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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.

Thomas Belchiam, Venerable

Franciscan martyr (d. 1537)

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Belchiam, THOMAS, VENERABLE, a Franciscan martyr in the reign of Henry VIII, date of birth uncertain; d. August 3, 1537. He boldly opposed the king’s first divorce, and denounced the tyrant as a heretic. He wrote a book addressed to his brethren, beginning with the text: “They that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses”, in which he rebuked the faithless bishops, who were afraid to tell the king the truth. The book seems to be lost, but one copy got into Henry’s hands, and he is said to have been moved to tears by reading it, though he soon repented of this weakness. Belchiam and some thirty of the Observant Franciscans were thrown into prison, where they perished of hunger.

BEDE CAMM


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