Saint of the Day – 13 August – Blessed William Freeman

Blessed William Freeman, priest and martyr. He was born at Manthorp near York in 1558; educated at Oxford, and died at Warwick on the 13th of August, 1595. He is one of 136 martyrs who were beatified by Pius XI in 1929.

His parents were recusants, but for a while he pretended to be Anglican. This changed when he went to live in London, where he witnessed the martyrdom of Blessed Edward Stransham at Tyburn in 1586. The death of his fellow Blessed changed his life the same way Bl Edmund Campion’s had changed Bl Henry Walpole’s and Bl Philip Howard’s, converting him to the Faith. He left England and was ordained priest in 1587 at Reims.

Returning to England in 1589, he worked for six years on the borders of Warwickshire, and met many people who were contemporaries or friends of Shakespeare. In January, 1595, in Stratford-on-Avon he was arrested, and spent seven months in prison. He denied his priesthood, but also refused all friendly offers to escape, not wishing to lose his opportunity of martyrdom. Owing to the treachery of a fellow-prisoner, William Gregory, he was at last sentenced as a seminary priest and in spite of a protest of loyalty, was put to the death of a traitor (hanging, drawing, quartering) at Warwick.

Bl Edward Stransham, Bl Henry Walpole and Bl Philip Howard were also beatified by Pius XI in 1929.