Stephen Rowsham
English priest
Who they were
Stephen Rowsham of Oxfordshire was a Church of England minister at the University Church in Oxford until he became convinced of the Catholic faith. He was ordained at Reims and sent to England in 1582.
Arrested on landing, he spent over three years in the Tower, half of it in the tiny cell called 'Little Ease', and was exiled in 1585. He returned in 1586, worked in the west of England for a year, and was taken and executed at Gloucester in March 1587.
The miracles
As a martyr he was raised to the altars without a miracle.
Why that counted as sanctity
A convert minister who returned from exile to die a priest.
The cause
The cause continues. No postulation address is published here yet. Favours received through this person’s intercession, and offers of help, are best sent to the religious order or congregation they belonged to, or to the diocese where the cause was opened; either will pass them to the postulation.
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - Stephen Rowsham
- Wikidata Q7610416 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Stephen Rowsham (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.