Edmund Blundell (priest)

Edmund Blundell was an English Roman Catholic priest executed in 1590 during the reign of Elizabeth I. He was born in Little Crosby, Lancashire, and educated at Douai College, a seminary established in France to train priests for the English mission during a period when Catholicism was outlawed in England.

Blundell was ordained as a priest and returned to England to minister to the Catholic population, risking imprisonment and death. He was arrested for his priestly activities and subsequently indicted under the Act of Persuasion, which made it treason to persuade English subjects to convert to Catholicism or to reconcile to the Roman Catholic Church.

He was found guilty and executed by hanging, drawing, and quartering in Lancaster on April 2, 1590. He is considered a martyr by the Catholic Church and was beatified in 1929. His feast day is celebrated on April 2. He is often remembered alongside other English Catholic martyrs who faced persecution and execution for their faith during the Elizabethan era. His story is part of the broader narrative of religious conflict and persecution in England during the Reformation.