Ambrose Barlow

Ambrose Barlow

Born	1585, Barlow Hall near Manchester, England
Died	10 September 1641, Lancaster, England
State of life	Benedictine priest and martyr
Religious institute or church	English Benedictine Congregation
Ecclesial status	Saint and martyr; canonized on 25 October 1970
Recognition	Beatified in 1929; canonized among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales

Ambrose Barlow was an English Benedictine priest and martyr who served recusant Catholics around Manchester for twenty-four years before his arrest after Easter Mass and execution at Lancaster in 1641.

Overview

Ambrose Edward Barlow, O.S.B. (1585 – 10 September 1641) was an English Benedictine monk. He is one of a group of saints canonized by Pope Paul VI who became known as the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

Life

Origins and formation

Ambrose Barlow was born Edward Barlow in 1585 at Barlow Hall near Manchester, into a family whose history reflected the fractures of post-Reformation England. He studied at the English College in Valladolid and at Douai, entered the Benedictine community of Saint Gregory, and took the religious name Ambrose. He became a monk in 1616 and was ordained a priest in 1617. With the permission of his superiors he returned to Lancashire, where public Catholic worship was forbidden and assisting a priest could expose lay families to prosecution. His Benedictine vocation was therefore lived outside a stable monastery through prayer, pastoral travel, dependence on recusant households, and the hidden celebration of the sacraments.

Vocation and ministry

For about twenty-four years Barlow ministered in the districts around Manchester, Leigh, Ormskirk, Warrington, and Winwick. He celebrated Mass, heard confessions, instructed Catholics, and visited those who could not worship openly. Periodic arrests did not end the mission. On Easter Sunday, 25 April 1641, an armed party seized him after Mass at Morleys Hall, together with members of the congregation. Imprisoned at Lancaster, he admitted that he was a Catholic priest but would not renounce his ministry. The court sentenced him under laws that made priestly presence a capital offense. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered on 10 September 1641. The Church's finding of martyrdom identifies hatred of the faith as the decisive reason for his death.

Christian witness and legacy

Spirituality

Barlow's spirituality joined the Benedictine rhythm of prayer to missionary flexibility. Without the security of cloister or choir, he carried monastic fidelity into farmhouses, roads, prisons, and improvised chapels. Perseverance over two decades shows a vocation deeper than a single dramatic arrest. The Eucharist stood at the center of both his ordinary service and the Easter gathering that preceded his capture. Catholic remembrance should tell the legal brutality plainly while refusing inherited hostility toward Anglicans. A martyr forgives and bears witness to Christ; he is not a banner for contempt. Barlow's life can instead sustain prayer for religious liberty, faithful priesthood, patient lay hospitality, and the healing of memories between Christians.

Work and historical significance

Ambrose Barlow's historical work was the preservation of sacramental Catholic life in Lancashire. He did not found a large institution or leave a major theological library, yet his ministry depended upon and strengthened a network of families who sheltered priests, assembled for Mass, educated children in faith, and accepted heavy civic penalties. Downside Abbey, heir to the English Benedictine community at Douai, preserves his memory as one of its martyr monks. His biography belongs to the history of the English Benedictine Congregation, recusancy, missionary seminaries, Lancaster Castle, and the Forty Martyrs. Sources must distinguish early testimony from later local legend, particularly when recounting arrest, visions, or the disposition of relics.

Cause and veneration

Recognition and present status

Pope Pius XI beatified Ambrose Barlow on 15 December 1929 among the English and Welsh martyrs. Pope Saint Paul VI canonized him on 25 October 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His exact current title is Saint Ambrose Barlow, priest and martyr. Canonization authorizes universal public veneration and confirms the Church's judgment that he died for the Catholic faith. It does not sanctify every political cause associated with seventeenth-century conflict or remove the duty to assess disputed particulars historically. Older references to Blessed Ambrose are accurate for the period before 1970 but no longer state his present rank.

Liturgical and devotional scope

Saint Ambrose Barlow may be publicly venerated throughout the Catholic Church. England and Wales celebrate the Forty Martyrs together on 25 October, and the English Benedictine Congregation keeps an approved proper remembrance of its martyr monks. His individual anniversary is 10 September, but canonization did not place a separate obligatory memorial on the universal General Roman Calendar. The appropriate Mass and Office depend on the proper calendar and liturgical precedence. Parishes, priests, monastics, and families may seek his intercession for fidelity and religious freedom. Devotion should promote friendship among Christians and exact historical memory; authenticated relics and portraits may be honored without romanticizing torture or partisan conflict.

Early life and education

Ambrose was born at Barlow Hall, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, near Manchester in 1585. He was the fourth son of the nobleman Sir Alexander Barlow (who was knighted on the accession of James I) and his wife Mary Brereton, who was daughter of Sir Urian Brereton of Handforth Hall and his second wife, Alice Trafford On the maternal side of his family, he was part of the wider Brereton family, who generally leaned towards the reformed faith. The paternal side of his family, the Barlows, had been reluctant converts to the Church of England following the suppression of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Ambrose's paternal grandfather died in 1584 whilst imprisoned for his beliefs, and his father had two-thirds of his estate confiscated for refusing to conform to the rules of the newly established religion. On 30 November 1585, Ambrose was baptised at Didsbury Chapel. His baptism entry reads "Edwarde, legal sonne of Alex' Barlowe, gent' 30".

In 1597, at the age of twelve, Edward entered the household of a Protestant cousin, Sir Urian Leigh of Adlington, Cheshire, to serve an apprenticeship as a page. His cousin was the son of his maternal aunt, Sibila (Brereton) Leigh, the half-sister of Barlow's mother, Mary (Brereton) Barlow. Barlow adhered to the Anglican faith until 1607, when he converted to Roman Catholicism after a friend brought him back to Catholicism.

After completing his apprenticeship, Barlow realised that his true vocation was for the priesthood, so travelled to Douai in France to study at the English College there before attending the Royal College of Saint Alban in Valladolid, Spain. In 1613, on a visit to England, Barlow was imprisoned for his beliefs for several months; however, after being released, he returned to Douai in 1615, where he joined the community of English Benedictine monks at St. Gregory's (now Downside Abbey), where his brother Rudesind Barlow was prior. He became a member of the Order of Saint Benedict, taking the name Ambrose in place of his baptismal name of Edward. He was ordained as a priest in 1617.

Mission

After his ordination into the priesthood in 1617, Ambrose returned to England. Merely entering the country as a Catholic priest was treasonable and hazardous. Ports were dangerous, and officials had descriptions from spies of those attempting to return to these shores. He went to Barlow Hall, before taking up residence at the home of Sir Thomas Tyldesley at Morleys Hall, Astley. For twenty-four years, he laboured in south Lancashire, which, fortunately for Barlow, was not overly hostile territory for Catholics or their priests. Sir Thomas' grandmother had arranged for a pension to be made available to the priest, which would enable him to carry out his priestly duties amongst the poor Catholics within his parish.

From there, he secretly catered to the needs of Catholic 'parishioners', offering daily Mass and reciting his Office and Rosary for over two decades. Resembling Thomas More in his wit and mildness, Barlow was greatly loved by the poor, whom he also entertained at his house on the great feasts. To avoid detection by the Protestant authorities, he devised a four-week routine: he travelled throughout the parish for four weeks, then remained within the Hall for five weeks. He would often visit his cousins, the Downes, at their residence of Wardley Hall and conduct Mass for the gathered congregation.

Arrest and execution

Ambrose was arrested four times during his travels and released without charge. King Charles I signed a proclamation on 7 March 1641, which decreed that all priests should leave the country within one calendar month or face being arrested and treated as traitors, resulting in imprisonment or death. Ambrose's parishioners implored him to flee, or at least to go into hiding, but he refused. Their fears were compounded by a recent stroke which had resulted in the 56-year-old priest being partially paralysed. "Let them fear that have anything to lose which they are unwilling to part with", he told them.

On 25 April 1641, Easter Day, Ambrose and his congregation of around 150 people were surrounded at Morleys Hall, Astley by the Vicar of Leigh and his armed congregation of some 400. Father Ambrose surrendered, and his parishioners were released after their names had been recorded.

The priest was restrained, then taken on a horse with a man behind him to prevent his falling, and escorted by a band of sixty people to the Justice of the Peace at Winwick, before being transported to Lancaster Castle. It was at this time he had a premonition of what his fate would be since it is reported that Edmund Arrowsmith appeared to him in a dream and said that he too would become a martyr.

Father Ambrose appeared before the presiding judge, Sir Robert Heath, on 7 September when he professed his adherence to the Catholic faith and defended his actions. On 8 September, the feast of the Nativity of Mary, Sir Robert Heath found Ambrose guilty and sentenced him to be executed. Two days later, he was taken from Lancaster Castle, drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, hanged, dismembered, quartered, and boiled in oil. His head was afterwards exposed on a pike. His cousin, Francis Downes, Lord of Wardley Hall, a devout Catholic, rescued his skull and preserved it at Wardley, where it remains to this day.

When the news of his death and martyrdom reached his Benedictine brothers at Douai Abbey, a Mass of Thanksgiving and the Te Deum were ordered to be sung.

Canonisation

On 15 December 1929, Pope Pius XI proclaimed Father Ambrose as Blessed at his Beatification ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. In recognition of the large number of British Catholic martyrs who were executed during the Reformation, most during the reign of Elizabeth I, Pope Paul VI decreed that on 25 October 1970 he was canonising many people who were to be known as the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales of whom Ambrose was one.

Hagiography and relics

Challoner (see below) compiled Barlow's biography from two manuscripts belonging to St Gregory's Monastery, one of which was written by his brother Rudesind Barlow, president of the English Benedictine Congregation. A third manuscript, titled "The Apostolical Life of Ambrose Barlow", was written by one of his pupils for Rudesind Barlow and is in the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Chetham Society has printed it.

Two portraits of Barlow and one of his father, Sir Alexander, are known to exist.

Several relics of Ambrose are also preserved:

• his jaw bone is held at the Church of St Ambrose, Barlow Moor, Manchester
• his left hand is preserved at Stanbrook Abbey now at Wass, North Yorkshire
• his right hand is at Mount Angel Abbey in St. Benedict, Oregon
• his skull is preserved and kept at Wardley Hall in Worsley, the one-time home of the Downes family, and now the home of the Catholic bishop of Salford.

Legacy

The church of St Ambrose at Barlow Moor, Chorlton, Manchester, is in the parish of his birthplace. It was founded in 1932 and was initially dedicated to Ambrose of Milan, but was renamed Ambrose Barlow at his canonisation. It has one relic of Barlow There is another church dedicated to him in the Greater Manchester area, St Ambrose Barlow Roman Catholic church in Astley. Another church, Saint Ambrose Barlow Roman Catholic Church, is dedicated to him in Hall Green, Birmingham.

Schools named after Barlow include St Ambrose RC Primary School, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, The Barlow Roman Catholic High School in Didsbury, St Ambrose Barlow Roman Catholic High School in Swinton near Manchester, St Ambrose Barlow Catholic High School in Netherton, Merseyside, and St Ambrose Barlow Catholic Primary School in Hall Green, Birmingham. One of the boarding houses at Downside School is named Barlow in his honour.

An Oblate Chapter (association of secular Benedictines) of Douai Abbey, meeting at St Anne's Roman Catholic Church in Ormskirk, has Ambrose Barlow as its patron.

External links

• University of Douai
• Royal English College, Valladolid
• Cooper, Thompson (1885). "Barlow, Edward (1587-1641)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 3. p. 218–219.

Further reading

• Allanson, Biographical MSS. (preserved at Ampleforth Abbey): MS. I
• Butler, Alban (2000) Lives of the Saints, vol. 9 (revised ed.)
• Camm, Bede (1931) Nine Martyr Monks
• Challoner, Richard; John Hungerford Pollen, (ed.) (1924) Memoirs of Missionary Priests
• Dodd, Charles (1739) Church History of England. Brussels
• Gillow, Joseph (1885) Bibliographical Dictionary of English Catholics. London
• Moss, Fletcher (1891) Didsbury. Manchester
• Moss, Fletcher (1894) Chronicles of Cheadle, Cheshire. Didsbury
• Moss, Fletcher (1903) Pilgrimages to Old Homes. Didsbury
• New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967)
• Rhodes, W. E. (ed.) (1909) The Apostolical Life of Ambrose Barlow. Manchester: Chetham Society