Swithun Wells

Who they were

Swithun Wells of Hampshire conformed for many years and kept a school for young gentlemen, but was reconciled to the Church about 1583. He took a house in Gray's Inn Lane, London.

In 1591 St Edmund Gennings was taken saying Mass there in his absence. Wells was condemned for harbouring priests and hanged outside his own house on 10 December 1591; his wife was reprieved and died in prison.

The miracles

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

Why that counted as sanctity

A schoolmaster who opened his home to the Mass and died for it.

Connected on this site

• Edmund Gennings Saint
  “In 1591 St Edmund Gennings was taken saying Mass there in his absence.” — this site's research
• Sydney Hodgson Blessed
  “Sydney Hodgson, a convert layman, was at the Mass of Edmund Gennings in Swithun Wells's house when Topcliffe burst in at the Consecration.” — this site's research