Pilcher, Thomas, Bl.
PILCHER, THOMAS, BL.
Priest, martyr; b. ca. 1557 at Battle, Sussex, England; hanged, drawn, and quartered March 21, 1587 at Tyburn or Dorchester. Pilcher earned his master's degree (1579) at Balliol College, Oxford, but resigned his fellowship in 1580. In November 1581, he began study in Rheims and was ordained priest at Laon in March 1583. That same year he went back to England to work in Hampshire and Dorset. In 1585, he was arrested and banished, but returned almost immediately to serve another two years before being apprehended in March 1587. Such was his zeal that during his two-week imprisonment at Dorchester, he converted 30 people to Catholicism. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on Nov. 22, 1987 with George Haydock and Companions.
Feast of the English Martyrs: May 4 (England).
See Also: england, scotland, and wales, martyrs of.
Bibliography: r. challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, ed. j. h. pollen (rev. ed. London 1924). j. h. pollen, Acts of English Martyrs (London 1891).
[k. i. rabenstein]