David Lewis (Jesuit priest)

Saint David Lewis SJ
David Lewis, engraving by Alexander Voet (1683)
Martyr
Born	1616 Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales, Kingdom of England
Died	27 August 1679(1679-08-27) (aged 62–63) Usk, Monmouthshire, Wales
Venerated in	Catholic Church
Beatified	15 December 1929[1] by Pope Pius XI
Canonized	25 October 1970[1], Vatican City by Pope Paul VI
Feast	27 August

David Lewis, S.J. (1616 – 27 August 1679) was a Jesuit Catholic priest and martyr who was also known as Charles Baker and widely referred to in the Welsh language as Tad y Tlodion ("Father of the Poor").^[2] During the religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Wales, which began under Henry VIII and ended only with Catholic Emancipation in 1829, Lewis served as superior of the illegal and underground Jesuit mission based at Cwm until his arrest by priest hunter John Arnold of Monmouthshire. In addition to his priestly ministry, Lewis stood accused of involvement in the Popish Plot, a regime change conspiracy theory concocted by Titus Oates and used by the dominant Whig political party as a pretext to launch an anti-Catholic moral panic and witch hunt during the Stuart Restoration. After being tried and convicted of high treason at Monmouth, Lewis was hanged, drawn and quartered at Usk on 27 August 1679.^[3]

Lewis was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales and is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. The site of Lewis' execution is now occupied by a Catholic parish church dedicated to him, which remains a site of annual Christian pilgrimage upon the anniversary of his martyrdom.^[4] His feast day is celebrated on 27 August.^[5]