FOREST, JOHN, blessed. — Born of a noble family in 1471, he died on 22 May 1538. Having entered the Franciscan Order in 1492, he pursued his studies at Oxford, obtaining a doctorate. He was provincial minister in England and confessor to Queen Caterina d'Aragona, whose confession he heard and whose cause he supported in the matter of Enrico VIII’s divorce.
He defended both 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. Dominicelli, Il b. Giovanni F., Prato 1885; M. Bacheca, I martiri francescani d'Inghilterra, Rome 1930, pp. 82–98. Alberto Ghinato