ST RALPH SHERWIN, PRIEST AND MARTYR

ST RALPH SHERWIN, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 1 DECEMBER

SAINT RALPH SHERWIN, PRIEST AND MARTYR

[Saint Ralph was an] English martyr, born 1550 at Rodesley, near Longford, Derbyshire; died at Tyburn, December 1, 1581.

In 1568 Sir William Petre nominated him to one of the eight fellowships which he had founded at Exeter College, Oxford, probably acting under the influence of the martyr's uncle, John Woodward, who from 1556 to 1566 had been rector of Ingatestone, Essex, where Sir William lived. There Blessed Ralph took the degree of M.A., 2 July, 1574, and was accounted "an acute philosopher, and an excellent Grecian and Hebrician".

In 1575 he fled abroad and went to the English College at Douai, where March 23, 1577, he was ordained priest by the Bishop of Cambrai. On August 2, 1577, he left for Rome, where he stayed at the English College nearly three years, becoming leader of the movement, which placed it under the supervision of the Jesuits.

Marshalsea Prison, 1773

On April 18, 1580, he set out for England, a member of a party of fourteen; at Milan they were guests of St Charles for eight days, and Blessed Ralph preached before him. On November 9, 1580, he was imprisoned in the Marshalsea, where he converted many fellow prisoners, and on December 4 was transferred to the Tower, where he was severely racked, December 15, and afterwards laid out in the snow. The next day he was racked again, after which second torture he "lay for five days and nights without any food or speaking to anybody. All which time he lay, as he thought in a sleep, before our Saviour on the Cross. After which time he came to himself, not finding any distemper in his joints by the extremity of the torture."

After a year's imprisonment he was brought to trial, on an absurd charge of treasonable conspiracy, in Westminster Hall November 20, 1581, and being found guilty was taken back to the Tower, whence he was drawn to Tyburn on a hurdle shared by Blessed Alexander Briant. He suffered very bravely, his last words being, Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, esto mihi Jesus!

[Father Ralph was beatified on December 29, 1886 by Pope Leo XIII and canonized on October 25, 1970 by Pope Paul VI.]

Source: Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913

⬅️ The Holy Martyrs of England and Wales

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who know how courageously your holy martyr Ralph confessed the faith, may experience his goodness as he intercedes for us with you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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