Nicholas Owen was a Jesuit Brother (i.e. he joined the Jesuits but was not ordained a priest). By the nature of his work he was a mysterious character and very little is known about his early life. Unlike many of our other house saints he was not one of the leading intellectuals of his age, though that is not to say this was not an exceedingly intelligent and skilful man.

Nicholas Owen’s great work was touring the Catholic houses of England building hiding places for priests to escape capture.

He worked for over 18 years going about this work, a master craftsman ingeniously creating uniquely different hideaways, knowing that if one were to be discovered it must not give away any clues as to where others were. He was arrested for the final time when he himself came out of hiding to try and protect some others hiding nearby. This time his captors realised the man in front of them and knew that if they could extract the secrets he held then it would be a huge blow to the Catholic mission.