Thomas Aufield

Who was Thomas Aufield?

The Blessed Thomas Aufield, also called Thomas Alfield, was an English Roman Catholic martyr.

He was born in Gloucestershire and educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge. He then converted to Roman Catholicism and in 1576 fled to the English College at Douai, France. He was ordained a priest in 1581 and returned to England to preach in secret. He seems to have mostly operated in the North, where he was arrested on 2 May 1582. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he was tortured and apostatised, returning to Protestantism.

He was released and repented, fleeing again to Douai to seek help in returning to Catholicism. He returned to England and was again arrested circulating Catholic texts and sent to the Tower, then transferred to Newgate. He was then tried, convicted and hanged at Tyburn alongside his assistant Thomas Webley, a reprieve arriving too late to save him. He was beatified in 1929. His feast day is 6 July, the date of his martyrdom.