Edward Osbaldeston

Who they were

Edward Osbaldeston, born about 1560, came from the Osbaldeston family of Osbaldeston Hall near Blackburn in Lancashire. He studied at the English College of Douai, then at Reims, was ordained priest there on 21 September 1585, and was sent on the English mission in 1589.

Betrayed by an apostate priest, he was arrested at an inn at Tollerton in Yorkshire on 30 September 1594, the feast of St. Jerome, on which he had said his first Mass. Condemned at York for high treason for being a priest, he was hanged, drawn and quartered there on 16 November 1594. A letter he wrote to his fellow prisoners shows his humility and quiet trust in God.

The miracles

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

Why that counted as sanctity

An English priest executed at York in 1594 for his priesthood.