GARNET, THOMAS, Blessed. - Jesuit, martyr. Born in Southwark (London) in 1575, died on the scaffold at Tyburn in London on 23 June 1608. He pursued his ecclesiastical studies abroad, at the colleges of St. Omer and Valladolid; then, after being ordained a priest in 1599, he worked in the English mission.
Admitted into the Society of Jesus by Fr. Henry Garnet (1604), he was imprisoned in 1606 and then expelled from England, though he returned there in 1607 to resume his ministry. However, while continuing to evade the persecutory laws, he was discovered, arrested, and—since he refused to take the oath of allegiance, which recognized the king as supreme arbiter even over consciences—condemned to death. He was beatified by Pius XI in 1929.
BIBL.: H. Foley, Records of the English Province, II, London 1875, pp. 475-505; R. Chaloner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, 2nd ed. ed. J. H. Pollen, London 1924, pp. 296-99; C. Testore, I martiri gesuiti d’Inghilterra e di Scozia, Isola del Liri 1934, pp. 322-30.