Blessed Edward Waterson

Memorial: 8 January
Profile: As a young man he travelled to Turkey with some English merchants. There he met and was befriended by a wealthy Turk who liked Edward so much that he offered his daughter in marriage if the Englishman would convert to Islam. Edward declined, but the incident set his mind on spiritual matters. The route home ran through Rome, and Edward converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism in 1588. Entered the seminary at Rheims, France on 24 January 1589, ordained on 11 March 1592. Returned to England on 24 June 1592 to minister to his countrymen in hiding for their faith. Arrested for the crime of priesthood in the summer of 1593, he was abused in prison for several months before being martyred.
Born: at London, England
Died: hanged, drawn, and quartered on 7 January 1594 at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England; the prison horses refused to drag Edward to the scaffold; when the guards finally got him there, the ladder jumped around to keep them from climbing it until Edward made the Sign of the Cross over it
Beatified: 1929 by Pope Pius XI
Canonized: pending
Additional Information: Google Directory
Catholic Online
Saints Alive, by Father Robert F McNamara
For All The Saints, by Katherine Rabenstein
Catholic Encyclopedia, by Edwin Burton
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