GARLICK, NICHOLAS, BL.

Priest, martyr; b. ca. 1555 at Dinting, Glossop, Derbyshire, England; hanged, drawn, and quartered July 24, 1588 on St. Mary's Bridge at Derby. He finished his studies at Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College, Oxford, but did not take a degree, perhaps because it required taking the Oath of Supremacy. For the next seven years he was schoolmaster at Tideswell in the Peak (Derbyshire), where his personal holiness so influenced his pupils that three of them, including Bl. Christopher buxton, followed him to Rheims in June 1581. He was ordained in 1582 and returned to England the following January. After working for a year in the Midlands, he was arrested and sent into exile (1585). Although he knew that he would be shown no mercy should he be found again in England, he was soon back at work in the same neighborhood. In 1588, he was apprehended with Bl. Robert ludlam by the infamous Topcliffe at Padley Hall, the home of John Fitzherbert, whose son betrayed the priests. They were confined in the verminous Derby Gaol with Bl. Richard simpson until execution. Garlick was beatified by Pope John Paul II on Nov. 22, 1987 with George Haydock and Companions.

Feast of the English Martyrs: May 4 (England).

See Also: england, scotland, and wales, martyrs of.

Bibliography: r. challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, ed. j. h. pollen (rev. ed. London 1924). j. h. pollen, Acts of English Martyrs (London 1891).

[k. i. rabenstein]