Picture: John Salmon (cropped by Rabanus Flavus) · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
John Forest
English Franciscan friar and martyr (1471–1538)
BlessedResearchedKingdom of EnglandOrdo Fratrum Minorum de Regularis Observantia
Feast: 22 May (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Born
1471
verified
Died
22 May 1538
verified
Beatified
9 December 1886
by Pope Leo XIII
Canonised
—
not yet
Who they were
John Forest took the Franciscan habit at Greenwich at twenty, studied at Oxford and became chaplain and confessor to Queen Catherine of Aragon and provincial of the Observants, who firmly opposed the king's divorce.
Preaching against the pulling down of churches, he fell under the king's wrath and was burned at Smithfield on 22 May 1538; his martyrdom lasted two hours.
The miracles
As a martyr he was raised to the altars without a miracle.
Why that counted as sanctity
Queen Catherine's confessor, who died for the Church and her marriage.
Sources
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - Blessed John Forest
- Wikidata Q4491842 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — John Forest (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.