John Houghton was Catholic priest of the Carthusian order and the first martyr to die as a result of the Act of Supremacy by King Henry VIII of England. He was also the first of the Carthusians to die as a martyr. As one of the Carthusian Martyrs of London he is among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

Born around 1487, Houghton was educated at Cambridge, but cannot be identified among surviving records. Similarly, no certain records can be found of his ordination. It is said that he escaped an arranged marriage as soon as he completed his education and took refuge with a devout priest.

He joined the London Charterhouse in 1516, progressed to be sacristan in 1523, and procurator in 1528. In 1531, he became prior of the Beavale in Nottinghamshire. However, in November of that year, he was elected prior of the London house, to which he returned. In addition, the following spring he was named Provincial Visitor, at the head of the English Carthusians.

In April 1534, two royal agents visited the Charterhouse. Houghton advised them that "it pertained not to his vocation and calling nor to that of his subjects to meddle in or discuss the king's business, neither could they or ought they to do so, and that it did not concern him who the king wished to divorce or marry, so long as he was not asked for any opinion." He asked that he and his community be exempted from the oath required under the new Act of Succession, which resulted in both him and his procurator, Humphrey Middlemore, being arrested and taken to the Tower of London. They were later released after being persuaded that the oath was consistent with Catholicism.

However, in 1535, the community was called upon to make the new oath as prescribed by the 1534 Act of Supremacy, which recognised Henry as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Again, Houghton, this time accompanied by the heads of the other two English Carthusian, pleaded for an exemption, but this time they were summarily arrested. They were called before a special commission in April 1535, and sentenced to death, along with Richard Reynolds, a monk from Syon Abbey.

Houghton, along with the other two Carthusians, Reynolds and John Haile of Isleworth, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn on 4 May 1535.

Catholic tradition relates that when Houghton was about to be quartered, as the executioner tore open his chest to remove his heart, he prayed, "O Jesus, what wouldst thou do with my heart?". His companions were butchered next. After his death, his body was chopped to pieces and hung in different parts of London.

He was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII and canonized on 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI.

Other Saints of the Day

1. St. Florian

2. St. Augustine Webster

3. Bl. Carthusian Martyrs

4. Bl. Ceferino Jimenez Malla

5. St. Conleth