Filby, William, Bl.
FILBY, WILLIAM, BL.
Priest, martyr; b. Oxfordshire, England, c. 1557–60d. hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn (London), May 30, 1582. Following his studies at Lincoln College, Oxford, Filby entered the seminary at Rheims, Oct. 12, 1579, and was ordained, March 25, 1581. He was active in the English mission for only a short time before his arrest in July and commitment to the Tower of London, Marshalsea, and back to the Tower. Following his sentencing on November 17 on the false charge of conspiring against the Government in Rome and Rheims, he was loaded with manacles for the rest of his life and deprived of his bedding for two of those months. With him suffered three others: BB. Thomas cottam, Luke kirby, and Laurence richardson. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII.
Feast of the English Martyrs: May 4 (England).
See Also: england, scotland, and wales, martyrs of.
Bibliography: b. camm, ed., Lives of the English Martyrs, (New York 1905), II, 500–35. r. challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, ed. j. h. pollen (rev. ed. London 1924; repr. Farnborough 1969), I, nos. 12–14. j. h. pollen, Acts of English Martyrs (London 1891).
[k. i. rabenstein]