16th century
Feast: October 18
English priest martyred during Elizabethan persecution for celebrating Mass and ministering to Catholics.
Luke Kirby was an English priest executed at Tyburn in 1582 (1549-1582). He studied at Douai and returned to England as a missionary priest. Captured while ministering to Catholics, he was tortured in the Tower of London. He refused to acknowledge the Queens supremacy in spiritual matters. He was canonized as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.