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Saint Nicholas Owen, S.J., (c. 1562 – 1/2 March 1606) was a Jesuit lay brother who was the principal builder of priest holes during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and James I of England. After his final arrest, he was tortured to death by prison authorities in the Tower of London. He is honoured as a martyr by the Catholic Church and was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970.〔Reynolds, Tony. "St Nicholas Owen: Priest-Hole Maker" Gracewing 2014〕 ==Life== He was born in Oxford, England, around 1562 into a devoutly Catholic family and grew up during the Penal Laws. He was apprenticed as a joiner in 1577 where he acquired skills that he was to use in building hiding places. He entered the service of Henry Garnet S.J. around 1588 and for the next 18 years built hiding places for priests in the homes of Catholic families. He frequently traveled from one house to another, under the name of "Little John", accepting only the necessities of life as payment before starting off for a new project.〔http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/16247〕 Owen was only slightly taller than a dwarf, and suffered from a hernia.〔See Hogge, Alice (2005) ''God's Secret Agents'' London: Harper Collins, 118 (on his short stature), 364 (on his suffering from a hernia)〕 Nevertheless, his work often involved breaking through thick stonework; and to minimize the likelihood of betrayal he often worked at night, and always alone. The number of hiding places he constructed will never be known. Due to the ingenuity of his craftsmanship, some may still be undiscovered.〔 For many years, Owen worked in the service of the Jesuit priest Henry Garnet, and was admitted into the Society of Jesus as a lay brother. He was arrested in 1594, and was tortured at the Poultry Compter, but revealed nothing. He was released after a wealthy Catholic family paid a fine on his behalf, the jailers believing that he was merely the insignificant friend of some priests. He resumed his work, and is believed to have masterminded the famous escape of Father John Gerard, S.J. from the Tower of London in 1597. Early in 1606, Owen was arrested a final time at Hindlip Hall in Worcestershire,〔(Lives of the Saints ) By Alban Butler, Peter Doyle, ISBN 0-86012-253-0〕 giving himself up voluntarily in hope of distracting attention from his master Fr. Garnet who was hiding nearby with another priest. Realizing just whom they had caught, and his value, Secretary of State, Robert Cecil exulted: "It is incredible, how great was the joy caused by his arrest... knowing the great skill of Owen in constructing hiding places, and the innumerable quantity of dark holes which he had schemed for hiding priests all through England."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nicholas Owen (Jesuit)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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