The Priest Protector

Saint Nicholas Owen, the patron saint of illusionists and escapologists, saved many lives in his 40-some years. And now, a little over 400 years after his death, a house in St. Paul, Minnesota, bears his name.

Born in Oxford, England, circa 1560, the son of a carpenter and brother to two priests, St. Nicholas Owen’s status as a Jesuit brother is a bit complicated. He worked as a carpenter and mason and was first documented as being an attendant to Jesuit St. Edmund Campion. Today he is one of the patrons of the British Province of the Society of Jesus, but there is no record of when he entered the novitiate and took vows as a Jesuit brother. Notably, during this time, Jesuit superiors in some parts of the world could aggregate someone into the Society without the typical formation process.

Saint Nicholas Owen’s greatest gift to the Church was his design and construction of so-called “priest holes”—hiding places built into the homes of Catholics in England during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.

Saint Nicholas Owen lived in the time

of priest hunters: Protestant sympathizers who—emboldened by the Penal Laws that made being a Catholic priest in England an act of high treason—tracked and captured Catholic priests for execution. The priests were subsequently hanged, drawn, and quartered. With such severe penalties for practicing one’s faith at the time, Nicholas was compelled to create priest holes so as not to endanger those families hosting priests, perhaps bringing sacraments to their homes.

Priest hunters did not take their task lightly, sometimes searching houses for weeks. This forced Nicholas to get creative, and he constructed hiding places using sewage drains, fake chimney flues and attics, and underfloor areas. It is estimated that hundreds of priests were spared by hiding in the spaces constructed by Nicholas when facing the threat of priest hunters.

This forced Nicholas to get creative, and he constructed hiding places using sewage drains, fake chimney flues and attics, and underfloor areas. It is estimated that hundreds of priests were spared by hiding in the spaces constructed by Nicholas when facing the threat of priest hunters.

Owen House is the new annex of the Jesuit Novitiate of St. Alberto Hurtado in St. Paul. Purchased in December 2018, the annex is a stucco craftsman bungalow built in 1914. Coincidentally, it’s located at 36 Oxford Street North.

“We bought the house primarily because we thought if we got a large entrance class, we could use the space to house novices,” says Fr. William O’Brien, SJ, the director of novices. “Given that we have not needed

it so far to house novices, we have used it primarily for staff meetings and to host guests of the novitiate. During the pandemic, novices have also used it for apostolic work done at distance and meetings. Over vow weekend, current and recently vowed novices stayed there.”

Saint Nicholas Owen’s name had been one of many under consideration. “After we bought the house, our novitiate staff worked with the novices to generate a list of names of Jesuit saints and blesseds after whom we might name the house,” Fr. O’Brien says. “Once we had that list, we asked the novices to vote their preferences.”

Owen House came out on top in the voting, ahead of Ignatius House, Gonzaga House, and about a dozen others. One novice cited the great responsibility he felt to carry the faith forward, given the extraordinary difficulties faced by those before them attempting to do the same.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda of the Diocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis visited the house in May of 2021 to bless it under the patronage of St. Nicholas Owen. To further honor St. Nicholas Owen, the novitiate staff commissioned an icon that hangs above

the house’s fireplace (converted for safety reasons from wood-burning to gas during the renovation) and depicts the saint wearing carpentry clothes and holding a cross to symbolize his martyrdom.

In 1606, after many years of secretive, solitary work in Catholic homes, often at night, Nicholas, known as “Little John” for his small stature, was arrested and tortured to death in the Tower of London. He had refused to divulge the names of Jesuits and the locations of his priest holes. Canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970, St. Nicholas Owen is remembered in the liturgy on December 1 along with St. Edmund Campion, St. Robert Southwell, and the rest of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

Many of the priest holes remain intact today (and many others have surely collapsed with the buildings they once inhabited), illustrating the enormous lengths Catholics in England once went to in order to practice their faith, even in the face of great danger. One wonders, as a testament to St. Nicholas Owen’s gift, how many more priest holes have yet to be discovered.