Feastday: May 29
Death: 1583
English martyr, also listed as Thirkild. Born in Durham, England, he studied at Oxford and was said to be quite old when he left the isle to receive preparation for the priesthood at Reims and Douai, France. Ordained in 1579, he went back to England and served the Catholics in the area around Yorkshire until his execution for being a priest on May 29 at York.
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Richard Thirkeld (died 29 May 1583) was an English Roman Catholic priest. He is a Catholic martyr.
Life
Thirkeld was born at Coniscliffe, Durham, England. From Queen's College, Oxford, where he was in 1564-5, he went to Reims, where he was ordained priest, 18 April 1579.
He left 23 May for the English mission, where he ministered in or about York, and acted as confessor to Margaret Clitheroe. On the eve of the Annunciation, 1583, he was arrested while visiting one of the Catholic prisoners in the Kidcote on Ouse bridge. He at once confessed his priesthood, both to the pursuivants, who arrested him, and to the mayor before whom he was brought, and for the night was lodged in the house of the high sheriff. The next day his trial took place, at which he managed to appear in his cassock, which made him appear all the more venerable.
The charge was one of having reconciled the Queen's subjects to the Church of Rome. He was found guilty on 27 May and condemned 28 May. He was executed at York on 29 May 1583.
Six of his letters survive, and were summarized by Bede Camm.
