Feb 18 John Pibush d. 1601 beat. 1929

John and Thommy

Good morning
I love you

February 18 Bl. John Pibush d. 1601 beat 1929

All these guys that went off to Rheims to be ordained, how well did they get to know one another? Did they go there because they heard about the men who’d been persecuted, tortured, and killed by the great English monarchs – men who’d followed their priestly vocation to the first step at Rheims; a first step on the way to martyrdom serving in their homeland? How do you hear about the people who are the heroes of our faith and religion – not only the saints and impactful people in our history but today’s heroes? Today’s Catholics who are making a difference in families, in church, in community….?

John Pibush was born in Yorkshire.

John Pibush was ordained at Rheims in 1587. He returned to England in 1589. Did it take him 4 years to figure out passage and disguise? Did he reconsider his call to the English mission? What did the church find for him to do that was more important than returning to England? I wish I knew – though the answers are researchable/knowable….

In 1593, John Pibush was arrested in Gloucestershire for being a seminary priest – a Catholic priest servicing his countrymen. He had four years on the run – the diary of Anne Frank has nothing on the stories of the English Mission priests and their protectors…. Is it because the persecutors were our English confreres or because the victims Catholic that these stories don’t make it to the classroom? How better to introduce a separation of church and state discussion? 

John Pibush was kept in prison in London. He escaped. He was recaptured – not a pleasant experience to be brought back to prison after an escape. The trial came swiftly – why give him a chance to escape again? And he’d already rejected the opportunity to reject faith and church and become a ‘good english protestant’.

John Pibush was executed at Soutwark in 1601.

I love you
Dad