Saint Ambrose Barlow

Ambrose Edward Barlow, O.S.B. (1585 – 10 September 1641) was an English Benedictine monk. He is one of a group of saints canonized by Pope Paul VI who became known as the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Ambrose was born at Barlow Hall, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, near Manchester in 1585. He was the fourth son of the nobleman Sir Alexander Barlow (who was knighted on the accession of James I) and his wife Mary Brereton, who was daughter of Sir Urian Brereton of Handforth Hall and his second wife, Alice Trafford On the maternal side of his family, he was part of the wider Brereton family, who generally leaned towards the reformed faith. The paternal side of his family, the Barlows, had been reluctant converts to the Church of England following the suppression of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Ambrose's paternal grandfather died in 1584 whilst imprisoned for his beliefs, and his father had two-thirds of his estate confiscated for refusing to conform to the rules of the newly established religion. On 30 November 1585, Ambrose was baptised at Didsbury Chapel. His baptism entry reads "Edwarde, legal sonne of Alex' Barlowe, gent' 30". In 1597, at the age of twelve, Edward entered the household of a Protestant cousin, Sir Urian Leigh of Adlington, Cheshire, to serve an apprenticeship as a page. His cousin was the son of his maternal aunt, Sibila (Brereton) Leigh, the half-sister of Barlow's mother, Mary (Brereton) Barlow. Barlow adhered to the Anglican faith until 1607, when he converted to Roman Catholicism after a friend brought him back to Catholicism. After completing his apprenticeship, Barlow realised that his true vocation was for the priesthood, so travelled to Douai in France to study at the English College there before attending the Royal College of Saint Alban in Valladolid, Spain.