Mathias
Tanner. Engraver Melchior Kusell. Saint Nicholas Owen being tortured in the Tower of London in 1606,
1675,
"Societas Jesu ad sanguinis et vitae profusionem militans"
Saint Nicolas Owen, martyr
Cet anglais, religieux de la
Compagnie de Jésus, fidèle à la foi de ses pères au péril de sa vie, assura des
refuges aux prêtres persécutés grâce à sa formation initiale de charpentier et
de maçon. Trois fois emprisonné, la dernière fois, sous le roi Jacques Ier,
parce qu’il se livra lui-même pour empêcher les poursuivants de saisir des
prêtres, il fut alors détenu à la Tour de Londres, torturé pour livrer des
prêtres, et enfin écartelé par le supplice du chevalet, sous le roi Jacques
Ier, en 1606.
Saint Nicolas Owen
Frère convers
jésuite en Angleterre (✝ 1606)
Il construisait des cachettes pour les prêtres
persécutés. Il ne s'écarta pas de l'Église romaine au moment où c'était une
cause de mort. Emprisonné et torturé par deux fois, il fut écartelé la
troisième fois pour avoir refusé de donner des renseignements au sujet de la
conspiration des Poudres où les catholiques étaient accusés d'avoir voulu faire
sauter le Parlement de Londres et tuer le roi Jacques Ier, en 1605.
Il fait partie des Quarante martyrs d'Angleterre et du Pays de Galles qui ont été canonisés en 1970.
À Londres, en 1606, saint Nicolas Owen, religieux de la Compagnie de Jésus et martyr. Charpentier et maçon de métier, il fabriqua pendant trente-six ans des cachettes pour y loger des prêtres. Trois fois emprisonné, la dernière fois, sous le roi Jacques Ier, parce qu’il se livra lui-même pour empêcher les poursuivants de saisir des prêtres, il fut alors détenu à la Tour de Londres, torturé pour livrer des prêtres, et enfin écartelé par le supplice du chevalet.
Martyrologe romain
Saint Nicolas OWEN
On connaît mal la première partie de sa
vie, mais on croit qu'il est né à Oxford, en Angleterre vers 1550 dans une
famille très catholique et grandit pendant des lois scélérates.
Il devînt menuisier sans doute par
nécessité, pour gagner son pain quotidien.
Pendant de nombreuses années, Owen
travailla sous la direction du père jésuite Henry Garnet, qui le fit admettre
dans la Compagnie de Jésus en qualité de frère, et ce fut probablement alors qu’il commença à
construire dans les maisons des familles catholiques,
des cachettes pour les prêtres catholiques persécutés.
Il voyagea souvent d'une maison à une
autre, sous le nom de “Little John”, n'acceptant que le stricte nécessaire pour
survivre, en paiement de ses services, avant le départ pour un nouveau projet.
Pour minimiser le risque de trahison, il travaillait souvent la nuit, et
toujours seul. Et, malgré sa petite taille, il réussissait à percer de grosses
pierres, quand cela était nécessaire pour la cachette qu’il construisait.
Le nombre de cachettes qu'il
construisit ne sera probablement jamais connu. Grâce à l'ingéniosité de son
artisanat, certaines restent peut-être encore inconnues. Il ne s'écarta pas de l'Eglise
romaine, même au moment où c'était une cause de mort.
Il fut arrêté une première fois en 1582
ou 1583, après l'exécution d'Edmund Campion, pour proclamer publiquement
l'innocence de ce dernier, mais a été libéré plus tard. Il a été arrêté à
nouveau en 1594, et a été torturé, mais n'a rien révélé. Il a été libéré après
qu’une riche famille catholique ait payé une grosse somme pour sa libération.
Il reprit son travail, mais fut bientôt
accusé d’avoir orchestré la fuite du père jésuite John Gerard de la Tour de
Londres en 1597.
Début de 1606, Owen fut
arrêté une dernière fois à Hindlip Hall dans le Worcestershire, se donnant
volontairement dans l'espoir de détourner l'attention des enquêteurs sur
certains prêtres qui se cachaient à proximité. Réalisant alors seulement
la valeur de la prise qu'ils avaient faite, le secrétaire d'État, Robert Cecil
exultait : « C'est incroyable, quelle fut la joie causée par son
arrestation... connaissant le grand talent d'Owen dans la construction de
cachettes, et le nombre incalculable de trous noirs qu’il avait construit pour
cacher tant de prêtres à travers l'Angleterre ».
Enfermé dans une prison sur la rive sud
de la Tamise, Owen fut transféré à la Tour de Londres. Il y fut soumis à de terribles
« examens » sur la grille Topcliffe, où il fut suspendu par les deux
poignets, alors que de lourds poids furent ajoutés à ses pieds.
Cette procédure fut pratiquée jusqu’à
ce que “ses entrailles se soient répandues” et qu’il perde sa vie.
Il fut canonisé en 1970 avec trente-neuf autres
martyrs anglais et gallois.
Alphonse Rocha
(d’après plusieurs documents)
(d’après plusieurs documents)
SOURCE : http://nouvl.evangelisation.free.fr/nicolas_owen.htm
Nicholas Owen
A Jesuit lay-brother, martyred in 1606. There is no record of his parentage, birthplace, date of birth, or entrance into religion. Probably a carpenter or builder by trade, he entered the Society of Jesus before 1580, and had previously been the trusty servant of the missionary fathers. More (1586-1661) associates him with the first English lay-brothers. He was imprisoned on the death of Edmund Campion for openly declaring that martyr's innocence, but afterwards served Fathers Henry Garnett and John Gerard for eighteen years, was captured again with the latter, escaped from the Tower, and is said to have contrived the escape of Father Gerard. He was finally arrested at Hindlip Hall, Worcestershire, while impersonating Father Garnett. "It is incredible", writes Cecil, "how great was the joy caused by his arrest . . . knowing the great skill of Owen in constructing hiding places, and the innumerable quantity of dark holes which he had schemed for hiding priests all through England." Not only the Secretary of State but Waade, the Keeper of the Tower, appreciated the importance of the disclosures which Owen might be forced to make. After being committed to the Marshalsea and thence removed to the Tower, he was submitted to most terrible "examinations" on the Topcliffe rack, with both arms held fast in iron rings and body hanging, and later on with heavy weights attached to his feet, and at last died under torture. It was given out that he had committed suicide, a calumny refuted by Father Gerard in his narrative. As to the day of his death, a letter of Father Garnett's shows that he was still alive on 3 March; the "Menology" of the province puts his martyrdom as late as 12 Nov. He was of singularly innocent life and wonderful prudence, and his skill in devising hiding-places saved the lives of many of the missionary fathers.
[Note: In 1970, Nicholas Owen was canonized by Pope Paul VI among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, whose joint feast day is kept on 25 October.]
Sources
FOLEY, Records of English Jesuits (London, 1875-82), IV, 245; VII, 561; MORE, Hist. Prov. Anglicanae (St. Omers, 1660), 322; NASH, Mansions of England (London, 1906); TAUNTON, Hist. of Jesuits in England (London, 1901); Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., s.v.; POLLARD in Dict. Nat. Biog. (London, 1909), s.v.
Parker, Anselm. "Nicholas Owen." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 22 Mar. 2016 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11364a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for
New Advent by Herman F. Holbrook. Saint Nicholas, and all ye holy Martyrs, pray for us.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of
New York.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11364a.htm
Gaspar Bouttats. Edward Oldcorne; Nicholas Owen,
St. Nicholas Owen (c.1550-1606), familiarly known as “Little John,” was small in stature but big in the esteem of his fellow Jesuits.
Born at Oxford, this humble artisan saved the lives of many priests and laypersons in England during the penal times (1559-1829), when a series of statutes punished Catholics for the practice of their faith.
Over a period of about 20 years he used his skills to build secret hiding places for priests throughout the country. His work, which he did completely by himself as both architect and builder, was so good that time and time again priests in hiding were undetected by raiding parties. He was a genius at finding, and creating, places of safety: subterranean passages, small spaces between walls, impenetrable recesses. At one point he was even able to mastermind the escape of two Jesuits from the Tower of London. Whenever Nicholas set out to design such hiding places, he began by receiving the Holy Eucharist, and he would turn to God in prayer throughout the long, dangerous construction process.
After many years at his unusual task, he entered the Society of Jesus and served as a lay brother, although—for very good reasons—his connection with the Jesuits was kept secret.
After a number of narrow escapes, he himself was finally caught in 1594. Despite protracted torture, he refused to disclose the names of other Catholics. After being released following the payment of a ransom, “Little John” went back to his work. He was arrested again in 1606. This time he was subjected to horrible tortures, suffering an agonizing death. The jailers tried suggesting that he had confessed and committed suicide, but his heroism and sufferings soon were widely known.
He was canonized in 1970 as one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.
SOURCE : http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/saint-nicholas-owens/
Nicholas Owen M (RM)
Born in Oxford, England; died in the Tower of London, 1606; beatified in 1929; canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales; feast day formerly March 12.
Saint Nicholas was probably the most important person in the preservation of Catholicism in England during the period of the penal laws against the faith. He was a carpenter or builder, who saved the lives of countless Jesuit priests in England for two decades by constructing hiding places for them in mansions throughout the country. He became a Jesuit lay brother in 1580, was arrested in 1594 with Father John Gerard, and despite prolonged torture would not give the names of any of his Catholic colleagues; he was released on the payment of a ransom by a wealthy Catholic.
Brother Nicholas is believed to have been responsible for Father Gerard's dramatic escape from the Tower of London in 1597.
Nicholas was arrested a third time in 1606 with Father Henry Garnet, whom he had served 18 years, Father Edward Oldcorne, and Father Oldcorne's servant, Brother Ralph Ashley. He refused to give any information concerning the Gunpowder Plot. They were imprisoned in the Tower of London. Nicholas was subjected to such vicious torture, which literally tore his body to pieces, that he died of it.
Nicholas was also known as Little John and Little Michael and used the aliases of Andrewes and Draper (Attwater2, Benedictines, Delaney).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0322.shtml
St
Nicholas Owen was born in 1562 in Oxford into a devout recusant family,
and trained as a carpenter and joiner. As a Jesuit lay brother he became
the servant of Henry Garnet SJ, the Superior of the English mission, in 1588 -
a time when the penalty for Catholic priests discovered in England was
torture and death. His carpentry skills were put to use in building
priest holes or hiding places in the houses of Catholics all over the country.
Known as “Little Jo hn”, (few of his clients knew his real name) Owen was of
very short stature and suffered ill health, including a hernia.
Nevertheless he spent eighteen years doing strenuous physical labour in cramped
spaces, always alone and at night to avoid discovery. In 1597 he
helped to plan the famous escape from the Tower of London of his Jesuit
colleague John Gerard SJ. Fr Garnet said of him:
"I verily think no man can be said to have done more good of all
those who laboured in the English vineyard. He was the immediate occasion of
saving the lives of many hundreds of persons, both ecclesiastical and
secular."
Owen was
finally arrested in 1606 in the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot. The
authorities were delighted to have caught him, and hoped to extract valuable
information under torture. They were disappointed. Nicholas Owen
was arrested and taken away to Marshalsea Prison where he endured a great deal
of torture. No exact records of what he endured are in existence, but we do
know from Fr John Gerard, of the tortures that he endured:
They took me to a big upright pillar, one of the wooden posts which held
the roof of this huge underground chamber. Driven into the top of it were iron
staples for supporting heavy weights. Then they put my wrists into iron
gauntlets and ordered me to climb two or three wicker steps. My arms were then
lifted up and an iron bar passed through the rings of one gauntlet. This done,
they fastened the bar with a pin to prevent it slipping, and then, removing the
wicker steps one by one from under my feet, they left me hanging by my hands
and arms fastened above my head … Hanging like this I began to pray … But I
could hardly utter the words, such a gripping pain came over me. It was worst
in my chest and belly, my hands and arms. All the blood of my body seemed to
rush up into my arms and hands and I thought that blood was oozing out from the
ends of my fingers and pores of my skin. But it was only a sensation caused by
my flesh swelling above the irons holding them. The pain was so intense that I
thought I could not possibly endure it … Sometime after one o’clock, I think, I
fell into a faint. How long I was unconscious I don’t know, but I don’t think
it was long, for the men held my body up or put the wicker steps under my feet
until I came to. Then they heard me pray and immediately let me down again. And
they did this every time I fainted – eight or nine times that day – before it
struck five … The next morning the gauntlets were placed on the same part of my
arms as last time. They would not fit anywhere else, because the flesh on
either side had swollen into small mounds, leaving a furrow between; and the
gauntlets could only be fastened in the furrow … I stayed like this and began
to pray, sometimes aloud, sometimes to myself, and I put myself in the keeping
of Our Lord and His blessed Mother. This time it was longer before I fainted,
but when I did they found it so difficult to bring me round that they thought
that I was dead, or certainly dying and summoned the Lieutenant … I was hung up
again. The pain was intense now, but I felt great consolation of soul, which
seemed to me to come from a desire of death … For many days after I could not
hold a knife in my hands – that day I could not even move my fingers or help
myself in the smallest way. The gaoler had to do everything for me.
Nicholas
suffered all of this and more, made all the worse by the injuries he had incurred
through years of manual labour. Yet he wouldn’t say anything. His two
confessions stand from those days.
Examination of Nicholas Owen, taken on the 26th February, 1606.
He confesses that he has been called by the name of Andrews, but doesn’t
know whether he has been known by the name Little John or Draper, or any other
name other than Owen or Andrews.
That he came to Mr Abington’s house the Saturday before he was taken,
but refuses to answer from what place he came to the house from.
He denies that he knows Father Garnett or that he has ever served him,
or that Fr Garnett is known by the name Mease, Darcy, Whalley, Philips,,
Fermor, or any other name.
He denies that he knows a Jesuit called Oldcorne or Hall, and also
denies that he knows that Chambers served Hall the Jesuit.
He confesses that he has known George Chambers for six or seven years,
and that he became acquainted with him at an ordinarie in Fleet Street and that
at this time he served Mr Henry Drury of Sussex.
The confession of Nicholas Own, taken on the 1st March 1606.
He confesses that he has known and sometimes attended Henry Garnett, the
Provincial of the Jesuits for around four years.
He confesses that he was at the house of Thomas Throgmorton called
Coughton at the beginning of November last year, when the Lady Digby was there
and by the watch that was in town they knew that Robert Catesby, Thomas Percy,
and the rest of the gun powder plotters were up in arms.
That on All Saints Day last year, Garnett said Mass at Coughton House,
and that at that Mass there were around half a dozen people.
That Henry Garnett was at Henlipp, the house of Thomas Abington some six
weeks before he was apprehended and Hall the Jesuit was there about three days
before the house of Mr Abington was searched.
That while he was staying with Garnett, he made his fire and served him
and that both he and Garnett hid in a secret room below the dining room.
There was
no new information in these confessions and the authorities lost patience. The
tortures became more violent and on the next day, despite a plate they had
fitted around Nicholas to prevent the torture further damaging his pre-existing
injuries, Nicholas died, quite literally broken apart by the torture.
The
authorities were now in an awkward position. Not only had they been torturing
illegally an already injured man, but they had murdered him before extracting a
confession. A cover up was swiftly arranged with an inquest returning a verdict
of suicide.
Many of the martyrs of England died very public deaths on the scaffold
of Tyburn, but Nicholas died as he had lived; in secret. We have no memorable
saying of his to meditate on – his priest holes, which are his wordless
prayers, are all that remain. Nicholas in his agonised, furtive death had
finished with all concealment and disguises and was welcomed by Campion and all
the martyrs into a fellowship where there is no use for human language.
Saint Nicholas Owen
Also
known as
- John
Owen
- Little
John
- 22 March
- 25 October as one of the Forty Martyrs of
England and Wales
- 3 May on some calendars
- 1 December on some calendars
Profile
Son of a carpenter, Nicholas was raised in
a family dedicated to the persecuted Church, and became a capenter and mason. Two of his brothers
became priests, another a printer of
underground Catholic books, and Nicholas used his
building skills to save the lives of priests and help the Church‘s covert work in England.
Nicholas worked
with Saint Edmund Campion, sometimes using the
pseudonym John Owen; his short stature led to the nickname Little
John. When Father Edmundwas martyred, Nicholas spoke out
against the atrocity. For his trouble, he was imprisoned.
Father Henry Garnet,
Superior of English Jesuits, employed Nicholas to
construct hiding places and escape routes in the various mansions used as priest-centers
throughout England. By day he worked at
the mansion on regular wood– and stone-working jobs at the
mansions so that no one would question his presence; by night he worked alone,
digging tunnels, creating hidden passages and rooms in the house. Some of his
rooms were large enough to hold cramped, secretive prayerservices, but most were
a way for single clerics to escape
the priest-hunters. As there were
no records of his work, there is no way of knowing how many of these hiding
places he built, or how many hundreds of priests he saved.
The anti–Catholic authorities
eventually learned that the hiding places existed, but had no idea who was
doing the work, or how many there were.
Due to the work, the
danger, and the periodic arrests of the Jesuits, Nicholas never had a
formal novitiate, but he did receive
instruction, and in 1577 became a Jesuit Brother. On 23 April 1594he was arrested in London and lodged in the
Tower of London for his association with Father John Gerard. Not
knowing who they had, the authorities released Nicholas soon after, and he
resumed his work.
On 5 November 1605, Brother Nicholas and
three other Jesuits were forced to
hide in Hinlip Hall, a structure with at least 13 of his hiding places, to
escape the priest-hunters. Owen spent
four days in one of his secret rooms, but having no food or water, he finally
surrendered and was taken to a London prison. There he was
endlessly tortured for information on
the underground network of priests and their hiding.
He was abused so violently that on 1 March 1606, while suspended from a
wall, chained by his wrists,
with weights on his ankles, his stomach split open, spilling his intestines to
the floor; he survived for hours before dying from the wound.
Because he was under orders not to kill Nicholas, the torturer spread the lie
that Owen had committed suicide. One of
the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
Born
During the
deadly feuds which existed in the Middle Ages, when no man was secure from
spies and traitors even within the walls of his own house, it is no matter of
wonder that the castles and mansions of the powerful and wealthy were usually
provided with some precaution in the event of a sudden surprise, viz. a secret
means of concealment or escape that could be used at a moment’s notice; but the
majority of secret chambers and hiding-places in our ancient buildings owe
their origin to religious persecution, particularly during the reign of
Elizabeth, when the most stringent laws and oppressive burdens were inflicted
upon all persons who professed the tenets of the Church of Rome.
In the first
years of the virgin Queen’s reign all who clung to the older forms of the
Catholic faith were mercifully connived at, so long as they solemnised their
own religious rites within their private dwelling-houses; but after the Roman
Catholic rising in the north and numerous other Popish plots, the utmost
severity of the law was enforced, particularly against seminarists, whose chief
object was, as was generally believed, to stir up their disciples in England
against the Protestant Queen. An Act was passed prohibiting a member of the
Church of Rome from celebrating the rites of his religion on pain of forfeiture
for the first offence, a year’s imprisonment for the second, and imprisonment
for life for the third. (In December, 1591, a priest was hanged before the door
of a house in Gray’s Inn Fields for having there said Mass the month
previously.) All those who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy were called
“recusants” and were guilty of high treason. A law was also enacted which
provided that if any Papist should convert a Protestant to the Church of Rome,
both should suffer death, as for high treason.
The sanguinary
laws against seminary priests and “recusants” were enforced with the greatest
severity after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. These were revived for a
period in Charles II’s reign, when Oates’s plot worked up a fanatical hatred
against all professors of the ancient faith. In the mansions of the old Roman
Catholic families we often find an apartment in a secluded part of the house or
garret in the roof named “the chapel,” where religious rites could be performed
with the utmost privacy, and close handy was usually an artfully contrived
hiding-place, not only for the officiating priest to slip into in case of
emergency, but also where the vestments, sacred vessels, and altar furniture
could be put away at a moment’s notice.
It appears from
the writings of Father Tanner that most of the hiding-places for priests,
usually called “priests’ holes,” were invented and constructed by the Jesuit
Nicholas Owen, a servant of Father Garnet, who devoted the greater part of his
life to constructing these places in the principal Roman Catholic houses all
over England.
“With
incomparable skill,” says an authority, “he knew how to conduct priests to a
place of safety along subterranean passages, to hide them between walls and
bury them in impenetrable recesses, and to entangle them in labyrinths and a
thousand windings. But what was much more difficult of accomplishment, he so
disguised the entrances to these as to make them most unlike what they really
were.
Moreover, he
kept these places so close a secret with himself that he would never disclose
to another the place of concealment of any Catholic. He alone was both their
architect and their builder, working at them with inexhaustible industry and
labour, for generally the thickest walls had to be broken into and large stones
excavated, requiring stronger arms than were attached to a body so diminutive
as to give him the nickname of ‘Little John,’ and by this his skill many
priests were preserved from the prey of persecutors. Nor is it easy to find
anyone who had not often been indebted for his life to Owen’s hiding-places.”
How effectually
“Little John’s” peculiar ingenuity baffled the exhaustive searches of the
“pursuivants,” or priest-hunters, has been shown by contemporary accounts of
the searches that took place frequently in suspected houses. Father Gerard, in
his Autobiography, has handed down to us many curious details of the mode of
procedure upon these occasions – how the search-party would bring with them
skilled carpenters and masons and try every possible expedient, from systematic
measurements and soundings to bodily tearing down the panelling and pulling up
the floors. It was not an uncommon thing for a rigid search to last a fortnight
and for the “pursuivants” to go away empty handed, while perhaps the object of
the search was hidden the whole time within a wall’s thickness of his pursuers,
half starved, cramped and sore with prolonged confinement, and almost afraid to
breathe lest the least sound should throw suspicion upon the particular spot
where he lay immured.
After the
discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, “Little John” and his master, Father Garnet,
were arrested at Hindlip Hall, Worcestershire, from information given to the
Government by Catesby’s servant Bates. Cecil, who was well aware of Owen’s
skill in constructing hiding-places, wrote exultingly: “Great joy was caused
all through the kingdom by the arrest of Owen, knowing his skill in constructing
hiding-places, and the innumerable number of these dark holes which he had
schemed for hiding priests throughout the kingdom.” He hoped that “great booty
of priests” might be taken in consequence of the secrets Owen would be made to
reveal, and directed that first he should “be coaxed if he be willing to
contract for his life,” but that “the secret is to be wrung from him.” The
horrors of the rack, however, failed in its purpose. His terrible death is thus
briefly recorded by the Governor ot the Tower at that time: “The man is dead –
he died in our hands”; and perhaps it is as well the ghastly details did not
transpire in his report.
The curious old
mansion Hindlip Hall (pulled down in the early part of the last century) was
erected in 1572 by John Abingdon, or Habington, whose son Thomas (the
brother-in-law of Lord Monteagle) was deeply involved in the numerous plots
against the reformed religion. A long imprisonment in the Tower for his futile
efforts to set Mary Queen of Scots at liberty, far from curing the dangerous
schemes of this zealous partisan of the luckless Stuart heroine, only kept him
out of mischief for a time. No sooner had he obtained his freedom than he set
his mind to work to turn his house in Worcestershire into a harbour of refuge for
the followers of the older rites. In the quaint irregularities of the masonry
free scope was given to “Little John’s” ingenuity; indeed, there is every proof
that some of his masterpieces were constructed here. A few years before the
“Powder Plot” was discovered, it was a hanging matter for a priest to be caught
celebrating the Mass. Yet with the facilities at Hindlip he might do so with
comfort, with every assurance that he had the means of evading the law. The
walls of the mansion were literally riddled with secret chambers and passages.
There was little fear of being run to earth with hidden exits everywhere.
Wainscoting, solid brickwork, or stone hearth were equally accommodating, and
would swallow up fugitives wholesale, and close over them, to “Open, Sesame!”
again only at the hider’s pleasure.
MAR 22 – ST NICHOLAS OWEN, SJ, (D. 1606) – MARTYR, ARTIST, BUILDER OF HIDING PLACES FOR PRIESTS
Nicholas,
familiarly known as “Little John,” was small in stature but big in the esteem
of his fellow Jesuits. Born at Oxford, this humble artisan saved the
lives of many priests and laypersons in England during the penal times
(1559-1829), when a series of statutes punished Catholics for the practice of
their faith.
Over a
period of about 20 years he used his skills to build secret hiding places for
priests throughout the country. His work, which he did completely by himself as
both architect and builder, was so good that time and time again priests in
hiding were undetected by raiding parties. He was a genius at finding, and
creating, places of safety: subterranean passages, small spaces between walls,
impenetrable recesses. At one point he was even able to mastermind the escape
of two Jesuits from the Tower of London. Whenever Nicholas set out to design
such hiding places, he began by receiving the Holy Eucharist, and he would turn
to God in prayer throughout the long, dangerous construction process.
Nicholas
enrolled as an apprentice to the Oxford joiner William Conway on the feast of
the Purification of Blessed Mary, February 2nd, 1577. He was bound in indenture
and as an apprentice for a period of eight years and the papers of indenture
state that he was the son of Walter Owen, citizen of Oxford, carpenter. Oxford
at the time was strongly Catholic. The Statute of artificers determined that
sons should follow the profession into which they were born. If he completed
his apprenticeship it would have been in 1585. We know from Fr. John Gerard, SJ,
a biographer of Nicholas’, that he began building hides in 1588 and continued
over a period of eighteen years when he could have been earning good money
satisfying the contemporary demand for well-made solid furniture.
St Henry
Garnet, SJ, Jesuit Superior in England at the time, in a letter dated 1596
writes of a carpenter of singular faithfulness and skill who has traveled
through almost the entire kingdom and, without charge, has made for Catholic
priests hiding places where they might shelter the fury of heretical searchers.
If money is offered him by way of payment he gives it to his two brothers; one
of them is a priest, the other a layman in prison for his faith.
Owen was
only slightly taller than a dwarf, and suffered from a hernia caused by a horse
falling on him some years earlier. Nevertheless, his work often involved
breaking through thick stonework; and to minimize the likelihood of betrayal he
often worked at night, and always alone. The number of hiding-places he
constructed will never be known. Due to the ingenuity of his craftsmanship,
some may still be undiscovered.
After
many years at his unusual task, he entered the Society of Jesus and served as a
lay brother, although—for very good reasons—his connection with the Jesuits was
kept secret. After a number of narrow escapes, he himself was finally caught in
1594. Despite protracted torture, he refused to disclose the names of other
Catholics. After being released following the payment of a ransom, “Little
John” went back to his work. He was arrested again in 1606. This time he was
subjected to horrible tortures, suffering an agonizing death. The jailers tried
suggesting that he had confessed and committed suicide, but his heroism and
sufferings soon were widely known.
Why
should priests need hiding places? From 1585 it was considered treason,
punishable by a traitor’s death, to be found in England if a priest had been
ordained abroad. Of Owen, the modern edition of Butler’s Lives of the Saints
says: “Perhaps no single person contributed more to the preservation of
Catholic religion in England in penal times”.
The
Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason
Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King
James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English
Catholics led by Robert Catesby. The last hope for the Catholics
collapsed when peace was made with Spain. They had hoped that Catholic Spain,
as part of the bargain, would have secured freedom for them to practice their
religion. Relief of Catholics was discussed, but James said that his Protestant
subjects wouldn’t stand for it. So there was to be no relief. In fact the
screw was tightened again.
Anglican
bishops were ordered to excommunicate Catholics who would not attend Anglican
services – this meant that no sale or purchase by them was valid, no
property could be passed on by deed or by will. The level of
persecution was higher than ever it had been under Elizabeth.
In the
aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot, 1605, the result of the frustration of a group
of young Catholics when, after dropping hints of toleration, James I made it
clear that there would be no relaxation of anti – Catholic legislation, the
hunt for priests accused of complicity centered on Hindlip House. This had been
provided with hiding places by Nicholas Owen which proved undetectable. He
himself was there and when he emerged after four days of hiding he was
arrested.
At
daybreak on Monday, 20th November, 1605, Hindlip House was surrounded by 100
men. They began to rip the house to pieces. In the dark, early on
Thursday morning, two men, Owen and Bl Ralph Ashley, SJ, another lay-brother
and cook, were spotted stealing along a gallery. They said they were no
longer able to conceal themselves, having had but one apple between them for
four days. They would not give their names.
It was
hardly likely that Nicholas Owen, of all people, would not have been better
provided. They had twice been tipped off during the previous week that a
search was imminent. Possibly they hoped that in giving themselves up they
would distract attention from the two priests still in hiding, Fr Garnet, SJ,
and Fr Oldcorne, SJ, still hiding in Hindlip House, even to being mistaken for
them. It was a ruse that had worked before. It didn’t work now. The
search was intensified. The priests were in a hide which had been
supplied with a feeding tube from an adjoining bedroom, but the hiding place
had not been designed to be lived in for a week. After 8 days they emerged,
were arrested and identified. All four were taken to London.
Nicholas
Owen, SJ, had been in prison before; he had been tortured before. He was
now taken to the torture room, for the first time, on the 26th of February
1606. His identity as a hide-builder seemed to have been betrayed. “We will try
to get from him by coaxing, if he is willing to contract for his life, an
excellent booty of priests”. Realizing just whom they had caught, and his
value, Secretary of State, Robert Cecil exulted: “It is incredible, how great
was the joy caused by his arrest… knowing the great skill of Owen in
constructing hiding places, and the innumerable quantity of dark holes which he
had schemed for hiding priests all through England.”
On March
2nd it was announced that Nicholas Owen had committed suicide. People
were simply incredulous. It would have been impossible for one who had been
tortured as he had. The Venetian Ambassador reported home: “Public
opinion holds that Owen died of the tortures inflicted on him, which were so
severe that they deprived him not only of his strength but of the power to move
any part of his body”.
It seems
certain that the suicide story was a fiction concocted by a Government deeply
embarrassed to find itself with a corpse in its custody as a result of torture.
For
those few grim days in February, writes a historian, as the Government tried to
break him, the fate of almost every English Catholic lay in Owen’s hands.
In life
he had saved them, in death he would too: not a single name escaped him.
In
opposition to English law, which forbade the torture of a man suffering from a
hernia, as he was, he was racked day after day, six hours at a time. He died
under torture without betraying any secret – and he knew enough to bring down
the entire network of covert Catholics in England.
“Most
brutal of all was the treatment given to Nicholas Owen, better known to the
recusants as Little John. Since he had a hernia caused by the strain of his
work, as well as a crippled leg, he should not have been physically tortured in
the first place. But Little John, unlike many of those interrogated, did have
valuable information about the hiding places he had constructed; if he had
talked, all too many priests would have been snared ‘like partridges in a net’.
In this good cause the government was prepared to ignore the dictates of the
law and the demands of common humanity. A leading Councillor, on hearing his
name, was said to have exclaimed: “Is he taken that knows all the secret
places? I am very glad of that. We will have a trick for him.”
The
trick was the prolonged use of the manacles, an exquisitely horrible torture
for one of Owen’s ruptured state. He was originally held in the milder prison
of the Marshalsea, where it was hoped that other priests would try to contact
him, but Little John was ‘too wise to give any advantage’ and spent his time
safely and silently at prayer. In the Tower he was brought to make two
confessions on 26 February and 1 March.
In the
first one, he denied more or less everything. By the time of the second
confession, long and ghastly sessions in the manacles produced some results
(his physical condition may be judged by the fact that his stomach had to be
bound together with an iron plate, and even that was not very effective for
long). Little John admitted to attending Father Garnet at White Webbs and
elsewhere, that he had been at Coughton during All Saints visit, and other
details of his service and itinerary. However, all of this was known
already. Little John never gave up one single detail of the hiding places he
had spent his adult life constructing for the safety of his co-religionists.
The lay
brother died early in the morning of 2 March. He died directly as a result of
his ordeal and in horrible, lingering circumstances. By popular standards of
his day, this was a stage of cruelty too far. The government acknowledged this
in its own way by putting out the story that Owen had ripped himself open with
the knife given him to eat his meat – while his keeper was conveniently looking
elsewhere – rather than face renewed bouts of torture. Yet Owen’s keeper had
told a relative who wanted Owen to make a list of his needs that his prisoner’s
hands were so useless that he could not even feed himself, let alone write.
The
story of the suicide was so improbable that neither Owen’s enemies nor his
friends, so well acquainted with his character over so many years, believed it.
Suicide was a mortal sin in the Catholic Church, inviting damnation, and it was
unthinkable that a convinced Catholic like Nicholas Owen should have imperiled
his immortal soul in this manner.”
Father
Gerard wrote of him: “I verily think no man can be said to have done more
good of all those who laboured in the English vineyard. He was the immediate
occasion of saving the lives of many hundreds of persons, both ecclesiastical
and secular.” -Autobiography of an Elizabethan
– “Societas
Jesu ad sanguinis et vitae profusionem militans”
-engraving, “Torture of Blessed Edward Oldcorne, SJ & St Nicholas
Owen, SJ, by Gaspar Bouttats, National Portrait Gallery, London. The
Jesuit hanging from his wrists with weights tied to his feet is suffering the
“Topcliffe rack”. This method of torture was ultimately what killed
Nicholas Owen, as due to his hernia, “his bowels gushed out with his
life”.
Catholic stage magicians who practice Gospel Magic, a performance type
promoting Christian values and morals, consider St. Nicholas Owen the Patron of
Illusionists and Escapologists due to his facility at using “trompe l’oeil”,
“to deceive the eye”, when creating his hideouts and the fact that he
engineered an escape from the Tower of London. Many Catholic builders, if
they are familiar with him, may say a prayer of intercession to St Nicholas
Owen prior to beginning a new project.
“May the blood of these Martyrs be able to heal the great wound
inflicted upon God’s Church by reason of the separation of the Anglican Church
from the Catholic Church. Is it not one — these Martyrs say to us — the Church
founded by Christ? Is not this their witness? Their devotion to their nation
gives us the assurance that on the day when — God willing — the unity of the
faith and of Christian life is restored, no offence will be inflicted on the
honour and sovereignty of a great country such as England.”
–from the Homily of Pope Paul
VI at the canonization of Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, including St.
Nicholas Owen, SJ, 25 October 1970.
San Nicola Owen Gesuita,
martire
Oxfordshire, Inghilterra, 1550 circa - Londra, Inghilterra,
22 marzo 1606
Tra
i quaranta martiri inglesi canonizzati il 25 ottobre 1970 da Paolo VI figura
un’abile falegname, Nicholas Owen, non l’unico del mestiere ad avere scalato
l’onore degli altari in duemila anni. Il lavoro nobilita l’uomo e vissuto in
unione con Dio lo eleva alle vette della santità. La sua vicenda si colloca
sotto il regno di Giacomo I e la sua arte gli consentì, da religioso gesuita,
di realizzare per molti anni rifugi per nascondervi i sacerdoti perseguitati,
come ricorda il Martirologio Romano. Nicholas, nato ad Oxfordshire verso il
1550, era uno dei quattro figli di Walter Owen, un carpentiere di Oxford, che
gli trasmesse una straordinaria abilità manuale. Uno dei fratelli divenne
editore di libri cattolici, mentre gli altri due divennero sacerdoti. Nicholas
lavorò a stretto contatto con i gesuiti per parecchi anni prima di entrare nel
1597 egli stesso, ormai adulto, nella Compagnia quale fratello converso. Era un
ometto piccolino e rimase zoppo da quando un cavallo da soma gli cadde addosso
rompendogli una gamba. Il nome di Nicholas Owen compare la prima volta in
relazione al più celebre confratello gesuita Sant’Edmondo Campion, del quale
pare fu servitore e ne prese le difese quando questi venne accusato di
tradimento. Erano infatti gli anni delle persecuzioni anticattoliche, suscitate
in Inghilterra dall’avvento dello scisma anglicano e fomentate dagli stessi
sovrani inglesi, interessati a salvaguardare l’unità religiosa della nazione.
John Gerard ebbe a scrivere di Owen: “Davvero penso che nessuno abbia fatto più
bene di lui tra tutti quelli che lavorarono nella vigna inglese”. Fu
crudelmente torturato per giorni sempre allo scopo di estorcergli informazioni
circa le case che ospitavano sacerdoti ed in cui si celebrava la Santa Messa
cattolica. Infine venne appeso ai polsi, con dei pesi alle caviglie, e dopo sei
il suo corpo si squarciò per la trazione. Non rivelò mai nulla di
compromettente, limitandosi a ripetere i nomi di Gesù e Maria. Morì dopo una
terribile agonia il 22 marzo 1606.
Martirologio
Romano: A Londra in Inghilterra, san Nicola Owen, religioso della
Compagnia di Gesù e martire, che per molti anni costruì rifugi per nascondervi
i sacerdoti e per questo sotto il re Giacomo I fu incarcerato e crudelmente
torturato e, messo infine sul cavalletto, morì seguendo gloriosamente l’esempio
di Cristo Signore.
Nicholas, nato ad
Oxfordshire verso il 1550, era uno dei quattro figli di Walter Owen, un
carpentiere di Oxford, che gli trasmesse una straordinaria abilità manuale. Uno
dei fratelli divenne editore di libri cattolici, mentre gli altri due divennero
sacerdoti. Nicholas lavorò a stretto contatto con i gesuiti per parecchi anni
prima di entrare nel 1597 egli stesso nella congregazione quale converso. Era
un ometto piccolino e rimase zoppo da quando un cavallo da soma gli cadde
addosso rompendogli una gamba.
Il nome di Nicholas Owen compare la prima volta in relazione al più celebre Sant’Edmondo Campion, del quale pare fu servitore e ne prese le difese quando questi venne accusato di tradimento. Erano infatti gli anni delle persecuzioni anticattoliche, suscitate in Inghilterra dalla nascita della Chiesa Anglicana e fomentate dagli stessi sovrani inglesi, interessati a salvaguardare l’unità religiosa della nazione. Anche Nicholas venne arrestato nel 1581 ed incarcerato in condizioni assai dura. Quando fu liberato, sparì per un certo periodo, ma pare che poi dal 1586 al 1606 fu al servizio del padre provinciale gesuita, Henry Granet, con il quale viaggio molto, ospitato dai cattolici inglesi e costruendo rifugi per i missionari ricercati, opera quest’ultima in cui adoperò ogni sua energia ed in cui poté dimostrare tutto il suo ingegno.
John Gerard ebbe a scrivere di lui: “Davvero penso che nessuno abbia fatto più bene di lui tra tutti quelli che lavorarono nella vigna inglese”. Nel 1594 Nicholas andò a Londra con padre Gerard per l’acquisto di una casa, ma furono traditi da un tale che già aveva tentato di incastrarli. John Gerard e Nicholas Owen furono così arrestati e poi incarcerati separatamente. Nicholas fu torturato per ore insieme ad un suo compagno di prigionia, ma ostinandosi a non voler rivelare nulla fu rilasciato dietro il pagamento di cauzione. Continuò allora a frequentare Gerard e questi di conseguenza nel 1597 fu imprigionato nella Torre di Londra. Il suo discepolo fu però complice della sua spettacolare fuga e probabilmente fu anche lui a trovargli un sicuro nascondiglio.
Dalla fine del 1605, con la Congiura delle polveri, si accrebbero in Inghilterra i sentimenti di opposizione verso i cattolici, ma il segretario di stato venne a conoscenza del luogo ove Owen e tre confratelli si erano rifugiati, Hindlip Hill nel Worcestershire. Dopo una settimana di ricerche, Nicholas decise di uscire allo scoperto e consegnarsi volontariamente per tentare in tal modo di salvare la vita ai sacerdoti, ma i ricercatori lungi dal demordere scovarono comunque il nascondiglio. Padre Oldcorne ed Ashley vennero impiccati, sventrati e squartati nel 1606 a Worcester, mentre padre Garnet ed Owen vennero condotti a Londra.
Quest’ultimo fu crudelmente torturato per giorni sempre allo scopo di estorcergli informazioni circa le case che ospitavano sacerdoti ed in cui si celebrava l’Eucaristia. Infine venne appeso ai polsi, con dei pesi alle caviglie, e dopo sei il suo corpo si squarciò per la trazione. Non rivelò mai nulla di compromettente, limitandosi a ripetere i nomi di Gesù e Maria. Morì dopo una terribile agonia il 22 marzo 1606 presso Londra. Nicholas Owen fu beatificato nel 1929, insieme ad una folta schiera di martiri della medesima persecuzione, ed infine canonizzato il 25 ottobre 1970 da Papa Paolo VI insieme ai Quaranta Martiri d’Inghilterra e Galles.
Autore: Fabio Arduino
http://www.stnicholasowen.co.uk/articles.php?action=fullnews&id=10
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1321
http://storage.canalblog.com/65/66/935152/73374012.pdf
