TIL that there is a St. John Roberts. I have a practice of mentioning a saint of the day as part of my morning drop-off routine at my younger children’s K-8 school. Today’s was not as much a saint of the day, as it was “Our Lady of Loreto, pray for us.” I usually take my cues from the “About Today” section of Universalis. There are often multiple entries, as the calendar has some geographical variations. It turns out for “Wales,” the entry was for St. John Roberts, OSB:

There are two entries for this that vary slightly in their particulars:

Other saints: St John Roberts (1575 – 1610)

Wales
He was born in north Wales and studied law. He travelled on the Continent in 1598 and was converted to Catholicism. He entered the English College at Valladolid to study for the priesthood; he then became a Benedictine monk. He was ordained in 1602 and set out on a mission to England. He was arrested and banished, returned to England, arrested and banished again, arrested, imprisoned, and banished yet again. By now it was July 1606. He spent fourteen months at Douai in northern France, where he founded the English Benedictine community of St Gregory, which, having been exiled from France at the time of the French Revolution, is now at Downside Abbey, near Bath. He returned to England and was arrested in October 1607, escaped, went on the run for a year, was arrested again and imprisoned: the intercession of the French Ambassador saved him from execution, and he was banished. He returned to England within a year, and was arrested on 2 December 1610 while celebrating Mass and taken to prison still wearing his vestments. He was tried on 5 December and convicted of being a priest, and hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 10 December.

Other saints: St John Roberts OSB (1575-1610)

Wales
John Roberts was born in 1575, the son of John and Anna Roberts from North Wales. He matriculated at St John’s College, Oxford, in 1595-6, but left after two years without taking a degree (possibly because he was unable to take the Oath of Supremacy) and was very briefly a law student at one of the Inns of Court. In 1598 he travelled on the continent and, through the influence of a Catholic fellow-countryman, was received into the Catholic Church at Notre Dame in Paris. He then entered the English College at Valladolid, Spain where he was admitted in 1598. The following year he joined the Abbey of St Benedict in Valladolid. After ordination in 1602 he set out for England. Although observed by a Government spy, Roberts and his companions succeeded in entering the country in April, 1603; but, his arrival being known, he was soon arrested and banished. He almost immediately returned to England where he worked for a time among the plague-stricken people in London, where he became known as “the parish priest of London”. In 1604, while embarking for Spain with four postulants, he was again arrested, but not being recognized as a priest was soon released and banished, but returned again at once. He was immediately rearrested and though acquitted of any crime was imprisoned in the Gatehouse at Westminster for seven months before again being exiled. Back at Douai he founded a house for the English Benedictine monks; this was the beginning of the monastery of St Gregory at Douai which today exists as Downside Abbey. In October, 1607, he returned to England, was once more arrested and placed in the Gatehouse, from which he contrived to escape after some months. He now lived for about a year in London before being taken and this time was committed to Newgate; he would have been executed but for the intercession of the French ambassador, whose petition reduced the sentence to banishment. However he returned to England within a year, and was captured on 2 December, 1610. On 5 December he was tried and found guilty under the Act forbidding priests to minister in England, and on 10 December was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn.
DK