BRIANT, Alexander, Blessed. - English martyr, b. in 1551 or 1553 in Somersetshire. Converted while studying at Oxford, he entered the English college of Douai (then at Reims), was ordained priest there in 1578 and returned the following year to England. His apostolate was brief: betrayed and arrested in Apr. 1581, he was taken shortly afterwards to the Tower of London and barbarously tortured. He then asked for and obtained his admission into the Society of Jesus (his letter, inserted in the pamphlet of 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 the blessed Edmund Campion, on 1 Dec. 1581. They were beatified together in 1886 and their feast is celebrated on 1 Dec.

Bibliography5 works

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

@incollection{ec3_briant_alexander_beato, author = {Lamalle, Edmondo}, title = {Briant, alexander, beato}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {88}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/briant-alexander-beato} }

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Briant, Alexander, Blessed

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