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Saint John Payne
Saint John Payne

Saint John Payne

Feast Day
May 04, 2013
Patronage
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<p>St. John Payne was an English Catholic Priest and Martyr.&nbsp; He was born in Peterborough in 1532.&nbsp; He was a mature man when he went to the English College at Douai in 1574.&nbsp; The Archbishop of Cambrai ordained him a Priest on April 7, 1576.&nbsp; Shortly after being ordained, he left for the English mission with another Priest, Cuthbert Mayne.&nbsp; Mayne headed for his native South West England, and Payne headed for Essex.&nbsp; In early July 1851, he and another who had come to England were arrested in Warwickshire while staying at the estate of Lady Petre. It was through the efforts of George &ldquo;Judas&rdquo; Eliot, a known criminal, murderer, rapist and thief, who made a career out of denouncing Catholics and Priests for bounty.&nbsp; After being examined at Greenwich, they were committed to the Tower of London on July 14<sup>th</sup>. &nbsp; Eliot was a Catholic, and had been employed in positions of trust in the Petre household where he had embezzled sums of money.&nbsp; He enticed a young woman to marry him, and the approached Fr. Payne.&nbsp; When he refused, Elliot was determined to make his revenge, and a profit as well, by turning him in. &nbsp;</p> <p>Fr. John Payne was indicted at Chelmsford on March 22, on a charge of treason for conspiring to murder the Queen and her leading officers.&nbsp; John denied the charges, and affirmed his loyalty to the Queen in all that was lawful; contesting the reliability of the murderer Eliot how had turned him in.&nbsp; No attempt was made to corroborate Eliot&rsquo;s story, which had been well rehearsed.&nbsp; The guilty verdict was a foregone conclusion. &nbsp;</p> <p>At his execution, he was dragged from prison on a hurdle to the place of execution and first prayed on his knees for almost thirty minutes.&nbsp; He then kissed the scaffold, made a profession of faith, and publicly declared his innocence.&nbsp; He was called upon to repent of his treason, and again, Payne denied it.&nbsp; A Protestant minister shouted out that he knew of Payne&rsquo;s treason, from his brother, year&rsquo;s prior.&nbsp; Fr. Payne admitted that his brother was an earnest Protestant, but that he would never had said such a lie.&nbsp; Fr. Payne asked that his brother who was in the same vicinity, be brought in and asked.&nbsp; The execution proceeded and John Payne was at their mercy.&nbsp; What was supposed to be a smooth, quiet execution was anything but that.&nbsp; The crowd had become so sympathetic to John Payne that they hung on his feet to speed up his death and prevented the infliction of the quartering until he was dead. &nbsp;</p> <p>John Payne was one of a group of prominent Catholic martyrs of the persecution who were later designated as the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.&nbsp; He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII, by means of a decree, and was canonized along with the other Martyrs of England and Wales by Pope VI, on October 25, 1970.</p> <p><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Practical Take Away</strong></span></p> <p>St. John Payne was from England, and became a Priest while in his forties.&nbsp; He was sent to Essex to be a missionary, shortly after his ordination.&nbsp; Being a Catholic, much less a Priest was forbidden in his time, and a known thief living in his household betrayed him.&nbsp; He was arrested, and sent to the Tower of London.&nbsp; He was convicted on a trumped up charge of trying to murder the Queen.&nbsp; He denied the charges, and the courts had several opportunities to overturn his conviction based on truth, but because he was a Priest, his outcome was predetermined.&nbsp; He was falsely accused, convicted, and then martyred for the faith. &nbsp; St. John Payne was one of a group of prominent Catholic martyrs of the persecution who were later designated as the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.&nbsp; He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII, by means of a decree, and was canonized along with the other Martyrs of England and Wales by Pope Paul VI, on October 25, 1970.</p>