17th century
Feast: March 22
English Jesuit brother who built secret hiding places for priests during Elizabethan persecution.
Nicholas Owen was a Jesuit lay brother who saved countless priests lives (1562-1606). He constructed ingenious hiding places in Catholic houses throughout England. His secret passages and priest holes allowed clergy to escape persecution. He was eventually captured, tortured, and died in the Tower of London. Canonized as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.