Blessed John Bodey

Blessed John Bodey - Blue House

Feast Day: 2nd November

Birth: 1549

Death: 1583

An English martyr and school teacher.

John Bodey was born at Wells, Somerset, and educated at Oxford.  His father was a wealthy merchant and John studied at Winchester College and New College, Oxford.  He became a fellow of Oxford and completed a master's degree in  1576.

After converting to the Catholic faith, John studied law at Douai in 1557 and returned to England to become a school teacher in Hampshire and to get married.

When he refused to accept King Henry VIII's claim of supremacy in spiritual matters, John was arrested.  John was imprisoned at Winchester until 1583.

On the morning of November 2nd 1583, John was taken from the town jail in Bridge street, stapped to a hurdle and drawn through the streets of Andover to the scaffold in Market Place where he died from hanging. 

He was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929.

The plaque is located on the left side of the sanctuary near the sacristy of St John the Baptist Church, Andover.