Arthur Bell

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Venerable Arthur Bell
Born	January 13, 1590, Temple-Broughton near Worcester
Died	December 11, 1643, London
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	1900
Feast

Venerable Arthur Bell, also known as Francis Bell was a Franciscan and British martyr. He was born at Temple-Broughton near Worcester on January 13, 1590 and was martyred in London on December 11, 1643. When Arthur was eight his father died and his mother gave him into the charge of her brother, Francis Daniel Bell, a man of wealth, learning and piety. When Arthur was twenty-four he was sent to the English college at St.-Omer. He later went to Spain to continue and complete his studies.

He received the habit of the Franciscan Order at Segovia, Spain on 8 August 1618, and shortly after the completion of his novitiate and ordination to the priesthood, was called from Spain to labour in the restoration of the English province of the Franciscans. He was one of the first members of the Franciscan community at Douai, where he subsequently fulfilled the offices of guardian and professor of Hebrew. In 1632 Bell was sent to Scotland as first provincial of the Franciscan province there; but his efforts to restore the order in Scotland were unsuccessful. In 1637 he returned to England, where he laboured until November 1643, when he was apprehended as a spy by the parliamentary troops at Stevenage in Hertfordshire and committed to the Newgate prison.

The circumstances of his trial show Bell's devotedness to the cause of the Catholic faith and his willingness to suffer for the faith. When condemned to be drawn and quartered it is said that he broke forth into a solemn Te Deum" and thanked his judges profusely for the favour they were conferring upon him in allowing him to die for Christ.

The cause of his beatification was introduced at Rome in 1900. He wrote "The History, Life, and Miracles of Joane of the Cross" (St.-Omer, 1625). He also translated from the Spanish of Andrew a Soto "A brief Instruction how we ought to hear Mass" (Brussels, 1624).