St. Nicholas Owen (1550-1606)
Image Courtesy: Fr. Willie Doyle
(Franciscan Media) Born at Oxford the son of a carpenter, Nicholas became a carpenter and a brick mason–two of his brothers became Priests and another a Publisher of underground Catholic books according to SQPN.com Nicholas used his skills to save the lives of Priests in secret hiding places when Catholics were being persecuted, that went completely undetected by raiding parties.
Nicholas (sometimes using the pseudonym John Owen) worked with Saint Edmund Campion one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales, Owen’s short stature led to his nickname ‘Little John’ but he was big in the esteem of his fellow Jesuits.
When Fr. Edmund was Martyred for Jesus Christ, Nicholas spoke out against the atrocity and was imprisoned. Following his release from prison, Owen worked in service of the Jesuit Priest Henry Garnet and was admitted into the Society of Jesus as a Brother — In 1594 Owen was arrested again and tortured because of his faith, he was released after a wealthy Catholic family paid his fine, the Jailers believed that he was just some insignificant friend of some Priests according to Wikipedia afterward, Owen returned to his work constructing hiding places for Priests from anti-Catholic authorities.
In 1605 Brother Owen and three other Jesuits were forced into hiding in Hinlip Hall (which according to SQPN.com had some 13 hiding places) to escape the Priest hunters. Owen spent 4 days in one of his secret hiding places but having no food or water, he finally surrendered and was taken to the Tower of London and was there endlessly tortured for information on the underground network of Priests and their hiding places with ‘such inhuman ferocity’ that he became disemboweled and died.
Brother Owen was Beatified in 1929 by Pope Pius XI and was Canonized in 1970 by Pope Paul VI
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