† St. Edmund Campion † (December 1)

† Saint of the Day †

(December 1)

✠ St. Edmund Campion ✠

Religious, Priest, and Martyr:

Born: January 24, 1540
London, Kingdom of England

Died: December 1, 1581 (Aged 41)
Tyburn, Kingdom of England

Venerated in: Catholic Church

Beatified: December 9, 1886
Pope Leo XIII

Canonized: October 25, 1970
Pope Paul VI

Feast: December 1

Saint Edmund Campion was an English Catholic Jesuit priest and martyr. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Anglican England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. Campion was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and canonized in 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His feast is celebrated on 1 December.

Early years and education (1540–1569):
Born in London on 24 January 1540, Campion was the son of a bookseller in Paternoster Row, near St Paul's Cathedral. He received his early education at Christ's Hospital school and, at the age of 13, was chosen to make the complimentary speech when Queen Mary visited the city in August 1553. He then attended St John's College, Oxford, becoming a junior fellow in 1557 and taking the required Oath of Supremacy, probably on the occasion of his B.A. degree in 1560. He took a master's degree at Oxford in 1564.

Two years later, Campion welcomed Queen Elizabeth to the university and won her lasting regard. He was selected to lead a public debate in front of the Queen. By the time the Queen had left Oxford, Campion had earned the patronage of the powerful William Cecil and also the Earl of Leicester, tipped by some to be future husband of the young Queen.

When Sir Thomas White, the founder of the college, was buried in 1567, it fell to Campion to give the Latin oration.

St. Edmund Campion, SJ, ministered to Catholics in England at a time of Catholic persecution. Under the Tudor monarchs Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, the Catholic Church was displaced by the Church of England. The English monasteries were dissolved by 1541, and Catholic clergy and laity were persecuted and killed.

Edmund Campion could have been the brightest star in Elizabethan England. He impressed Elizabeth with his welcoming oration when she visited Oxford University in 1569. Under her promised patronage his path to power and prestige was assured. Campion first thought to follow that path, being ordained originally as an Anglican deacon. But his heart was rooted in the Catholic faith. In 1571 Campion traveled to Douai, France, to study in the Catholic seminary. Several years later he walked to Rome, where he was accepted by the Jesuits. The next year's Campion taught in Vienna and Prague.

Campion could have stayed safely in Prague, but he heard the call to minister to Catholics in England. He could only do this traveling in disguise, celebrating the sacraments in secret, and avoiding the many spies who sought him out. But Campion did not keep his mission a secret. He wrote and circulated the Challenge to the Privy Council to debate him on all issues between Protestants and Catholics. His mission began in 1580 but soon ended with his arrest in 1581.

After his arrest, Campion was convicted of treason, suffered the dislocation of his bones on the rack, and still held his own in debates against his persecutors. Showing her esteem for his person, Elizabeth I met him, trying to draw him back into the Church of England. Campion remained steadfast in his Catholic faith. Finally, Campion was hanged, drawn, and quartered on December 1, 1581.

Edmund Campion, SJ, was declared a saint by Pope Paul VI in 1970.