St. Henry Morse

  Posted on February 1, 2021  by admin  No comments

Born: 1549 at Brome, Suffolk, England 

Died: hanged, drawn, and quartered on 1 February 1645 at Tyburn, London, England 

Venerated: 8 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI (decree of martyrdom)

Beatified: 15 December 1929 by Pope Pius XI

Canonized: 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI 

Major shrine: St. Henry Morse RC Church, Diss

Feast: 1 February; 25 October (as part of the 40 Martyrs)

Convert. Studied for the priesthood in Rome, Italy. Joined the Jesuits in 1626. Worked as a covert priest in London, England. Worked with plague victims in 1636, catching the plague himself – and recovering from it. 

Betrayed to the authorities by an informer, he was briefly imprisoned in 1638. He ministered to people around the countryside of southern England for years. Arrested and convicted of the crime of Catholicism in 1647. One of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.