Campion, Edmund (1540-1581), was the first English Jesuit martyr—that is, a person who sacrifices himself for a cause. Campion was born in London on Jan. 25, 1540. He had a successful career at Oxford University. In 1569, Campion was ordained in the Church of England, the official national church. A few years later, fearing arrest on suspicion of Roman Catholic tendencies, he fled to mainland Europe. Campion converted to Roman Catholicism and joined the Society of Jesus, a religious order also known as the Jesuits. He became a professor of rhetoric in Prague, in what was then Bohemia (now a region of the Czech Republic)..
In 1580, Campion returned to England with other Jesuit missionaries. The English government saw the Jesuits as a political threat. In 1581, Campion was arrested. He was committed to the Tower of London and convicted on a false charge of conspiracy to overthrow the government. He was tortured, then executed at Tyburn on Dec. 1, 1581. Campion was canonized (made a saint) by the Roman Catholic Church in 1970.
