Picture: Cornelis van Merlen · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
William Barrow
English Jesuit
BlessedResearchedSociety of Jesus
Feast: 20 June (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Born
1609
verified
Died
30 June 1679
verified
Beatified
—
not on record
Canonised
—
not yet
Who they were
William Barrow (alias Harcourt), a Lancashire Jesuit, worked in London for thirty-five years and became its superior in 1678.
Arrested in the Oates Plot, he and four fellow Jesuits proved their accusers guilty of perjury, but the judge would not admit it; they were condemned 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 condemned on perjured evidence.
Sources
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - William Barrow
- Wikidata Q8005126 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — William Barrow (Jesuit) (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.