GARNET, THOMAS, ST.

English martyr; b. Southwark, in the parish of St. Mary Overies, c. 1575; d. Tyburn, June 23, 1608. He attended grammar school at Horsham in Sussex, where in 1588 his father, Richard Garnet, brother of Henry garnet, was imprisoned for his faith with his wife and children. For a time Thomas was a page to Lord William Howard, half-brother to Bl. Philip howard. At the age of 15 or 16 he crossed to Saint-Omer to complete his education at the Jesuit college. On Feb. 21, 1596, he entered the English seminary at Valladolid, where he was a fellow student with Andrew White, later the founder of the Maryland mission. In July 1599, Garnet, a priest, left for England, and there in September 1604 he became a Jesuit. Arrested and imprisoned in the Gatehouse at the time of the Gunpowder Plot, he was stringently examined by Lord Salisbury for evidence that might implicate his uncle, Henry Garnet. When he proved himself innocent he was banished with other priests in June 1606, but, after a brief novitiate at Louvain, returned the following September. Five or six weeks later he was again arrested and imprisoned, first in the Gatehouse, then in Newgate. After several examinations he was tried at the Old Bailey on June 19, 1608, and condemned for his priesthood. A crowd estimated at more than 1,000 witnessed his execution at Tyburn four days later. On the scaffold he mentioned by name all who were responsible for his execution and prayed God's forgiveness for them. He was beatified by Pius XI on Dec. 15, 1929, and canonized by Paul VI in 1970. He is the protomartyr of St. Omer's College, now Stonyhurst.

Feast: June 23.

Bibliography: h. foley, ed., Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, 7 v. (Quarterly Ser. 75; London 1877–82) 2.2:475–505. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, rev. ed. h. thurston and d. attwater, 4 v. (New York 1956) 2:627. j. h. pollen, Acts of the English Martyrs (London 1891). r. challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, ed. j. h. pollen (rev. ed. London 1924). j. gillow, A Literary and Biographical History or Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics from 1534 to the Present Time, 5 v. (London–New York 1885–1902; repr., New York 1961) 2:395–397.

[g. fitzherbert]