Saint John Roberts

John Roberts, OSB (1577 – 10 December 1610) was a Welsh Benedictine monk and priest, and was the first prior of St. Gregory's, Douai, France (now Downside Abbey). Returning to Britain as a missionary priest during the period of recusancy, he was martyred at Tyburn. He is venerated as a saint by the Catholic church. Roberts was born in 1577 in Trawsfynydd, a small village in Snowdonia, north Wales, the son of John and Anna Roberts of Rhiw Goch Farm. His father, a farmer, was a member of the Welsh nobility and was descended from the Welsh Princes. Roberts was baptised into the Anglican faith inside the local parish church of St Madryn but is said to have received his early education from an elderly man who had been a Cistercian monk at Cymer Abbey just outside Dolgellau until its dissolution by Henry VIII in 1537. He attended St. John's College, Oxford in February, 1595 before leaving after two years to study law at Furnival's Inn, London. During his travels in Europe, he left both the law and his former faith behind, converting to Catholicism on a visit to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. He moved on to Spain and joined St Benedict's Monastery, Valladolid, and became a member of this community in 1598, where he was known as Brother John of Merioneth in reference to his birthplace. From Valladolid, he was sent to make his novitiate at San Martín Pinario, Santiago de Compostela, where he made his profession towards the end of 1600. Having completed his studies, he was ordained and set out for Britain on 26 December 1602. Although observed by a Government spy, Roberts and his companions succeeded in entering the country in April 1603, where he was appointed vicar of the English monks of the Spanish Congregation on the Mission. He was arrested and banished on 13 May. He reached Douai, in northern France, on 24 May. Soon, he returned to Britain and worked among the plague victims in London.