The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest

by John Gerard

Book Overview

Truth is stranger than fiction. And nowhere in literature is it so apparent as in this classic work, the Autobiography of a Hunted Priest. This autobiography of a Jesuit priest in Elizabethan England is a most remarkable document and John Gerard, its author, a most remarkable priest in a time when to be a Catholic in England courted imprisonment and torture; to be a priest was treason by act of Parliament.

Smuggled into England after his ordination and dumped on a Norfolk beach at night, Fr. Gerard disguised himself as a country gentleman and traveled about the country saying Mass, preaching and ministering to the faithful in secret - always in constant danger. The houses in which he found shelter were frequently raided by "priest hunters"; priest-holes, hide-outs and hair-breadth escapes were part of his daily life. He was finally caught and imprisoned, and later removed to the infamous Tower of London where he was brutally tortured.

The stirring account of his escape, by means of a rope thrown across the moat, is a daring and magnificent climax to a true story which, for sheer narrative power and interest, far exceeds any fiction. Here is an accurate and compelling picture of England when Catholics were denied their freedom to worship and endured vicious persecution and often martyrdom.

But more than the story of a single priest, the Autobiography of a Hunted Priest epitomizes the constant struggle of all human beings through the ages to maintain their freedom. It is a book of courage and of conviction whose message is most timely for our age.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586174509
• ISBN13: 9781586174507
• Release Date: June 2012
• Publisher: Ignatius Press
• Length: 395 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating story

I had no idea exactly what I was expecting with this book but what I got was the most fantastic story that I have ever read. I so recommend this book to anyone who loves a great story about a fascinating man. I literally have to force myself to put book down.

An Underground Priest During the Elizabethan Era.

I first purchased this book used from a local book store. I have read it once and will probably refer back to it for the remainder of my life. It is the true account of Father John Gerard of the Jesuit Order, a Catholic priest who excercised his vocation at a time when even to be a Catholic in England was Treason by act of Parliament, and to be a priest meant torture and death. The footnotes provided by the translator prove the absolute fact of his account, which is corroborated even by the files of the Elizabethan secret police. Father Gerard tells how he was smuggled into England after his ordination and dunped on a Norfolk beach by night. Working in secret, he managed to reconcile many Protestants to the Catholic Faith and sent more then 30 men to Catholic seminaries abroad. But then he was taken by the "Priest Hunters." His accounts of being imprisoned in the notorious "Clink" and the Tower of London are as compelling as any memoir of Soviet GULAG survivors. He insists that he never gave away any names, despite being brutally tortured, a fact confirmed by the files of the TOwer. His stirring tale of his escape across the Tower moat is as compelling as any fiction. His descriptions of his acquaintance with canonised martyrs like St. Robert Southwell and St. Horace Walpole are very fascinating. The Prologue by Graham Greene is well worth the price of the book in it's self. I shall be very interested to see when this book is finally reprinted, as my own copy is being worn out. Fatehr Gerard, I salute you!!!