On this date in 1610, the Catholic priest George Napier (or Napper, or Nappier) was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Oxford, having said Mass that very morning.

From here, attributed to Richard Challoner‘s Memoirs of Missionary Priests.

A son of Oxford himself who went abroad to France for ordination in his outlawed faith, Napier cut a fairly typical martyrology for the Catholic clergy. He was caught red-handed with the implements of the Roman church, refused to avow the supremacy of the English crown, and aggravated his offense by converting a fellow-prisoner to Catholicism.

This unfortunate has made headlines recently around the fourth centennial of his martyrdom, for which occasion a pilgrimage of Catholic faithful unveiled a plaque in Nappier’s honor at Oxford Castle.

Archbishop Bernard Longley blessing on Oct. 23, 2010 the marker honoring George Napier. Images on this page (cc) Joseph Shaw.

On this day..

• 1801: Hyacinth Moise, Haitian Revolution general - 2020
• 1716: Maria of Curacao, slave rebel - 2019
• 1773: Eva Faschaunerin, the last tortured in Austria - 2018
• 1641: Maren Splids, Jutland witch - 2017
• 1940: Julian Zugazagoitia, Minister of the Interior to republican Spain - 2016
• 1945: Charles Ford Silliman, suicide pact? - 2015
• 2011: Luo Yaping, "land granny" - 2014
• 1942: Eddie Leonski, the Brownout Strangler - 2013
• 1848: Robert Blum, German democrat - 2012
• 1842: Stephen Brennan, desperate bushranger - 2011
• Themed Set: Bushrangers - 2011
• 1944: Georges Suarez, collaborationist editor - 2009
• 2008: The Bali Bombers - 2008
• 1911: Charles Justice - 2007