Saint Swithun Wells

Saint Swithun Wells was an English gentleman, a husband, and a schoolmaster. In the reign of Elizabeth I, when helping Catholic priests was punished by death, he received them in his London home, where they celebrated Holy Mass. For this hospitality he was hanged in front of his own door. The Church commemorates him on December 10.

He was born about 1536 at Brambridge near Winchester, in the county of Hampshire; the exact date is not known. As the old Lives relate, he knew foreign languages, traveled to Rome in his youth, and then served for several years in the household of the Earl of Southampton. He was remembered as a cheerful companion who was fond of hawking.

He was married, but the name of his wife is not known for certain. For about six years he kept a school for the sons of gentlemen at Monkton Farleigh near Bath; several of his pupils, it is reported, later became priests. In 1582 the Privy Council ordered a search for him, and he had to give up the school.

Questioned in 1586, he stated that he had been a Catholic for three years and that before then he had attended the Anglican church. His early biographers, however, regarded him as a man who had always been a faithful Catholic. At that time he was living with his wife in London, in the district of Holborn. His house stood open to priests, whom he also accompanied on their journeys, and for this he was imprisoned several times. In a letter written from prison to his brother-in-law he confessed that he was never alone: when he prayed, he talked with God, and when he read, God spoke to him.

In November 1591 a young priest, Edmund Gennings, was celebrating Mass in his house. While it was going on, Richard Topcliffe, a notorious priest hunter, forced his way in with his officers. Those present held him at the door until the Mass was over, after which the priests, several lay people, and the wife of the master of the house were taken to prison. Swithun was not at home at the time. When he came back and went to demand his wife’s release, he was imprisoned himself. Under examination he said that he had not known about the Mass but was sorry that he had not been present at it.

At the beginning of December the court at Westminster sentenced to death the priests and those who had helped them. The execution of the sentence on Swithun’s wife was stayed, but she did not regain her freedom and died in prison in 1602. On December 10, 1591, Swithun and Father Gennings were taken to Gray’s Inn Fields, where a gallows stood in front of the Wells house. On the way Swithun took leave of an old friend, saying that he was leaving hunting behind and was now going a better way. Under the gallows he told Topcliffe that he forgave him from his heart, and he prayed that God would make him a Paul out of a Saul. There both of them met their death.

Pius XI beatified him on December 15, 1929, in a group of 136 English martyrs. Paul VI canonized him on October 25, 1970, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, seven of whom were lay people. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him together with Saint Edmund Gennings and recalls that one died because he was a priest and the other because he had given him hospitality.