Bl. Thomas Percy

Thomas Percy was born in 1528 into one of the great noble families of northern England. When he was eight, his father was executed for his part in the Pilgrimage of Grace, a northern rising against Henry VIII's closure of the monasteries.

Under the Catholic Queen Mary he regained the family title, Earl of Northumberland, and served as Warden of the Marches on the Scottish border. Under Elizabeth I he joined the Rising of the North in 1569, a failed rebellion to restore Catholic worship. He fled to Scotland but was handed over to the English. He was offered his life if he gave up his Catholic faith and refused. He was beheaded at York in 1572. Leo XIII beatified him in 1895.

The Church has declared Thomas Percy Blessed.

Beatification allows public veneration, usually in a particular region or religious family. Canonization extends it to the whole Church.