He was ordained priest in the following year (31 March), but continued his studies after ordination until 1586, when on 21 May he left Reims in company with Edward Burden.

[1] No details of his missionary work have been preserved; but at his trial Baron Savile, the judge, incidentally remarked that he had known him at Oxford some years after 1596.

[1] Christopher Wharton was beatified in 1987 by Pope John Paul II as one of the "Eighty Five Martyrs of England and Wales".

Wharton's severed head was put on one of the gates of York, but was rescued by Catholics, who kept it safe in Knaresborough.

Later, it was taken into the care of the Benedictines at Downside Abbey, who returned it to Yorkshire in 2002 for the dedication of the Chapel of St. Mary and St. Margaret Clitheroe at Myddelton Grange Catholic retreat centre, Ilkley.