Nicholas Owen was a lay man who attached himself to the community of Jesuits living in London in the late 1500s. England, at that time, was suppressing and persecuting Catholics, and Nicholas was a skilled carpenter who built many secret passages and compartments in homes that were used to hide priests.

He was arrested with other Jesuits in 1594 and imprisoned in the London Tower where he was tortured in an attempt to make him give up names and locations of his Catholic friends and Jesuit brothers. He refused, and a wealthy Catholic family ransomed him from prison. The authorities let him go, thinking he was an insignificant associate of the other Jesuits they had captured.

Nicholas returned to engineer the escape of the Jesuit priest who was imprisoned with him and also being tortured. Nicholas also arranged for the escape of their guard, whom they had befriended, because he would face punishment for their flight. Nicholas strung a rope to the tower across a moat, and they successfully got away.

Nicholas was of very small stature, and people called him “Little John.” He was, nevertheless, very strong, as much of his work had him breaking through thick stonework. He worked at night and alone, and always kept his devices and designs a secret. Authorities could search a home for a week, punching holes in walls and pulling up floors, and still not find his hiding places.

Once, when authorities were close to discovering some priests who were in hiding, Nicholas turned himself in to divert their attention. This time, the captors knew who it was they had arrested, and they tortured him again. Nicholas refused to give up any information, and he died from those injuries in 1606.

St. Nicholas of Owen was canonized in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and this image of him was produced by Matthew Alderman ’06 and is used here with permission.

St. Nicholas Owen, the cunning carpenter who saved persecuted priests by building secret passages—pray for us!