John Roberts (martyr)

Saint John Roberts (1575-6 - 10 December, 1610), was a Benedictine monk and priest, and was the first Prior of St. Gregory's, Douai, France (now Downside Abbey). Returning to England as a missionary priest during the period of recusancy, he was martyred at Tyburn.

Early life and conversion to Catholicism

He was the son of John and Anna Roberts of Trawsfynydd, Merionethshire, in Northern Wales. He matriculated at St. John's College, Oxford, in February, 1595-6, but left after two years without taking a degree and entered as a law student at one of the Inns of Court. In 1598 he travelled on the continent and in Paris. Through the influence of a Catholic fellow- countryman he was converted. By the advice of John Cecil, an English priest who afterwards became a Government spy, Fact|date=August 2007 he decided to enter the English College at Valladolid, where he was admitted 18 October, 1598.

Entrance to the Benedictine Life

The following year, however, he left the college for the Abbey of St. Benedict, Valladolid, and from there he was sent to make his novitiate in the great Abbey of St. Martin at Santiago de Compostela where he made his profession towards the end of 1600. Having completed his studies he was ordained, and set out for England on the 26 December 1602. Although observed by a Government spy, Roberts and his companions succeeded in entering the country in April, 1603; but, his arrival being known, he was arrested and banished on the 13 May. He reached Douai on 24 May and soon managed to return to England where he laboured zealously among the plague-stricken people in London. In 1604, while embarking for Spain with four postulants, including William Scott (who would later become Maurus Scott) he was again arrested. Not being recognized as a priest, he was soon released and banished, but he returned to England at once. On 5 November, 1605, while Justice Grange was searching the house of Mrs. Percy, first wife of Thomas Percy, who was involved in the Gunpowder Plot, he found Roberts there and arrested him. Though acquitted of any complicity in the plot itself, Roberts was imprisoned in the Gatehouse at Westminster for seven months and then exiled anew in July, 1606.

Foundation of St. Gregory's monastery, Douai, France

This time he was absent for some fourteen months, nearly all of which he spent at Douai where he founded and became the first prior of a house for the English Benedictine monks who had entered various Spanish monasteries. This was the beginning of the monastery of St. Gregory at Douai. The community of St. Gregory's still exists at Downside Abbey, near Bath, England, having settled in England in the 19th century.

Return to England and martyrdom

In October 1607, Roberts returned to England. In December he was yet again arrested and placed in the Gatehouse at Westminster, from which he contrived to escape after some months. After his escape, he lived for about a year in London, but in May 1609 was taken to Newgate, where he would have been executed but for the intercession of de la Broderie, the French ambassador, whose petition reduced the sentence to banishment. Roberts again visited Spain and Douai, but returned to England within a year, knowing that his death was certain if he were again captured. He was indeed captured again on 2 December 1610; the arresting men arrived just as he was concluding Mass and took him to Newgate in his vestments. On 5 December he was tried and found guilty under the Act forbidding priests to minister in England, and on 10 December was hanged, drawn, and quartered with Thomas Somers at Tyburn.

The body of Roberts was recovered by a group that included Maurus Scott and taken to St. Gregory's, Douai, but disappeared during the French Revolution. Two fingers are still preserved as relics at Downside and Erdington Abbeys respectively and a few minor relics exist. At Erdington also is a unique contemporary engraving of the martyrdom.

Beatification and Canonisation

The introduction of the cause of beatification was approved by Leo XIII in his Decree of 4 December, 1886. On the 25 October, 1970, he was canonised by Pope Paul VI as one of the representative Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

External links

* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13098c.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: St. John Roberts]
* [http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=4035 Saint John Roberts] at Catholic.org