BUXTON, CHRISTOPHER, BL.

Priest, martyr; b. Tideswell, Derbyshire, England; hanged, drawn, and quartered at Oaken Hill, Canterbury, Oct. 1, 1588. Although he was raised in a Protestant family, Christopher fell under the influence of Bl. Nicholas garlick, who was master of his grammar school in Tideswell. After his conversion to Catholicism, Buxton studied for the priesthood at Rheims and Rome, and was ordained in 1586. Shortly after his arrival in the English mission, he was arrested and imprisoned at Marshalsea, where he wrote a Rituale that is preserved at Olney, England. Although his fellow martyrs, Frs. Robert wilcox and Edward campion feared he might succumb to apostasy at the sight of their barbarous execution, he remained constant. In response to an offer of clemency in exchange for conformance to the new religion, he said that if he had a hundred lives he would willingly surrender them all in defense of his faith. He was beatified by Pius XI on Dec. 15, 1929.

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; repr. Farnborough 1969), I, 61–63. h. foley, Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, (London 1877–82), I, 478, 481. j. morris, ed., The Troubles of Our Catholic Forefathers Related by Themselves, 3 v. (London 1872–77), III, 39 ; The Catholics of York under Elizabeth (London 1891). j. h. pollen, Acts of English Martyrs (London 1891), 327.

[k. i. rabenstein]