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Thomas Whitbread
English missionary
BlessedResearchedSociety of Jesus
Feast: 20 June (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Born
1618
verified
Died
30 June 1679
verified
Beatified
—
not on record
Canonised
—
not yet
Who they were
Thomas Whitbread of Essex joined the Jesuits in 1635 and worked for over thirty years in the eastern counties, becoming provincial in 1678. He refused to admit Titus Oates into the Society.
Soon after, Oates's plot was fabricated. Arrested while ill, he was convicted with four fellow Jesuits on the perjured evidence of Oates and others, and executed at Tyburn on 30 June 1679.
The miracles
As a martyr he was raised to the altars without a miracle.
Why that counted as sanctity
A Jesuit provincial condemned on false witness.
Sources
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - Thomas Whitbread
- Wikidata Q7795043 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Thomas Whitbread (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.