Roger Filcock

Roger Filcock, SJ (alias Arthur Naylor) (died 27 February 1601, London) was an English Jesuit priest. He was beatified as a Catholic martyr by Pope John Paul II on 22 November 1987.

Life Born at Sandwich, Kent, England, the son of Simon and Margaret Lowe (or Low), he entered the English College at Rheims on 15 June 1581.

He studied at the English college in Rheims, France, and was amongst the first students to go to St Alban's seminary in Valladolid, Spain, where he was ordained in 1597. He desired to enter the Society of Jesus, but it was considered prudent that he first gain some experience on the mission.

He headed for Calais, France, on a ship which was pursued by Dutch ships. Rather than permitting themselves to be taken captive, many passengers jumped ship and successfully made it to shore. Filcock however, was captured but managed to escape and landed on the Kent shore of England in early 1598 where he assumed the alias of Arthur and began his priestly ministry. He was admitted as a Jesuit novice by Henry Garnet in 1600.

While waiting to go to Flanders for his novitiate, Filcock was apprehended, betrayed by a former fellow student at Valladolid and sent to Newgate prison in London. In 1601, Filcock was charged for being a priest but he would neither admit nor deny, insisting that witnesses and evidence be brought forth. As none was forthcoming, he was brought for trial and heard the indictment against him. He requested to be tried without jury because he did not want the verdict, which he knew would be against him, to be on the jurors’ consciences. Nevertheless, the judge directed the jury to find the defendant guilty and Filcock was sentenced to the gallows for high treason.