcorne, continuèrent à parcourir le pays pour dire la messe dans
la clandestinité.
Arrêté en 1606, il fut à
tort accusé d'être complice du complot des Poudres contre le Parlement. Amené à
Londres, il a été torturé pendant 5 jours... Il a été exécuté le 7 avril 1606
juste à l'extérieur de Worcester.
Béatifié par le Pape Pie
IX le 15 décembre 1929.
À Winchester, en
Angleterre, l’an 1606, les bienheureux martyrs Edouard Oldcorne, prêtre, et Raoul Ashley,
religieux de la Compagnie de Jésus, qui exercèrent leur ministère en cachette
pendant de nombreuses années mais, accusés faussement de complot contre le roi
Jacques Ier, ils furent mis en prison, torturés et enfin pendus et dépecés,
alors qu’ils respiraient encore.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/10228/Bienheureux-Edouard-Oldcorne.html
Supplices
de Edward Oldcorne et de Nicholas Owen, gravure par Gaspar Bouttats
Edward
Oldcorne and Nicholas Owen, engraving by Gaspar
Bouttats
Profile
Jesuit priest, ordained in Rome, Italy,
and received into the Society in 1587.
Worked in the English mission in
Worcestershire for 16 years. Father Edward
developed throat cancer,
but kept preaching through
the pain. He made a pilgrimage to
the shrine of Saint Winifred
of Wales in Flintshire to seek a cure;
his cancer healed,
and he returned strong and healthy to his vocation.
Edward fell victim to the
revenge following the Gunpowder
Plot, a foolish conspiracy hatched by a small group of frustrated Catholic Englishmen to
blow up the king and
parliament. All it did was provide an excuse for renewed persecution of Catholics,
especially Jesuits.
Edward was arrested, falsely accused,
and tortured on
the rack for five days for information about the Plot. Martyred with Blessed Ralph
Ashley.
Born
1561 at York,
North Yorkshire, England
hanged,
drawn, and quartered on 7 April 1607 at
Worcester, Worcestershire, England
8
December 1929 by Pope Pius XI (decree of martyrdom)
15
December 1929 by Pope Pius XI
Additional
Information
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
images
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
Martirologio Romano, 2005 edition
MLA
Citation
“Blessed Edward
Oldcorne“. CatholicSaints.Info. 7 April 2024. Web. 13 January 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-edward-oldcorne/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-edward-oldcorne/
Bl. Edward Oldcorne
Feastday: April 7
Birth: 1561
Death: 1606
English martyr allegedly
involved in the Gunpowder Plot. He was born in York, England, and ordained in
Rome. In 1587, he became a Jesuit. Returning to England, Edward worked in the
Midlands from 1588 to 1606. He was then condemned to death at Worcester for
alleged coinplicity in the Gunpowder Plot He was beatified in 1929.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3055
Ven. Edward Oldcorne
Martyr,
b. 1561; d. 1606. His father was a Protestant,
and his mother a Catholic.
He was educated as
a doctor, but later decided to enter the priesthood,
went to the English College at Reims,
then to Rome,
where, after ordination,
in 1587, he became a Jesuit.
Next year he returned to England in
company with Father
John Gerard, and worked, chiefly in Worcester,
until he was arrested with Father
Henry Garnet and taken to the Tower. No evidence connecting him with
the Gunpowder
Plot could be obtained, and he was executed for his priesthood only.
Two letters of his are at Stonyhurst (Ang.,
III, 1; VII, 60); the second, written from prison,
overflows with zeal and charity.
His last combat took place on 7 April, at Red Hill, Worcester.
With him suffered his faithful servant, the Ven. Ralph Ashby, who is
traditionally believed to have been a Jesuit lay-brother.
Oldcorne's picture, painted after
his death for the Gesú, is extant, and a number of his relics.
Sources
FOLEY, Records S.
J., IV, 202; MORRIS, John Gerard, x; GILLOW, Bibl. Dict.
Eng. Cath., s.v.
Pollen, John Hungerford.
"Ven. Edward Oldcorne." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York:
Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 6 Apr. 2015
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11237a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by WGKofron. With thanks to St.
Mary's Church, Akron, Ohio.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2023 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11237a.htm
April 7, 1606: Blessed Edward Oldcorne and Ralph Ashley, SJ
Two Jesuits suffered martyrdom on April 7, 1606 in connection with the Gunpowder Plot early in James I's reign--although they had no involvement with the Plot, the fact that they were companions and associates of Father Henry Garnet--and in fact, were captured with him after hiding for days in different hiding places within Hindlip Hall. Also captured that day was the designer and builder of those hiding places, Jesuit lay brother Nicholas Owen. The two lay brothers were in one hiding place and the two priests in another. The pursuivants could not find them--searching the house for days--but they finally had to leave their sanctuaries becauce of hunger and thirst. The illustration at the right shows Father Oldcorne and Owen enduring torture.
Blessed
Edward Oldcorne was a Jesuit priest, ordained in Rome, Italy, and
received into the Society in 1587. Worked in the English mission in
Worcestershire for 16 years. Father Edward developed throat cancer, but kept
preaching through the pain. He made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint
Winifred of Wales in Flintshire to seek a cure; his cancer healed, and he
returned strong and healthy to his vocation.
Edward fell victim to the
revenge following the Gunpowder Plot, a foolish conspiracy hatched by a small
group of frustrated Catholic Englishmen to blow up the king and parliament. All
it did was provide an excuse for renewed persecution of Catholics, especially
Jesuits. Edward was arrested, falsely accused, and tortured on the rack for
five days for information about the Plot. He was hung, drawn and quartered on
April 7, 1607 with Blessed Ralph Ashley, SJ.
Blessed
Ralph Ashley worked as a cook at Douai College. Entered the English
College at Valladolid on 28 April 1590 where he became a Jesuit lay brother.
Ill health forced him to leave college and return to England. Along the way he
was captured by Dutch heretics; he stood up to them and explained their errors.
Finally landed in England on 9 March 1598.
Servant and assistant to
Blessed Edward Oldcorne. Arrested on 23 January 1606 at Hindlip House, near
Worcester, England in connection with the Gunpowder Plot, and for the crime of
helping a priest. Transferred to the Tower of London on 3 February 1606 along
with Father Henry Garnet and Saint Nicholas Owen. Tortured for information on
other Catholics and for the hiding places of priests. When they could get no
information from him, he was transferred to Worcester, and condemned for his
faith.
Of the four Jesuits
captured at Hindlip
Hall, three were recognized as martyrs by the Catholic Church and beatified
or canonized. The torture and questioning of the two lay Jesuit brothers, St.
Nicholas Owen and Blessed Ralph Ashley, was focused on discovering more hiding
places like the ones the four Jesuits had been hiding in at Hindlip Hall. Owen
died as a result of the torture meted out to him. Blessed Edward Oldcorne, because
he was found with Garnet, was questioned about the plot. Father Henry Garnet
has not been proclaimed a martyr by the Church, I presume because of questions
about his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot. According to the old Catholic
Encyclopedia (1909):
It is a matter of regret
that we have as yet nothing like an authoritative pronouncement from Rome on
the subject of Garnet's martyrdom. His name was indeed proposed with that of
the other English Martyrs and Confessors in 1874, and his cause was then based
upon the testimonies of Bellarmine and the older Catholic writers, which was
the correct plea for the proof of Fama Martyrii, then to be demonstrated. But these
ancient authorities are not acquainted with Garnet's actual confessions which
were not known or published in their time. The consequence was that, as the
discussion proceeded, their evidence was found to be inconclusive, and an open
verdict was returned; thus his martyrdom was held to be neither proved nor
disproved. This of course led to his cause being "put off" (dilatus)
for further inquiry, which involves in Rome a delay of many years.
"A delay of many
years" indeed.
SOURCE : http://supremacyandsurvival.blogspot.ca/2013/04/april-7-1606-blessed-edward-oldcorne.html<
Blessed Edward Oldcorne
& Ralph Ashley, SJ MM (AC)
Died 1606; beatified in
1929. Edward Oldcorne was born in York, ordained for the priesthood in Rome,
and received into the Society of Jesus in 1587. He worked in the Midlands from
1588 until his arrest. He was condemned to death at Worcester for alleged
complicity in the Gunpowder Plot. Ralph Ashley was a Jesuit lay- brother who
was martyred with Fr. Oldcorne, whom he was attending (Benedictines).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0407.shtml
Edward Oldcorne SJ
Edward Oldcorne was born in York in 1561. Among his school friends were John and Christopher Wright and Guy Fawkes. He attended the English College at Reims. After ordination in Rome in 1587, he became a Jesuit in 1588. He returned to England with John Gerard, and carried out clandestine ministry in the West Midlands for 17 years. He often stayed at Hindlip Hall which was adapted by Nicholas Owen to include a number of priest holes. In 1601 Oldcorne made a pilgrimage to St Winefride's Well in north Wales to cure his throat cancer. The cancer cleared up and in 1605 he returned to give thanks for his recovery. Amongst his companions were Jesuits Ralph Ashley, Henry Garnet, Nicholas Owen and John Gerard. Also the Gunpowder plotter Everard Digby. The government investigation into the Plot used this trip as evidence to implicate innocent participants. When the Gunpowder Plot was discovered, Oldcorne, Owen, Garnet and Ashley were at Hindlip Hall. Their hiding places were not discovered but they were starved out. Oldcorne was tortured at the Tower of London but no evidence was found to connect him to the Plot. Nevertheless he was executed in April 1606 at Worceste, alongside John Wintour, Humphrey Littleton (who were plotters) and Ralph Ashley. He was beatified in 1929. The relic of his eye is preserved at Stonyhurst College.
SOURCE : http://www.jesuit.org.uk/profile/edward-oldcorne-sj
Edward Oldcorne was
born in York, England of a non-Catholic father and a Catholic mother. He gave
up medical studies and enrolled at the English College in Rheims, France in
1581 before going on to Rome to complete his studies and was ordained. Soon
after, he joined the Society of Jesus and was allowed to complete his novitiate
in a very short time because of the difficult conditions he would face upon his
return to England.
Fr Oldcorne stayed with
Fr Garnet, the superior of the English Jesuits upon arrival but after a few
months he was assigned to Hinlip Hall outside Worcester where he was to spend
sixteen years. The master of Hinlip Hall was an ardent Catholic who was in
prison and had left the property in the care of his sister, Dorothy, a
Protestant who had been at the court of Elizabeth. While priests still found
hospitality in Hinlip Hall, she merely tolerated their presence. Many priests
had tried to reconcile her to the Church without success. It was left to Fr
Oldcorne to find the way. She listened to his instructions and sermons,
unconvinced; but when she learned that he had been fasting for days to bring
about her conversion, she finally yielded to God’s grace and her conversion led
many others in Worcester to return to the faith of their ancestors. The Hall
became the Jesuit’s base of operations where many came to seek the sacraments
and hear Fr Oldcorne’s preaching. His health was poor ever since he returned to
England and he had throat cancer that left him with a hoarse and painful voice,
but did not keep him from preaching. His cancer was healed following a
pilgrimage to St Winifred’s shrine in 1591.
Catholics in England were
looking forward to the end of persecution when Queen Elizabeth died and James I
ascended the throne in 1603 as he had promised to be more tolerant, but in
fact, the persecution increased. This angered some Catholics who plotted to
blow up the Houses of Parliament during the king’s visit on Nov 5, 1605. The
plot was discovered and with that the hatred for Catholics intensified. The
government was determined to implicate the Jesuits in the so-called “Gunpowder
Plot” despite the capture of the men behind it. The Jesuit superior Fr Garnet
decided to leave London and seek shelter at the Hall, which had more hiding
places than any other mansion in England. Bro Nicholas Owen, the person who
constructed all the priest-hiding places was with him and they joined Frs
Oldcorne and Ashley.
The sheriff of
Worcestershire and 100 of his men arrived at the Hall and spent several days
searching for priests together with a certain Humphrey Littleton who betrayed
Fr Oldcorne. The sheriff stationed a man in each room of the house and ordered
others to tap on the walls in the hope of locating concealed priest-holes. By
the end of the third day they found eleven such hiding places, but no priests,
On the fourth day, starvation and thirst forced Br Ashley and Br Owen to emerge
from their hole. They had hoped the sheriff would think that he had finally
caught his prey and end the search, leaving the two priests in safety. But the
sheriff was determined and his men continued their close examination of the house.
Finally on the eighth day, Jan 27, 1606 Frs Oldcorne and Garnet were discovered
when they emerged white, ill and weak. All four were taken to the Tower of
London.
When the prison officials
failed in their efforts to eavesdrop and record any conversation which could
link the two priests to the Gunpowder plot, Fr Oldcorne was tortured on the
rack five hours a day for five consecutive days. Yet he refused to say
anything. When they were put on trial, Fr Oldcorne denied the charge of being
involved so well that the charge against him was changed to simply being a
Jesuit priest. On this new charge, Fr Oldcorne was found guilty and ordered to
be executed. Just before he was hanged, his betrayer asked for pardon, which Fr
Oldcorne readily granted, and he also prayed for the king, his accusers and the
judge and jury who condemned him. He was pushed from the ladder and was cut
down before he was dead and then beheaded and quartered.
SOURCE : http://companions-on-the-journey.blogspot.ca/2008/04/born-1561-died-april-7-1606-beatifie.html
Edward Oldcorne
Born : 1561 -
Yorkshire
Died : 7 April 1606
- Red Hill, Worcester
Edward Oldcorne was a
school friend of John and Christopher Wright and Guy Fawkes. Although his
father was a Protestant, he was educated in his mothers Catholic faith. A
relative, Alice Oldcorne, perhaps his mother, suffered imprisonment in York for
her adherance to the Catholic faith. Edward was educated as a doctor, but
entered the priesthood at the English College at Rheims, being ordained in Rome
in 1587. The following year he became a Jesuit, and returned to England along
with John Gerard.
Working chiefly in
Worcester, he developed throat cancer, but a pilgrimage to St. Winifred's Well
in 1591 cured him. Oldcorne was eventually arrested along with Henry Garnet,
Nicholas Owen and Ralph Ashley at Hindlip House, from where he was transported
to the Tower. After interrogation, he was returned to Worcester, where he was
executed along with Humphrey Littleton, John Wintour and Ralph Ashley.
SOURCE : http://www.gunpowder-plot.org/oldcorne.asp
Menology
of England and Wales – Venerable Edward Oldcorne and Venerable Ralph Ashley,
Martyrs, 1606
Edward Oldcorne was a
native of Yorkshire, and was sent for his studies to the English College at
Rheims, and afterwards to that at Rome. When ordained priest and about to be
sent on the Mission, he obtained admission into the Society of Jesus, with a
dispensation from the regular noviceship, in place of which his labours in the
dangers of the Mission were to be counted. He was sent by his Superior into
Worcestershire, and took up his abode at Henlip, the seat of Mr. Abington.
There he laboured during seventeen years with great zeal and equal success, and
the many escapes he had from his persecutors seemed to be something miraculous.
On the discovery of the
gunpowder plot, Father Henry Garnet, who was especially sought for by the
King’s officers, took refuge at Henlip, and was eventually discovered in the
same hiding-place with Oldcorne. They were both arrested as conspirators, and
Oldcorne sent for trial to Worcester. He denied all knowledge of the
conspiracy, until it was divulged by public report, and there was no evidence
against him until Littleton, one of the conspirators, in the hope of saving his
own life, charged him with being of the number of the plotters. The unhappy
man, however, when his expectation proved to be vain, on the scaffold
acknowledged that his accusation was untrue, and humbly begged pardon of the
injured priest.
Father Oldcorne met his
death with great devotion and sentiments of charity towards all, but continued
to protest his innocence. The cruel sentence was fully carried out, and after
his death there were not wanting various occurrences which appeared to be miraculous
attestations of his guiltlessness.
At the same time and at
the same place, the Venerable Ralph Ashley, a lay brother of the Society, also
suffered death by hanging. The only charge which could be brought against him
was that of aiding and abetting Father Oldcorne, by acting as his attendant, an
offence which, according to the law then in force, was the crime of felony.
MLA
Citation
Father Richard Stanton.
“Venerable Edward Oldcorne and Venerable Ralph Ashley, Martyrs, 1606”. Menology of England and Wales, 1887. CatholicSaints.Info.
17 March 2019. Web. 13 January 2025. <https://catholicsaints.info/menology-of-england-and-wales-venerable-edward-oldcorne-and-venerable-ralph-ashley-martyrs-1606/>
Beato Edoardo Oldcorne Martire
>>>
Visualizza la Scheda del Gruppo cui appartiene
York, Inghilterra, 1561 -
Worcester, Inghilterra, 7 aprile 1606
Emblema: Palma
Martirologio Romano: A
Worcester sempre in Inghilterra, beati martiri Edoardo Oldcorne, sacerdote, e
Rodolfo Ashley, religioso della Compagnia di Gesù, che esercitarono
clandestinamente per molti anni il loro ministero, finché, sotto la falsa
accusa di cospirazione contro il re Giacomo I, furono gettati in carcere,
torturati e infine tagliati a pezzi ancora vivi.
Il beato Edoardo Oldcorne fa parte di quella schiera di martiri, ecclesiastici e laici, che furono vittime delle persecuzioni anticattoliche in Inghilterra, sotto i regni di Elisabetta I e del suo successore Giacomo I (1566-1625).
Egli nacque a York nel 1560/61, fu educato alla religione cattolica in una famiglia di cui il padre era un convertito dall’anglicanesimo; il 12 agosto 1581 fu ammesso al Collegio Inglese di Reims e inviato poi l’anno successivo con altri sette compagni a proseguire gli studi nel Collegio Inglese di Roma.
Fu ordinato sacerdote il 23 agosto 1587 nella Basilica di S. Giovanni in Laterano, chiese ed ottenne dal generale dei gesuiti Claudio Acquaviva di entrare nella Compagnia di Gesù, promettendo di andare ad operare nelle missioni inglesi.
Insieme ad un confratello nel 1588, tornò in Inghilterra e dopo aver soggiornato brevemente a Londra, si stabilì nel 1589 nella Contea di Worcester nel castello di Hindlip, ospite del nobile Thomas Abington.
Dimorò lì per diciassette anni sotto il falso nome di Hall, operando alacremente per il bene delle anime, convertendo numerosi protestanti alla fede cattolica, fra i quali la sorella del suo ospite Dorotea Abington, la quale era una anglicana accanita, essendo vissuta a lungo alla corte della scismatica regina Elisabetta e che nutriva odio verso i sacerdoti cattolici; si meritò il titolo di “Apostolo della contea”.
Nel 1606 venne tradito da un rinnegato che fra l’altro aveva ricevuto del bene proprio da lui e arrestato fu condotto prigioniero a Worcester e da lì a Londra nelle prigioni famigerate della Torre dove fu anche torturato; subì un processo con l’accusa infondata di aver partecipato alla ‘congiura delle polveri’ che organizzata da cattolici inglesi contro il re Giacomo I, intendeva far saltare il Parlamento nella seduta inaugurale del 5-11-1605, ma scoperta fallì e gli organizzatori giustiziati.
Anche Edoardo Oldcorne nel clima persecutorio che imperversava contro i
cattolici, fu condannato a morte, venendo impiccato a Worchester il 7 aprile
1606.
Fu beatificato da Pio XI il 15 dicembre 1929.
Autore: Antonio Borrelli
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/48740
~ Martyrs of England and
Wales († 1535-1680) ~(III) : http://newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/England03.htm#Oldcorne
