Everything about Ambrose Barlow totally explained
Saint Ambrose (Edward) Barlow (
1585 –
September 10 1641), was a
Catholic priest and
martyr.
Early life and education
Barlow was born in Barlow Hall near
Manchester, the fourth son of Sir Alexander Barlow, knight, of Barlow Hall, and his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Uryan Brereton, knight, of Handforth Hall,
Cheshire. He was baptized at
Didsbury church on
30 November 1585. Until
1607 he adhered to the
Anglican church, but then turned to the Catholic church. Barlow was educated at the
Benedictine monastery of St. Gregory in
Douai, France, and entered the English College in
Valladolid, Spain, on September 20, 1610. He later returned to Douai where his elder brother (William) Rudesind Barlow was a professed monk. Barlow also professed in
1614 and was ordained a priest in
1617.
Mission and Martyrdom
After his ordination to the priesthood in Douai, Barlow was sent to England on the mission in South
Lancashire. He resided chiefly at
Wardley Hall, the seat of the Downe family, near
Manchester, and at Morley's Hall, a mansion of the Tyldesley family, in the parish of
Leigh, approximately seven miles from Manchester. Pursued by the authorities and Anglican churchmen, Barlow was imprisoned at least four times for his
proselytization. He was caught for the fifth and final time on Easter Sunday,
25 April 1641 and was arrested by the Vicar of
Eccles. He was paraded at the head of his parishioners, dressed in his surplice, followed by some 400 men armed with clubs and swords. Although he'd been preaching at the time of his apprehension, and could possibly have escaped in the confusion, he voluntarily yielded himself to his enemies. He was taken to
Lancaster Castle and, after four months' imprisonment, was tried on September 6th or 7th, and sentenced the following day after confessing to being a Catholic priest. On Friday
September 10 he was
hanged, drawn and quartered at
Lancaster.
Hagiography and Relics
Challoner (see below) compiled Barlow's biography from two manuscripts belonging to St Gregory's Monastery, one of which was written by his brother Dom Rudesind Barlow, President of the
English Benedictine Congregation. A third manuscript, entitled "The Apostolical Life of Ambrose Barlow", was written by one of his pupils for Dom Rudesind, and is presently in the Library of
Owen's College in Manchester; it has been printed by the
Chetham Society. There also exist two portraits of Barlow and one of his father, Sir Alexander. Many of his relics are also preserved, a hand being at
Stanbrook Abbey near
Worcester and his skull in Wardley Hall.
In
1970 Ambrose Barlow was canonized by
Paul VI as one of the
Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, whose feast day is
10 October.
Sources
(in 1913)
- Allanson, Biographical MSS. (preserved at Ampleforth Abbey), I
- Joseph Gillow, Bibliographical Dictionary Eng. Cath. (London, 1885)
- Fletcher Moss, Pilgrimages to Old Homes (Didsbury, 1903)
- idem, History of Didsbury (Manchester)
- idem, Chronicles of Cheadle, Cheshire (Didsbury, 1894)
- Dodd, Church History of England (Brussels, 1739).
(modern)
Butler's Lives of the Saints, ix (revised ed, 2000)
Camm, B., Nine Martyr Monks (1931)
Challoner, R. (ed J.H. Pollen), Memoirs of Missionary Priests (1924)
New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967)
Rhodes, W.E. (ed), The Apostolical Life of Ambrose Barlow (Chetham Society, 1909)
Further Information
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