Ven. Christopher Buxton

Ven. Christopher Buxton

Priest and martyr, b. in Derbyshire; d. at Canterbury, 1 October, 1588. He was a scholar of Ven. Nicholas Garlick at the Grammar-School, Tideswell, in the Peak District, studied for the priesthood at Reims and Rome, and was ordained in 1586. He left Rome the next year, and soon after his arrival in England was apprehended and condemned to death for his priesthood. He suffered at Oaten Hill, Canterbury, together with Venerables Robert Wilcox and Edward Campion. Being so young, it was thought that his constancy might be shaken by the sight of the barbarous butchery of his companions, and his life was offered him if he would conform to the new religion, but he courageously answered that he would not purchase a corruptible life at such a price, and that if he had a hundred lives he would willingly surrender them all in defence of his faith. While in the Marshalsea Prison he wrote a "Rituale", the manuscript of which is now preserved as a relic at Olney, Bucks. He sent this manuscript to a priest, as a last token of his friendship, the day before he was taken from the prison to suffer martyrdom.

[ Note: Christopher Buxton and Robert Wilcox were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929.]

CHALLONER, Memoirs; FOLEY, Records; Roman Diary (London, 1880); MORRIS, Catholics of York.

BEDE CAMM