Blessed John Amias was a Roman Catholic priest who was martyred in England. There is some doubt about his early life and his real name.
In an account of his life, a widower calling himself “John Amias” entered the English College at Rheims to study for the priesthood on June 22, 1580. He was ordained a priest in Rheims Cathedral on 25 March 1581.
Of his missionary life we know little. Towards the end of 1588 he was seized at the house of a Mr. Murton at Melling in Lancashire and imprisoned in York Castle. Given the 1585 Act making it a capital offence to be a Catholic priest in England the sentence of hanging, drawing and quartering was inevitable. It was carried out outside the city of York on 16 March 1589. Amias was beginning to address the assembled people, and explain that it was for religion, and not treason, that he suffered, but was not allowed to proceed.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Amias
Ryan, Patrick W.F. "Ven. John Amias." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 2 Feb. 2013
Stanton, Richard, A Menology of England and Wales, p.119, Burns 7 Oates, Ltd., London, 1892
