Perhaps
no single person did more for the preservation of the Catholic Faith
when its practice was forbidden in England than Nicholas Owen.
A
“diminutive man” according to one report, and called “Little John” on
that account, Nicholas Owen was possibly a builder by trade. He worked
for eighteen years with the clandestine Jesuit missionaries Fathers
Henry Garnet and John Gerard and built expertly concealed hiding places
for priests and Catholic fugitives.
In an age of license,
Nicholas led a singularly innocent life, untainted by the allurements of
the world. His confessor affirms that he preserved his baptismal
innocence unto death.
Every time Nicholas was about to design a
hiding place, he began the work by receiving the Holy Eucharist,
accompanied the project by continuous prayer and offered the completion
of the work to God alone. No wonder his hiding places were nearly
impossible to discover.
After working in this fashion for some
years, he was received into the Society of Jesus by Father Garnet as one
of England’s first lay brothers. For reasons of concealment, his
association with the Jesuits was kept a secret.
He was arrested
with Father John Gerard on St. George’s day in 1584. Despite terrible
torture, he never revealed the least information about the whereabouts
of other Catholics. He was released on a ransom paid by a Catholic
gentleman, as his services in contriving hiding places were
indispensable.
The
unique and successful escape of Father Gerard from the Tower of London
was most certainly planned by Owen, although the escape itself was
carried out by two others.
Finally, on January 27, 1606, after a
faithful service of twenty years, Nicholas Owen fell once more into the
hands of his enemies. Closely pursued by government officials, he and
three other Jesuits successfully avoided detection for eight days,
hidden in a couple of priest holes at Hindlip Hall in Worcester- shire.
Concealed in the two small cramped spaces in which they could neither
stand upright nor stretch their legs, they received nourishment through
small drinking straws hidden in the building’s own structure. Attempting
to protect the two priests by drawing attention to himself, Owen left
his hiding place first. His fellow lay brother was arrested with him as
soon as he emerged from hiding; Fathers Garnet and Oldcorne were seized
soon after.
His enemies exulted when they realized they finally
had their hands on the great builder of hiding places. Father Gerard
wrote of him: "I verily think no man can be said to have done more good
of all those who labored in the English vineyard. He was the immediate
occasion of saving the lives of many hundreds of persons, both
ecclesiastical and secular.”
Brother Nicholas was hung upon a
wall; during “interrogation” periods, iron gauntlets were fastened about
his wrists from which he hung for hours on end, day after day. When
this torture proved insufficient to make him talk, weights were added to
his feet. Finally, the pressure caused his entrails to burst forth,
causing his death. He revealed nothing.
First Photo by: Quodvultdeus
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