Luke Kirby (also Kirbie ''c''. 1549 – 30 May 1582) was an English Catholic priest and martyr from the

North of England Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire. Officially, it is a gr ...

, executed during the reign of

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

. He is one of the

Forty Martyrs of England and Wales The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales or Cuthbert Mayne and Thirty-Nine Companion Martyrs are a group of Catholic Church, Catholic, lay and religious, men and women, executed between 1535 and 1679 for treason and related offences under variou ...

Early life

Kirby was born in

Richmond, North Yorkshire Richmond is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is located at the point where Swaledale, the upper valley of the River Swale, opens into the Vale of Mowbray. The town's population at the 2011 ...

. He is said to have received his M.A. in England, probably at Cambridge, before converting to Catholicism at

Louvain Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the sub-municipalities of ...

and entering Douai College in 1576. He was ordained a priest at

Cambrai Cambrai (, ; ; ), formerly Cambray and historically in English Camerick or Camericke, is a city in the Nord department and in the Hauts-de-France region of France on the Scheldt river, which is known locally as the Escaut river. A sub-pref ...

in September 1577 and left

Rheims Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded by ...

for England on 3 May 1578; however, he returned on 15 July and went to Rome. There he took the college oath at the

English College, Rome The Venerable English College (), commonly referred to as the English College, is a Catholic seminary in Rome, Italy, for the training of priests for England and Wales. It was founded in 1579 by William Allen on the model of the English Colleg ...

, on 23 April 1579. It was in Rome that he met the spy/informer

Anthony Munday Anthony Munday (or Monday) (1560?10 August 1633) was an English playwright and miscellaneous writer. He was baptized on 13 October 1560 in St Gregory by St Paul's, London, and was the son of Christopher Munday, a stationer, and Jane Munday. He ...

, who later gave false testimony against him.

Mission

He was chosen to accompany Campion and Ralph Sherwin on their way to England, and the three set out from Rome on 14 April 1580, arriving in Rheims on 31 May. On 16 June he left Rheims with William Hartley. They made the journey to the coast by Douay and Dunkirk on foot.Camm O.S.B., Dom Bede, ''Lives of the English Martyrs'', Vol. II, pp. 500-522, Longmans, green and Co., London, 1914
/ref>

Arrest

In June 1580, he was arrested on landing at Dover, and committed to the Gatehouse, Westminster. On 4 December, he was transferred to the Tower, where he was subjected to the torture known as the " Scavenger's Daughter" for more than an hour on 9 December. Luke Kirby was tried at the same time as

Edmund Campion Edmund Campion, SJ (25 January 15401 December 1581) was an English Jesuit priest and martyr. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Anglican England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason, he was ...

, on the same charge of treason against the Queen, but his execution was deferred to the following May, and took place immediately after that of William Filby.

Execution

Kirby was condemned on 17 November 1581, and from 2 April until the day he died, he was put in irons. With him at Tyburn died a Jesuit priest, Thomas Cottam, and two seminary priests: Lawrence Richardson and William Filby on 30 May 1582. All were later beatified equipollently in 1886 by

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Ap ...

. He was canonized as one of the

in 1970.

Legacy and relic

A relic, a

corporal Corporal is a military rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The rank is usually the lowest ranking non-commissioned officer. In some militaries, the rank of corporal nominally corr ...

, which is housed in the

English College in Rome The Venerable English College (), commonly referred to as the English College, is a Catholic Church, Catholic seminary in Rome, Italy, for the training of priests for Catholic Church in England and Wales, England and Wales. It was founded in 157 ...

, has the names of five priests. Kirby is one of those names stitched in the cloth. A book entitled "Blessed Luke Kirby: Priest and Martyr" was written by Michael TH Banks, and published nine months before the martyr's eventual canonization. A portion of a stained glass window in St. Edmund's College, Ware depicts him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirby, Luke 1540s births 1582 deaths English College, Douai alumni English beatified people Catholic saints who converted from Protestantism Converts to Roman Catholicism English Roman Catholic saints Forty Martyrs of England and Wales Martyred Roman Catholic priests 16th-century English Roman Catholic priests People executed under the Tudors for treason against England Executed English people 16th-century Christian saints 16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs People executed under Elizabeth I Yorkshire saints