The Lancaster Martyrs - A New Book !

Published: 05 May 2021

On the 4th May, we celebrated the Feast of the English Martyrs. To mark this occasion, a new book has been written to shed light on the Lancaster Martyrs, 14 priests and laymen from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ,sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered on account of their Catholic faith on Moor above the city of Lancaster.

The book is entitled, ‘Like a Deer yearning for running streams’, a quotation from the psalms, etched into the prison walls of the Tower of London by George Beesley, a martyr from Hill Chapel in Goosnargh. There are few villages and towns in Lancashire that were left untouched by persecution of the Catholic Church. Far from the prying eyes of State authority the Catholic faith continued to be practised in Lancashire, but as political pressures ratcheted up in the late sixteenth century, the Catholic faith was driven underground and example was made of priests who were caught administering the sacraments and the lay faithful who assisted them.

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