Christopher Helme (priest)

Christopher Helme (born c. 1520, died 1588) was an English Roman Catholic priest and martyr. He was born in County Durham and ordained a priest sometime before the English Reformation. Following the accession of Queen Elizabeth I and the re-establishment of Protestantism in England, Helme continued to minister to Catholics in secret, traveling between Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

He was arrested in Louth, Lincolnshire, in 1587 for celebrating Mass and administering the sacraments. He was brought to trial and convicted under the laws prohibiting Catholic priests from operating in England. Helme was sentenced to death and executed by hanging, drawing, and quartering on March 19, 1588, in Lincoln.

Christopher Helme was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987 as one of the Eighty-Five Martyrs of England and Wales. His feast day is celebrated on March 19th. His story is documented in accounts of the English Catholic martyrs of the Elizabethan period.