BOOK GROUP HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED FOR THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16.
The book to be discussed on February 16 (7:30 p.m., St. John Parish Center) is Edmund Campion: A Life, by Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (known by his pen name Evelyn Waugh). (201 pages, paperback available for about $15.)
Edmund Campion was born in 1540 and grew up amid the religious upheavals following the break of King Henry VIII and the Vatican. After delivering a speech of welcome before the new Queen, Elizabeth I, when she visited Oxford, Campion was ordained a deacon in Anglican Church.
Soon, however, he became disenchanted, recognizing that the Protestant church was not the true continuation of the faith of the apostles. He resigned his position at Oxford, became a Roman Catholic and after years of study, a Jesuit and in 1578 was ordained a priest. Two years later he returned to England and, disguised as a jewel merchant, moved between the houses of Catholics who practiced their faith in secret. He was betrayed and arrested in 1581 and soon tortured and hung. Father Campion was declared a saint by Pope Paul VI in 1970, along with 37 other martyrs.
Evelyn Waugh, one of the most celebrated British authors of his generation, became a Catholic at age 27. Perhaps the best-known of his many books is Brideshead Revisited, published in 1946 and later made into a feature film. For further information on the Book Discussion Group please contact John Stewart at 617 969 0950 or johnstewart@alum.bu.edu.
St. John’s Adult Faith Formation Commission
Email: AFFC@stjohnwellesley.org
