FOREST, John, Blessed. - Born of noble family in 1471, died 22 May 1538. Having entered the Franciscan Order in 1492, he pursued his studies at Oxford, attaining the doctorate. He served as provincial minister in England and as confessor to Queen Catherine of Aragon, whom he comforted and whose cause he upheld in the matter of Henry VIII’s divorce.
Together with this, he defended the primacy of the Roman Pontiff and on this subject wrote: *De auctoritate Ecclesiae et Pontificis Maximi*, the publication of which the king prevented. Imprisoned in 1533, he was burned alive at Smithfield, near London, on 22 May 1538. On 9 December 1886 Leo XIII confirmed his cult. Feast day, 22 May.
Bibl.: T. Dornicheli, *Il b. Giovanni F.*, Prato 1887; M. Bacheca, *I martiri francescani d’Inghilterra*, Roma 1930, pp. 82-98. Alberto Ghinato