Nicholas Horner
{{Infobox saint|name=Nicholas Horner|image=Blessed-nicholas-horner.jpg|imagesize=|alt=|caption=Detail of a stained glass window in Tyburn Convent by Margaret Agnes Rope|titles= Martyr|birth_date=|birth_place=Grantley, Yorkshire, England|home_town=|residence=|death_date=3 March 1590|death_place=Smithfield, London, England|feast_day=22 November|venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church|beatified_date=22 November 1987 by Pope John Paul II|beatified_place=|beatified_by=|canonized_date=|canonized_place=|canonized_by=|major_shrine=|attributes=|patronage=|issues=|suppressed_date=|suppressed_by=|influences=|tradition=|influenced=|major_works=|module=|birth_name=|honorific_suffix=|honorific_prefix=Blessed}}
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Nicholas Horner (died 3 March 1590) was an English Roman Catholic layman, hanged, drawn and quartered because he had "relieved and assisted" Christopher Bales, a seminary priest. A tailor by trade, he was charged with making a jerkin for a priest. Horner maintained that the customer was a stranger and he didn't know who he was.[https://books.google.com/books?id=tHEMAAAAIAAJ&q=Bl.+John+Duckett Pollen SJ, J.H., Acts of English Martyrs Hitherto Unpublished, London. Burns and Oates, 1891, p. 227]{{PD-notice}} Horner is recognized as a Catholic martyr, beatified in 1987.
Life
Horner was born at Grantley in Yorkshire. A tailor by trade, he had gone to London to be cured of a wound in his leg. He was arrested on the charge of harbouring Catholic priests and committed to Newgate Prison, where he was kept for a long time close confined in a cell. Due to the heavy fetter on his leg and the deprivation of all medical aid, he contracted blood poisoning in the injured leg which rendered an amputation necessary.[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07471a.htm Brown, C.F. Wemyss. "Nicholas Horner." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 16 April 2020{{PD-notice}} During the procedure, he was assisted by John Hewitt, a priest and fellow prisoner, also originally from York.[https://archive.org/details/livesofenglishma01burtuoft/page/508/mode/2up Dunn, Henry E., "Venerable John Hewitt", Lives of the English Martyrs], (Edwin Hubert Burton and John Hungerford Pollen, eds.) Longmans, Green and Co., 1914, 508.{{PD-notice}}
After a year, he was set free through the efforts of some friends, and worked at his trade at some lodgings at Smithfield. At some point he made the priest Bales a jerkin. When he was again found to be harbouring priests he was cast into Bridewell for harbouring priests and hung up by the wrists till he nearly died.[https://catholicsaints.info/mementoes-of-the-english-martyrs-and-confessors-venerable-nicholas-horner-layman-1590/ Bowden, Henry Sebastian. "Venerable Nicholas Horner, Layman, 1590". Mementoes of the English Martyrs and Confessors, 1910. CatholicSaints.Info. 22 April 2019]{{PD-notice}}
Horner was convicted of a felony for making a jerkin for a priest, and as he refused to conform to the public worship of the Church of England, was condemned. On the eve of his execution at Smithfield, he had a vision of a crown of glory hanging over his head; the story of this vision was told by him to a friend, who in turn transmitted it by letter to Robert Southwell. He was hanged in front of his lodging in Smithfield, 3 March 1590.
References
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;Attribution
- {{Catholic|wstitle=Nicholas Horner}} The entry cites:
- Joseph Gillow, Bibl. Dict. Eng.. Cath., s. v.
- Richard Challoner, Memoirs, (Edinburgh, 1878), I, 166, 169, 218
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Category:English beatified people
Category:People executed under Elizabeth I by hanging, drawing and quartering
Category:16th-century venerated Christians
Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:Executed people from North Yorkshire