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Saint Edmund Arrowsmith (1585 – 28 August 1628) is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales of the Roman Catholic Church. The main source of information on St Edmund is a contemporary account written by an eyewitness and published a short time after his death. This document, conforming to the ancient style of the "Acts of martyrs" includes the story of the execution of another 17th-century Recusant martyr, Richard Herst. ==Life== Edmund was born at Haydock, Lancashire, England in 1585,〔(The Life of Edmund Arrowsmith )〕 the eldest child of Robert Arrowsmith, a yeoman farmer, and Margery Gerard, a member of an important Lancashire Catholic family. Among his mother's relations was Father John Gerard, who wrote ''The Diary of an Elizabethan Priest'', as well as another martyr, the Blessed Miles Gerard. He was baptised Brian, but always used his confirmation name of Edmund. The family was constantly harassed for its adherence to Roman Catholicism.〔 One of his grandfathers, died a confessor in prison. His parents were taken to Lancaster jail; the four children, were cared for by neighbours. In 1605, at the age of twenty,〔 Edmund left England and went to the English College, Douai to study for the priesthood. He was soon forced to return to England due to ill health, but recovered and returned to Douai in 1607.〔(Oxford Dictionary of National Biography )〕 He was ordained in Arras on 9 December 1612, and sent on the English mission a year later.〔 He ministered to the Catholics of Lancashire without incident until around 1622,〔 when he was arrested and questioned by the Anglican Bishop of Chester. Edmund was released when King James I of England ordered all arrested priests be freed. He joined the Jesuits in 1624. In the summer of 1628, Fr. Edmund was reportedly betrayed by a man named Holden, who denounced him to the authorities.〔("The Lancaster priest executed for his zeal", Catholic Herald, 26 August 2010 )〕 He was convicted of being a Roman Catholic priest in England. He was sentenced to death, and hung, drawn and quartered at Lancaster on 28 August 1628.〔( "St. Edmund Arrowsmith". Lancaster Cathedral )〕 His final confession was heard by Saint John Southworth, who was imprisoned along with Edmund. Arrowsmith ministered to Catholics of Lancashire at the still-standing Arrowsmith House, located in Hoghton before being arrested and questioned on Brindle Moss where his horse refused to jump a ditch. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Edmund Arrowsmith」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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