David Lewis (saint)
David Lewis , alias Charles Baker (* 1617 in Abergavenny , Monmouthshire , † August 27, 1679 in Usk ), was a Welsh Jesuit who was executed during the fictional Papist conspiracy in the Kingdom of England . He is one of the 1970s of Pope Paul VI. canonized Forty Martyrs from England and Wales .
Life
David Lewis received his education at Abergavenny Grammar School , which his father Morgan Lewis directed. His mother was Catholic, but David was raised Protestant. At the age of 16 during a stay in Paris, according to other sources, at 19 under the influence of an uncle who was a Jesuit, he converted to the Catholic Church . From 1638 he studied at the English College in Rome . In 1642 he was ordained a priest . In 1644 he entered the novitiate of the Jesuits at Sant'Andrea al Quirinale . After his first missionary assignment in England, he became a spiritual director at the English College in Rome in 1647 , but returned to his homeland in 1648 for good. In Monmouthshire he worked for 28 years in the pastoral care of the scattered Catholics, whom he often had to visit secretly on night trips.
In the summer of 1678, Titus Oates sparked a wave of persecution of Catholics with his invented papist conspiracy. Parliament offered rewards for apprehending priests, especially Jesuits. Lewis was denounced by a false friend, arrested on November 17, 1678 in Llantarnam and taken to Abergavenny in a sort of triumphal procession. There he was put on display as the pretending Bishop of Llandaff , who was up to recatholization . He was tried at Monmouth and Usk. Although it could not be proven that he was involved in a papist conspiracy, the mere fact that he had received the Roman consecrations abroad, then returned to the Kingdom of England and celebrated Mass there, was in application of a law from that time Elizabeth I counted as high treason . He was taken to London and confronted with Oates and his people. He could have saved his life by apostasy and the naming of co-conspirators, but he refused. He was then taken back to Usk, where he was hanged and quartered .
The canonization process for David Lewis began in 1886. On December 15, 1929, Pius XI. the beatification . The canonization of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales by Paul VI. took place on October 25, 1970 at St. Peter's Basilica .
literature
- Thompson Cooper: Baker, Charles (1617-1679) . In: Dictionary of National Biography , 1885-1900, Volume 3
- Sydney Fenn Smith: Ven. Charles Baker . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , 1913
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Saint David Lewis ( Memento of November 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (Patron Saints, English)
- ↑ a b Catholic Encyclopedia
- ^ Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ Catholic Encyclopedia - The Dictionary of National Biography makes no mention of the London episode.
- ↑ Biography (welshmartyrs.co.uk)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lewis, David |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Baker, Charles |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Welsh Jesuit, martyr |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1617 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Abergavenny , Monmouthshire |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 27, 1679 |
| Place of death | Usk (Wales) |