Sunday, September 7, 2014

BLESSED JAMES FENN AND COMPANIONS

Blessed James Fenn and Companions

 Died 1584.
Feast day: February 12




A group of martyrs consisting of James Fenn, John Nutter, John Munden, and Thomas Hemerford, who were martyred at Tyburn, England, and beatified in 1929. While they died during the same persecution and were beatified at the same time, they are not included among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.  James Fenn was born in Montacute near Yeovil, Somerset, and was
educated at Corpus Christi College and Gloucester Hall at Oxford. He became a school master and married. Upon his wife's death, he studied in Rheims and was ordained to the priesthood in 1580.
John Nutter was born near Burnley, Lancastershire, and was a fellow of Saint John's College, Cambridge. He studied for the priesthood at Rheims and was ordained in 1581. John Munden, a native of Coltley, South Maperton, Dorset, studied at New College, Oxford, became a school master, went to Rheims and to Rome for his ecclesiastical training and was ordained in 1582.  Thomas Hemerford, a native of Dorsetshire, was educated at Saint John's College and Hart Hall, Oxford. He studied for the priesthood at the English College in Rome, where he was ordained in 1583--just
a year before his death .



Blessed James Fenn
   Martyr in England. Born in Somerset, he studied at Oxford and became a fellow until he refused to take the Oath of Supremacy and was removed. James married and became a schoolmaster in Somerset. After the passing of his wife, he went to Reims where he studied for the priesthood and received ordination in 1580. Returning to England, he worked in Somerset until arrested. He was then moved to London and named a conispirator of a bogus assassination plot. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn on February 12. Pope Pius XI canonized him in 1929.

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