St Edmund Campion

Edmund was born into a Catholic family in 1540. He was raised in the Catholic faith and studied the faith at school.  He was a very smart boy. He was so smart that people from the Queen’s court, and even the Queen herself, were interested in getting to know Edmund.  Queen Elizabeth I had separated herself from the Catholic Church and made herself head of the Protestant Church in England.  This caused a lot of trouble for the Catholic people of England and many were killed because of their faith in the Catholic Church.  In order to show his support for the Queen, Edmund turned away from the Catholic faith and became a deacon (helper) in the Protestant Church.  He never felt good about this decision and he always had questions in his heart and mind about whether the Catholic Church was the Church that Jesus left for His people.  He wanted to study this more and went to Ireland. There, he decided that he had to live the Catholic faith because he found that it had all the truths that Jesus taught and left his followers.  This meant he had to leave England because he knew he would not be treated well for becoming Catholic again, so he went to France and joined the Jesuit Order and became a priest.  It was then decided that Fr. Edmund would return to England to help the Catholic people there.  He knew that it would be dangerous, but he wanted to go back to preach the Gospel and take care of the Catholic people of England who were being treated badly by the Queen.  He spent a year among the Catholic people celebrating Mass, helping the poor, and teaching them about the faith before he was captured by the Queen’s men.  They tried to convince him to give up his faith - the Queen even offered him riches - but he refused and he was martyred for his faith in Jesus and His Church.