Edmund Sykes

Who they were

Edmund Sykes of Leeds was ordained at Reims in 1581 and worked in Yorkshire until his health broke. Betrayed and imprisoned at York, in his weakness he once attended a Protestant service, but refused to do it again, and was banished in 1585.

He went on pilgrimage to Rome to atone for his lapse, understood that God wished him to return to England, and did so in 1586. Betrayed by his own brother, he was condemned for his priesthood and executed at York on 23 March 1587.

The miracles

As a martyr he was raised to the altars without a miracle.

Why that counted as sanctity

A priest who repented a moment of weakness and went back to die for the Faith.