ANDERSON, PATRICK

ANDERSON, PATRICK. - Scottish Jesuit, b. at Elgin or Moray in 1575, d. in London on 24 Sept. 1624. Having entered the Order in Rome in 1597, after attending the University of Edinburgh, he urgently requested to return to his native country to bring relief to the persecuted Catholics. He in fact left for London in 1609 and went on to Scotland, where his activity was distinguished by fearless zeal and abundant fruits, although he was obliged to resort to countless disguises and stratagems in order to escape the Protestant pursuers, who, as a papist, regarded him as a traitor to the State. In 1615 he was elected first rector of the Scottish College, founded in Rome by Clement VIII in 1600 and entrusted to the Jesuits in 1615. But he soon returned to Scotland and to his dangerous ministries, until, betrayed by a false Catholic, he was captured and imprisoned. During his two years in prison he held many religious discussions with Protestant ministers, which he later published under the title: The ground of the Catholike and Roman Religion in the Word of God... (1623). Sentenced to death, he escaped it through the intervention of the French ambassador, who wished him to be his chaplain.