William Davies (priest)

William Davies (died 27 July 1593) was a recusant Welsh Roman Catholic missionary who worked as an underground schoolmaster in the Creuddyn Peninsula of North Wales. Davies was martyred at Beaumaris Castle in Anglesey during the Elizabethan era, as part of the religious persecution of the Catholic Church in Wales that began under Henry VIII and ended only with Catholic Emancipation in 1829. Davies was beatified by Pope John Paul II as one of the Eighty-five martyrs of England and Wales in 1987. Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Catholic Church in Beaumaris contains a large fibreglass relief at the west end of its nave depicting Davies' Martyrdom . He is credited with involvement in the underground publication of Y Drych Cristianogawl and with composing at least one devotional work of Welsh bardic poetry during his imprisonment.