Name Alexander Briant Feast 1 December Beatified December 15, 1921 | ||
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Born 17 August 1556Somerset, England ( 1556-08-17 ) Similar People Ralph Sherwin, Edmund Campion, John Almond, Henry Morse, John Southworth | ||
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church | ||
Saint alexander briant priest and martyr elizabethan england tyburn gallows
Saint Alexander Briant (17 August 1556 – 1 December 1581) was an English Jesuit and martyr, executed at Tyburn.
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He was born in Somerset, and entered Hart Hall, Oxford (now Hertford College), at an early age. While there, he became a pupil of Father Robert Parsons and he completed his studies with him at Balliol College, which, along with his association with Richard Holtby, led to his conversion. After leaving university, he entered the English College at Reims then went to the English College, Douai, and was ordained priest on 29 March 1578. Assigned to the English mission in August of the following year he labored with zeal in his own county of Somerset.
A party of the persecution, searching for Father Parsons, placed Alexander Briant under arrest on 28 April 1581, in the hope of extorting information. After fruitless attempts to this end at Counter Prison, London, he was taken to the Tower where he was subjected to torture. With six other priests he was arraigned on 16 November 1581, in Queen's Bench, Westminster, on the charge of high treason, and condemned to death. In his letter to the Jesuit Fathers he says that he felt no pain during the various tortures he underwent, and adds: "Whether this that I say be miraculous or no, God knoweth." He was twenty-five years old when he was executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered on 1 December 1581; Edmund Campion and Ralph Sherwin were also executed with him.
Alexander Briant was declared venerable on 8 December 1921 by Pope Pius XI and beatified one week later on 15 December. Blessed Alexander Briant was canonized nearly forty-nine years later in 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales with a common feast day of 25 October. His feast day is celebrated on 1 December, the day of his martyrdom.