12th Jul - STS JOHN JONES & JOHN WALL

 These two friars were martyred in England in the 16th & 17th centuries for refusing to deny their faith. John Jones was Welsh. He was ordained a diocesan priest and was twice imprisoned for 

    administering the sacraments before leaving England in 1590. He joined the Franciscans at the age of 60 and returned to England three years later while Queen Elizabeth I was at the 

    height of her power. Jones ministered to Catholics in the English countryside until his imprisonment in 1596. He was condemned to be hanged, 

    drawn and quartered. Jones was executed on July 12, 1598. John Wall was born in England but was educated at the English College of Douai, Belgium. Ordained in Rome in 1648, 

    he entered the Franciscans in Douai. In 1656 he returned to work secretly in England. In 1678 Titus Oates worked many English people into a frenzy over an alleged papal plot to 

    murder the king and restore Catholicism in that country. In that year Catholics were legally excluded from Parliament, a law which was not repealed until 1829. 

    John Wall was arrested and imprisoned in 1678 and was executed the following year. John Jones and John Wall were canonized in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.





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