Saint of the Day – 2 April – Blessed John Payne (c1550-1582) Priest Martyr, Born in c1532 in Peterborough, Huntingdonshire, Cambridge, England and died on 2 April 1582 in Chelmsford, Essex by being hung, drawn and quartered, Also known as – Pain, Paine. Blessed John was Beatified on 29 December 1885 by Pope Leo XIII.
John Payne was born around 1550 near Peterborough in Huntingdonshire. Nothing is known of his youth, except that he was raised a Protestant. Only later did he convert to Catholicism and in 1574, he entered the new college in Douai to prepare for the Priesthood. There he was entrusted with the task of Bursar and in 1576 he was Ordained a Priest, although this suggests Blessed John had already undertaken Theological studies elsewhere.
He then returned home with Blessed Cuthbert Mayne, to exercise his ministry, settling in Essex at Ingatestone Hall, a guest of the Petres family, who were strongly opposed to the religious policies of the English Government. This facilitated his pastoral activity among the local Catholics, even though these were still difficult times for Catholics in communion with the Holy See.
In 1577 he was arrested and briefly imprisoned. Once released, he returned to Douai but by mid-1578 he was back at Ingatestone Hall.
In 1581, while working in Warwickshire, John Payne was betrayed, arrested and taken to the Tower of London. Accused of treason against the Queen, he was tortured on the wheel and sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered.
He refused the assistance offered him by a certain George Elliott, reiterating instead “he had always, in mind or word, honoured her Majesty the Queen more than any other woman in the world; that he would always happily obey every civil duty; that he prayed for her as for his own soul; that he had never thought or plotted any treason against her Majesty or any nobleman of England.”
On 2 April 1582, the sad event occurred near Chelmsford in Essex which earned John Payne the Martyr’s Ccrown. Those who witnessed his execution, struck by the Priest’s upright conduct, asked that his body be left hanging until death, thus waiting to perform the gruesome procedures prescribed.
The Saint died uttering the words “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.”
AnaStpaul 