BRIANT, ALEXANDER, Blessed. — English martyr, born in 1551 or 1553 in Somersetshire. Converted while studying at Oxford, he entered the English college at Douai (then at Reims), was ordained priest there in 1578, and returned to England the following year. His apostolate was brief: betrayed and arrested in April 1581, he was shortly afterwards taken to the Tower of London and barbarously tortured. He then requested and obtained admission to the Society of Jesus (his letter, included in the booklet by Fr R. Persons, De persecutione anglicana libellus, Rome 1582, was often reprinted). After further tortures he was condemned to death and martyred in London with Blessed Edmondo Campion on 1 December 1581. They were beatified together in 1886, and their feast is celebrated on 1 December.
Briant, Alexander, Blessed
BIBL.: D. Bartoli, Dell'Inghilterra, Turin 1825, I, II, ch. 13; I, III, ch. 7; H. Foley, Records of the English Province S. I., IV, London 1878, pp. 343–61; B. Camm, Lives of the English Martyrs, II, ibid. 1905, pp. 397–423; C. Testore, I Martiri Gesuiti d'Inghilterra e di Scozia, Isola del Liri 1934, pp. 179–89. Edmondo Lamalle
Cite this article
“BRIANT, ALEXANDER, BEATO.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III (1949), p. 74. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/briant-alexander-beato.