​Born in London in 1540 Edmund Campion was the son of a bookseller. He studied at Oxford and became a Junior Fellow in 1557. He enjoyed public recognition from an early age – giving speechs of welcome when Queen Mary visited his school in London in 1553, and when Queen Elizabeth visited Oxford in 1566.

He took the Oath of Supremacy, probably on the occasion of his B.A. degree in 1560. He was ordained Deacon in the Anglican Church in 1564 but increasingly found himself favouring the Catholic faith, and left Oxford in 1569 to avoid danger.

In 1571 Campion left England after study in Douai he went to Rome and joined the Society of Jesus. After his novitiate in Moravia and, in 1578, ordination in Prague, he and Robert Persons were sent to England to begin the Jesuit mission.  Famously, in ‘Campion’s Brag’ he wrote to the Privy Council describing and justifying their mission as to freely ‘preach the Gospel, to minister the Sacraments, to instruct the simple, to reform sinners, to confute errors; in brief to cry alarm spiritual against foul vice and proud ignorance wherewith many of my dear countrymen are abused.’
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Campion’s eloquence, learning, courage and attractive personality gave new heart to English Catholics. His writings and preachings gave a positive public profile to Catholic faith and practice that the government could not ignore. In 1581 he was arrested sent to the Tower tortured, tried and convicted. He was hanged, drawn and quartered along with Alexander Briant and Ralph Sherwin on 1st December 1581.

The feast of St Edmund is kept on 1st December.

All-powerful and ever-living God,
each year you give to your Church
the joy of celebrating the feast of St Edmund Campion.
Grant that we may follow his example
and be faithful to you even unto death.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
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Jesuit priest and martyr, St. Edmund Campion, on the rack, with English scribes at the ready to record his confessions, from Ecclesiae Anglicanae trophaea (Rome, 1584). The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.