John Felton (martyr)

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Blessed John Felton (?-Aug. 8, 1570) was an English Catholic martyr, who was executed during the reign of Elizabeth I.

Almost all of what is known about Felton comes from the narrative of his daughter, Frances Salisbury. The MS that holds her story has a blank where his age should be, but it does say that he was a wealthy man of Norfolk ancestry, who lived Bermondsey Abbey near Southwark. He "was a man of stature little and of complexion black". His wife had been a maid-of-honour to Queen Mary and a playmate of Elizabeth I. She was also the widow of one of Mary's auditors. His son was Blessed Thomas Felton

Felton was arrested for having affixed a copy of Pope Pius V's Bull excommunicating the queen to the gates of the Bishop of London's palace near St. Paul's. The law records say that this happed around eleven at night on May 24, 1569, but Salisbury claims it happened between two and three in the morning of the 25th, on the Feast of Corpus Christi. He had received the bulls in Calais and given one to a friend, William Mellowes of Lincoln's Inn. This copy was discovered on May 25; and after being racked, Melowes implicated Felton, who was arrested on the 26th. Felton immediately confessed and glorified in his deed, but was still racked thrice. He was condemned on August 4 and executed four days later in St. Paul's Churchyard, London. He was cut down alive, and his daughter says that he uttered the holy name of Jesus once or twice when the hangman had his heart in his hand. He was beatified in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII.

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.