Edward Osbaldeston was an English

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

, born about 1560. Не was

hanged, drawn and quartered To be hanged, drawn and quartered became a statutory penalty for men convicted of high treason in the Kingdom of England from 1352 under Edward III of England, King Edward III (1327–1377), although similar rituals are recorded during the rei ...

at York, 16 November 1594.

Life

Edward Osbaldeston was born about 1560 at

Osbaldeston Osbaldeston is a village and civil parish in Lancashire, England about north-west of Blackburn and east of Preston. The population of the civil parish as taken at the 2011 census was 185. Osbaldeston is on the A59 road and lies on the sou ...

Hall near

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

, Lancashire. He was the son of Thomas Osbaldeston, and nephew of Edward Osbaldeston, of Osbaldeston Hall. He went to the English College of

Douai Douai (, , ,; pcd, Doï; nl, Dowaai; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord département in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some from Lille and from Arras, D ...

, then at

Reims Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded by ...

, where he was ordained

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

in December 1583, and priest 21 September 1585. He had said his first

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

on the feast day of St.

Jerome Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, th ...

, and in consequence had a great devotion to that saint. He was sent on the English mission 27 April 1589, and was apprehended at night through the instrumentality of an Anglican priest named Thomas Clark at an inn at Tollerton, Yorkshire, upon St.

's day, 30 September 1594.Wainewright, John. "Ven. Edward Osbaldeston." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 18 Jan. 2013
/ref> The day following his arrest he was taken to

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

where he was tried at the next

assizes The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

and attained of

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

for being a priest. Bishop

Richard Challoner Richard Challoner (29 September 1691 – 12 January 1781) was an English Roman Catholic bishop, a leading figure of English Catholicism during the greater part of the 18th century. The titular Bishop of Doberus, he is perhaps most famous for hi ...

prints the greater part of a letter addressed by the martyr to his fellow-prisoners in

York Castle York Castle is a fortified complex in the city of York, England. It consists of a sequence of castles, prisons, law courts and other buildings, which were built over the last nine centuries on the south side of the River Foss. The now-ruined ...

, the full text of which is still extant, and which reveals the great humility and serene trust in God with which he anticipated his death. Edward Osbaldeston was among the

eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales The Eighty-five Martyrs of England and Wales, also known as George Haydock and Eighty-four Companion Martyrs, are a group of men who were executed on charges of treason and related offences in the Kingdom of England between 1584 and 1679. Of the e ...

beatified Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

on 22 November 1987.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Osbaldeston, Edward 1594 deaths People from Ribble Valley (district) 16th-century English Roman Catholic priests People executed under the Tudors for treason against England People executed under Elizabeth I by hanging, drawing and quartering 16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs Year of birth unknown Executed people from Lancashire English beatified people Eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales

Life

See also

References