Book Reviews and More: St Nicholas Owen: Layman, Martyr, Builder of Priest Holes - Fr Gerard Skinner

St Nicholas Owen:

Layman, Martyr, Builder of Priest Holes

CTS Biographies

Fr Gerard Skinner

Catholic Truth Society

ISBN 9781784697747

eISBN 9781784697266

ASIN B0FC33R6DM

CTS Booklet B782

St Nicholas Owen: Layman, Martyr, Builder of Priest Holes - Fr Gerard Skinner - CTS Biographies

I discovered the books and booklets of the Catholic Truth Society in 2018. Since that time I have read over 450 different titles, and many of them more than once. One of the first series I discovered was a subset of the CTS Biographies called CTS Saints of the Isles the books are no longer marketed that way but this volume would easily fit in that category. I have read one other volume on this saint, St Nicholas Owen Priest-Hole Maker by Tony Reynolds, but a lot of it focused on the holes that still exist today that are attributed to Owen. I have been excited to read this work, since it was first announced. It was well worth the wait.

The descriptions of this volume is:

“A lesser-known Reformation martyr, this courageous layman used his carpentry and masonry skills to create secret hiding places for priests, thus ensuring the preservation of the Catholic Faith in England.

A lesser-known Reformation martyr, St Nicholas Owen, a Jesuit lay brother and master craftsman, risked his life to build ingenious priest holes, enabling persecuted clergy to minister in secret.

Unlike many English Martyrs who faced execution, Nicholas Owen died under brutal torture – his resilience and sacrifice ensuring the survival of the Catholic Faith in England. His story is a powerful testament to the courage of the laity and the extraordinary ways God can use human talents for His greater purpose.”

This booklet is an excellent volume on this saint and it is part of a wonderful series and I can easily recommend it. The chapters in the booklet are:

The Persecuted Church

Two Catholic Heroes

Nicholas Owen at Work

Baddesley Clinton

Growing Danger

The Mission Continues

The Crown of Martyrdom

After Martyrdom

Prayer to St Nicholas Owen

About the author we are informed:

“Fr Gerard Skinner studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Venerable English College in Rome. A priest of the Diocese of Westminster, he has written, contributed to or edited many publications. His other books include Newman the Priest, Father Ignatius Spencer, Dominic Barberi and The Douai Martyrs.”

I highlighted a few passages while reading this volume some of them are:

“The noose had been tightening around the neck of English Catholic life throughout the sixteenth century. First had come King Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church, then a more determinedly Protestant era with the short reign of Edward VI (1547-53). Hope dawned under the rule of Queen Mary I, but this was short lived–less than six years. With Mary’s death on 17 November 1558, her half-sister, Elizabeth, acceded to the throne, and the hopes of a restored Catholic England were reduced to ashes.”

“The bull finally declared, ‘We charge and command all and singular the nobles, subjects, peoples, and others afore said that they do not dare obey her orders, mandates, and laws. Those who shall act to the contrary we include in the like sentence of excommunication’.”

“English Catholics therefore found themselves at risk of bringing upon themselves the same fate as England’s first martyr, St Alban, who gave refuge to a Christian priest and was sentenced to death for allowing him to escape and for refusing to renounce his Christian faith.”

“This is the context of the life of St Nicholas Owen, who did more than anyone else to see that priests could be hidden from the ‘pursuivants’, those who hunted them down. Having constructed scores–maybe hundreds–of ingenious hiding places for priests, Nicholas Owen would have known that, should he be caught, his captors would show no mercy until they had extracted information about the location of the priests’ hides, who had commissioned them, and who had used them.”

“The story of St Nicholas Owen is one of the finest examples of the courage and resistance that was lived out by thousands of English laity throughout the tempestuous times of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Due to the necessarily clandestine nature of his life, it is not possible to chart his progress from house to house or from year to year with great clarity, yet thanks to the accounts of others, we do know with certainty how important his work was and how bravely he laboured for the glory of God.”

“In 1566, the Owen family moved to No. 3 Castle Street, a property that they leased from Magdalene College. The street was even closer to the castle than their previous home, and their house was also the carpentry workshop of Walter Owen. From a very early age, Nicholas would have watched and learnt from his father the carpentry skills that he was later to master.”

“The youngest brother of Nicholas, Henry, became a printer and was soon secretly printing Catholic literature, a mission for which he was arrested and imprisoned.”

“If the government thought that such a death as the one St Edmund suffered would discourage others from following in his footsteps, it was quickly disabused of the notion. As the Oxford Regius Professor of Divinity observed to the Earl of Leicester, ‘It used to be said, “Dead men bite not”; and yet Campion dead bites with his friends’ teeth… in the place of the single Campion, champions upon champions have swarmed to keep us engaged’. Undoubtedly, Campion’s death stiffened the already great resolve of the Owen brothers in their various vocations as Catholics.”

“Apart from his skill, two other virtues shone from Nicholas Owen: piety and discretion. He was clearly a man of prayer, receiving Holy Communion, if at all possible, on the day he commenced constructing a hiding place for priests. He was also observed to remain in a prayerful state as he worked. From his prayer flowed a spirit of humility, for he never felt the need to speak to anyone of his work and what it had achieved. This made him indispensable to his clients.”

“St Nicholas Owen, early in life, discerned his vocation and lived it out with great courage. He offered his God-given gifts to protect and promote the celebration of the Sacraments, enabling thousands of faithful English Catholics to be nourished and sustained through the ministry of brave priests and those who hosted them.”

I hope those quotes give you a feel for this volume. In this work we learned a lot about his family. Two brothers were priests. One was a printer and printer Catholic literature in secret. Nicholas because of his stature would never be considered for the priesthood. And after accident with a horse had to have his leg rebroken and he limped thereafter. The book ends with a prayer that I have added to my daily prayer list:

“Prayer To St Nicholas Owen

Almighty and eternal God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, your servant, St Nicholas Owen, worked in secret, labouring night and day in service of the Church, and with yet greater love laid down his life for his friends.

May my life be hidden in Christ like his, and through this holy martyr’s example and intercession, may I have strength to comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love, that I may be filled with all the fullness of God when his glory is revealed.

Amen.”

As mentioned this is the second biography of Saint Nicholas Owen I have read. My son and I both have a devotion to him, and are looking for an Icon to add to the wall of my den. This little volume is an excellent biography. It captures the importance of Nicholas Owen and his contribution to keeping Catholicism alive in England when it was against the law and they were persecuted. It also gives an excellent overview of the times and risk both priest and laymen took for their faith and living it out in those times.

It is an excellent biography and one I can easily recommend, another great resource from the Catholic Truth Society. It would be a great addition to any school, home, or church library!

Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2025 Catholic Reading Plan! For other reviews of books from the Catholic Truth Society click here.

For reviews in the CTS Biographies Series Click here.

For all reviews from the Saints of the Isles Series click here.