Order of Carmelites

Memorial of St. John Houghton & Carthusian Companion-Martyrs of London

Today, May 4, is the memorial of St. John Houghton and Carthusian Companion-Martyrs of London.

They were the monks of the London Charterhouse, the monastery of the Carthusian Order in central London, who were put to death by the English state in a period lasting from May 4, 1535 until September 20, 1537.

Reason: they refused to acknowledge the English royalty as head of the Church.

The methods of execution were hanging, disembowelling while still alive and then quartering their bodies.

They were beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886. In 1970, Pope St. Paul VI canonized them.