Sandys, JOHN, VENERABLE, English martyr, b. in the Diocese of Chester; executed at Gloucester, 11 August, 1586. He arrived at Reims 4 June, 1583, was ordained priest in the Holy Cross Chapel of Reims Cathedral by the Cardinal Archbishop, Louis de Guise, and was sent on the mission 2 October, 1584. He was cut down while fully conscious and had a terrible struggle with the executioner, who had blackened his face to avoid recognition and used a rusty and ragged knife; but his last words were a prayer for his persecutors.
POLLEN, Acts of the English Martyrs (London, 1891), 333, 336, 337; Knox, Douay Diaries (London, 1878); CHALLONER, Missionary Priests, I (Edinburgh, 1877), no. 38. 5
John B. Wainewright.