N.O.S. Main Mission: "...tear away the mask from Freemasonry." Pope Leo XIII, Humanum Genus

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Profile of Saint Nicholas Owen

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"For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles: and in every place is offered in my name a clean oblation Malachi 11, DRV [in the notes of the Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible, it's written: "Ver. 11 A clean oblation . The precious body and blood of Christ in the Eucharistic sacrifice". This is an Old Testament prophecy made long before the time of Christ and speaks of a pure and perfect sacrifice made daily around the world by gentiles. Catholics believe this refers to the daily sacrifice of the Catholic mass, which is performed around the world, from the rising to the setting of the sun.]

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Born in Oxfordshire, Saint Nicholas Owen died in the Tower of London, 2 March, 1606. In that year, during the reign of King James I of England and VI of Scotland, in whose honor the King James Bible is named, new anti-Catholic laws were passed to do away with the daily sacrifice of the Catholic Mass. Throughout England, to say Mass or to attend Mass, to make a convert to Catholicism or to be a convert, were all punishable by death. An oath asserting that the English monarchy was the supreme head of the English Church, not the Pope, remained mandatory for all persons of whatever rank. Catholic priests charged with any the aforementioned illegal activities were hunted, imprisoned, sometimes tortured. Thus it became necessary for faithful Catholics priests who performed the Mass to do so secretly; hideouts were needed to conceal the priests, and Nicholas Owen made the best of them.

Often called "Little John" because of his diminutive stature, Nicholas Owen has frequently been called John Owen in error. Owen was the son of an Oxfordshire carpenter, and was himself a skilled builder and joiner prior to entering the Society of Jesus as a coadjutor around 1577. Henry More refers to him as one of the first English lay-brothers.

He returned to England with Gerard in 1588, landing on the Norfolk coast. Around this time he began building hiding places for the Jesuit priests. The earliest examples of his work can be found at Oxburgh in East Anglia, Braddocks and Sawston. There are over a hundred examples of his work throughout central England, although he concentrated on a few specific areas. His work, and the cleverness with which it was executed, saved many a priest from the gallows. His work was most prominent at Hindlip, where he built no less than eleven secret hiding places for its owner Thomas Habington, including the one that Owen himself used in the few days leading up to his capture.

Owen was captured on more than one occasion, although he avoided giving the authorities any clue as to his true identity and thus was released. In 1594 he was transferred from the Marshalsea to the Tower, from which he escaped. He is said to have orchestrated the escape of Gerard from the Tower in 1597. He managed to evade the authorities for another nine years until the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. He was with Henry Garnet, Father Edward Oldcorne, and Chambers at Hindlip when Henry Bromley arrived on 20 January 1606 with orders to search the house for priests and others involved in the Plot. Owen hid with Chambers at this time, and Garnet with Oldcorne. On the morning of 23 January, due to lack of food, Owen and Chambers emerged from their hiding place. In time, Garnet and Oldcorne were also captured. Little John was interrogated for the first time on 26 February, at which time he told the authorities nothing, denying his knowledge of Garnet, Oldcorne, and even remained vague about his own aliases. By the time of his second confession, long and painful sessions in the manacles had severely deteriorated his physical condition, and he admitted to attending Garnet at Hindlip and White Webbs, but never gave a single detail on any of the hiding places he had spent his life building. His physical condition at this second interrogation may be judged by the fact that "that his stomach had to be bound together with an iron plate" He was threatened with further torture, but died soon after on 2 March, 1606 before this could take place. One report on his death stated "they tortured him with such inhuman ferocity that his stomach burst open and his intestines gushed out"[2].

The Government published the story that Owen had taken his own life, but this was clearly untrue: the ordeal had simply been too much for Owen's frail body to withstand. It has also been suggested that the infirmities he suffered during the latter parts of the sixteenth century were as a result of incarceration. Both Garnet and Gerard wrote poignant eulogies on Owen's interesting life and agreed that without his skill, many of them would not have survived as long as they did. In 1970, the Catholic Church recognised Nicholas Owen as a martyr, and he was canonised.

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The prophet Daniel, speaking of the end times of tribulation, wrote of the king of the North, who is widely regarded by Bible students to be the anti-Christ, as follows: "he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant [the new and holy blood Covenant of the New Testament established by Jesus Christ at the last supper?] ...he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant [the Judeo-Christians in the apostate churches, who implicitly deny the sufficiency of Christ's blood to atone for sin by supporting Judaism's planned return of old covenant animal blood sacrifices?]...and they shall polute the santuary of strength [the Spiritual temple which is the body of Christ?], and shall take away the daily sacrifice [the daily sacrifice of the Catholic mass?] , and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate." -- Daniel 11:31

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