Alexander Briant, SJ (17 August 1556 – 1 December 1581) was an English Jesuit and martyr, executed at Tyburn.
Life
He was born in
Somerset, and entered Hart Hall, Oxford (now Hertford College), at an early age. While there, he became a pupil of
Robert Persons,
[ “Blessed Alexander Briant”. New Catholic Dictionary. CatholicSaints.Info. 27 July 2012. Web. 2 February 2019] and he completed his studies with him at Balliol College, which, along with his association with
Richard Holtby, led to his conversion. After leaving university, he entered the English College at
Reims then went to the English College, Douai, and was ordained priest on 29 March 1578. Assigned to the English mission in August of the following year, he laboured with zeal in his own county of
Somerset.
[ Saxton, Eugene. "Blessed Alexander Briant." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 1 February 2019]
A party of the persecution, searching for Parsons, placed Alexander Briant under arrest on 28 April 1581. Arrested along with Briant was Gilbert Bodey, brother of John Bodey. Gilbert Bodey was scourged at Bridewell Palace and afterwards confined to Compter. He was released on bond, and when not called to appear, escaped to Rheims.[ Pollen, John Hungerford. "Venerable John Slade and Venerable John Bodey", Acts of English Martyrs Hitherto Unpublished, Burns and Oates, 1891, p. 54]
Trial and Execution
In the hope of extorting information, Briant was sent to the Counter. After fruitless attempts to this end, he was taken to the Tower of London where he was subjected to torture. It was during this confinement that Briant penned his letter to the Jesuit Fathers in England requesting admission into the Society, which was granted. He was arraigned with six other priests on 16 November 1581, in Queen's Bench, Westminster, on the charge of high treason, and condemned to death. In his letter to the Jesuit Fathers, he says that he felt no pain during the various tortures he underwent, and adds:
"Whether this that I say be miraculous or no, God knoweth." He was twenty-five years old when he was executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered on 1 December 1581. Through either malice or carelessness of the executioner, he was put to needless suffering.
[ Edmund Campion and Ralph Sherwin were also executed with him.][ Monks of Ramsgate. “Alexander Briant”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info. 24 May 2012]
Veneration and relic
Alexander Briant was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII.[ Patron Saints Index: "Saint Alexander Briant"] Alexander Briant was canonized in 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales with a common feast day of 25 October. His individual feast day is celebrated on 1 December, the day of his martyrdom.
A relic, a corporal, which is housed in the English College in Rome, has the names of five priests. Briant is one of those names stitched in the cloth.
In 2023, a deanery of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton was named in honour of Briant.
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