ANDERSON, PATRICK

ANDERSON, PATRICK. - Scottish Jesuit, b. at Elgin or Moray in 1575, d. in London on 24 Sept. 1624. Having attended the University of Edinburgh, he entered the Society in Rome in 1597 and earnestly petitioned to return to his homeland to aid persecuted Catholics. He departed for London in 1609 and then proceeded to Scotland, where his apostolate was marked by fearless zeal and abundant fruit, despite being forced to adopt countless disguises and stratagems to evade Protestant pursuers who, as a papist, regarded him as a traitor to the state. In 1615 he was elected the first rector of the Scottish College, founded in Rome by Clement VIII in 1600 and entrusted to the Jesuits in 1615. Yet he soon returned to Scotland to resume his perilous ministry until, betrayed by a false Catholic, he was seized and imprisoned. During his two years in prison he engaged in many religious discussions with Protestant ministers, which he later published under the title: *The Ground of the Catholic and Roman Religion in the Word of God*... (1623). Condemned to death, he escaped execution through the intervention of the French ambassador, who took him as his chaplain.