Thomas Woodhouse
English Catholic priest and martyr
Feast: 19 June (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Thomas Woodhouse was ordained in Queen Mary's reign and was briefly a rector in Lincolnshire. Arrested while saying Mass in May 1561, he spent the rest of his life in prison, saying Mass in secret and praying his Office daily. In November 1572 he sent Lord Burghley a letter urging him to be reconciled to the pope and to persuade Elizabeth to submit to the Holy See, and he threw writings urging men to the true faith into the street.
When someone told him that the queen's majesty was great, he answered that the majesty of God was greater. Admitted to the Society of Jesus in prison, he was disembowelled alive at Tyburn on 19 June 1573.
The miracles
As a martyr he was raised to the altars without a miracle.
Why that counted as sanctity
An English priest who spent twelve years in prison and was executed at Tyburn in 1573.
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 - Bl. Thomas Woodhouse
- Roman Martyrology, 19 June (Italian Bishops' Conference, Santo del giorno)
- Wikidata Q72049 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Thomas Woodhouse (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.