The Vatican is being urged to declare a British missionary a Catholic saint following reports that he miraculously cured a man of his brain tumor and that blood was inexplicably seen dripping from his coffin.

Supporters of John Bradburne are trying to raise £20,000 to fund efforts to beatify the missionary and poet, who died in Zimbabwe in 1979.

They say the formal process is about to begin and funds must be raised so a Vatican-appointed investigator can verify details of Bradburne's life and works, including miracles attributed to him.

Bradburne, the son of an Anglican rector who was born in Skirwith, Cumbria, became a Roman Catholic in 1947 after fighting in the Second World War

After wandering through Europe and the Middle East he became the warden of a leper colony in Mutemwa, Zimbabwe.

But at the age of 58, in the last months of the country’s war of liberation against white minority rule he was killed by guerillas when he refused to leave the colony to save himself.

Attendees at his requiem mass reported seeing drops of blood below his coffin, but when it was opened no blood was found inside the casket.