Known as the "Father of English History", the Venerable Bede was a Benedictine monk from the first generation after England was re-claimed for the Catholic Church. Raised in an abbey, St Bede studied under St Benedict Biscop, founder of Saints Peter and Paul abbey where Venerable Bede lived. He was ordained in 702 by Saint John of Beverley and wrote extensively on a wide range of subjects, really a type of proto-Renaissance Man. The idea of dates listed as Anno Dominie after the birth of Christ was his innovation. His massive work Historia Ecclesiastica was a history of the great civilization which the Catholic Church was spreading across barbarian Europe. Leo XIII named him a Doctor of the Church.
The famous (and almost final) Saxon King of England was Saint Edward the Confessor, the man who built the great Westminster Abbey. He was known far and wide for his humility and piety. He was almost killed by the Danes before becoming king in 1042. He defended England against invasion, restored the King of Scotland to his throne and removed unfair taxes on the English people. He was so generous that he would stand outside his castle gate to give to the poor. Although he married, he and his wife remained chaste and he was credited with healings by the "Royal Touch". He died in 1066 and had an incorrupt body. He was canonized in 1161.
The only Englishman to ever occupy the throne of St Peter, Nicholas Breakspear was a Saxon who worked his way up the Church hierarchy the long, hard way. As legate to Norway he was known as the "Apostle of Scandinavia" before his election to the papacy as Pope Hadrian IV. He used tough measures to bring law and order back to Rome, stood his ground against the most fearsome German Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and granted Ireland to King Henry II as a fiefdom. Attacked by the Sicilians, he formed a Holy League to defend the Papal States and was a champion of Church sovereignty.
The Lord Chancellor of England, and long-time friend of King Henry VIII, St Thomas More fell out with his monarch over his illegal divorce of the beloved Queen Catherine and marriage to Anne Boleyn. However, he remained loyal to his friend until Henry VIII broke with Rome, at which point More stated that he was, "the king's faithful servant, but God's first" and refused to sign the oath recognizing Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the Church on earth. Despite the efforts of his friends to persuade him to give in as well as the loss of his position, wealth and separation from his family while in prison, he never gave in. For his devotion to lifelong marriage and the rights of the Church he was beheaded in 1535 and canonized in 1935 by Pope Pius XI.
Probably the most famous martyr of the Elizabethan persecution was the English convert St Edmund Campion. Already widely known before his conversion, he joined the Society of Jesus and returned to England in secret to carry out the work of the Church in covert style. Hunted every step of the way by Elizabeth's officials, St Edmund eluded them to bring the sacraments to the people of England who never lost their faith. Eventually though, he was arrested, sent to the Tower of London, tortured and tried for treason. His defense was eloquent and brilliant asking how it could be treasonous to belong to the Church that England had been such a staunch supporter of for so many years. He was a masterful and courageous English gentleman and was martyred in 1581.
