Blessed Robert Dalby | |
|---|---|
 John Amias and Robert Dalby, "At the place of Execution." Illustration for Memoirs of Missionary Priests by Bishop Challoner (Jack, 1878) | |
| Born | Hemingbrough,West Riding of Yorkshire |
| Died | 16 March 1589 Outside the city ofYork |
| Beatified | 15 December 1929 byPope Pius XI |
| Feast | 16 March |
Robert Dalby (died 1589) was an English Catholic priest and martyr.
Robert Dalby (sometimes called Drury),[1] came fromHemingbrough in theWest Riding of Yorkshire (now North Yorkshire) lived at first as a Protestant minister. Becoming a Catholic, he entered the English College atRheims on 30 September 1586 to study for the priesthood. He was ordained a priest atChâlons on 16 April 1588.[2] It was on 25 August that year that he set out for England. He was arrested almost immediately upon landing atScarborough on the Yorkshire coast and imprisoned inYork Castle. Given the 1585 Act making it a capital offence to be a Catholic priest in England the terrible sentence ofhanging, drawing and quartering was inevitable.[2] It was carried out outside the city of York[3] on 16 March 1589. His fate was shared by a fellow priest, known to us asJohn Amias.[4] On arrival at the place of execution the prisoners prostrated themselves in prayer. Robert Dalby had to watch his fellow priest be hanged and quartered before his own turn came, but he displayed no hesitation in going to his death.[2]
Both priests were declared "Blessed" by PopePius XI on 15 December 1929.
Anstruther, Godfrey Anstruther.Seminary Priests, St Edmund's College, Ware, vol. 1, 1968, p. 96.
