![[Blessed Thomas Cottam]](http://saints.sqpn.com/wp-content/gallery/blessed-thomas-cottam/blessed-thomas-cottam.jpg "jpg photograph of a stained glass window of Blessed Thomas Cottam, church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs in Cambridge, England; swiped with permission from the flick.com account of Brother Lawrence Lew, OP")
Profile
Son of Laurence Cottam and Anne Brewer; raised in a Protestant family. Educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, England, receiving a Master of Arts on 14 July 1572. Master of a grammar school in London, England. Adult convert to Catholicism. Studied at Douai, France, and at Rome, Italy. Deacon at Cambrai, France in December 1577. Joined the Jesuits in Rome on 8 April 1579 in hopes of becoming a missionary to India. Ordained on 28 May 1580 at Soissons, France. Returned to England in June 1580 to recuperate following a severe fever. Arrested at his landing in Dover for the crime of priesthood. He was imprisoned in Marshalsea, and it is likely that celebrated his first Mass in prison. Tortured and then transferred to the Tower of London for additional abuse. Condemned to death on 16 November 1581. Martyr.
Born
- if you have information relevant to the canonization of Blessed Thomas, contact
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales
39 Eccleston Square
London SW1V 1BX, UNITED KINGDOM
Additional Information
- Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
- Brother Lawrence Lew, OP
- Catholic Encyclopedia, by Patrick Ryan
- For All The Saints, by Katherine Rabenstein
- Hagiography Circle
- Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
MLA Citation
- “Blessed Thomas Cottam”. Saints.SQPN.com. 15 August 2010. Web. 19 May 2013. <http://saints.sqpn.com/blessed-thomas-cottam/>