- Ralph Sherwin
Infobox Saint
name=Saint Ralph Sherwin
birth_date=1550
death_date=1 December ,1581
feast_day=1 December
venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church
imagesize=
caption=
birth_place=Rodsley ,Derbyshire ,England
death_place=Tyburn ,London , England
titles=Priest
beatified_date=
beatified_place=
beatified_by=
canonized_date=1970
canonized_place=
canonized_by=Pope Paul VI
attributes=Priest
patronage=
major_shrine=
suppressed_date=
issues=
prayer=
prayer_attrib=Saint Ralph Sherwin (1550–
1 December 1581 ) was an EnglishRoman Catholic martyr andsaint . He was born atRodsley ,Derbyshire , and was educated atEton College . In 1568, he was nominated by SirWilliam Petre to one of the eightfellow ships which he had founded atExeter College, Oxford , probably influenced by Sherwin's uncle, John Woodward, who from 1556 to 1566 had beenrector ofIngatestone ,Essex , where Petre lived. A talented classical scholar, Sherwin graduated Master of Arts on2 July 1574 , and the following year converted toRoman Catholicism and fled abroad to the English College atDouai , where he was ordained a priest by theBishop of Cambrai on23 March 1577 . On2 August 1577, he left forRome , where he stayed at theEnglish College, Rome for nearly three years.On
18 April 1580 , Sherwin and thirteen companions left Rome for England. On9 November 1580, he was arrested while preaching in the house of Nicholas Roscarrock inLondon and imprisoned in theMarshalsea , where he converted many fellow prisoners, and on4 December was transferred to theTower of London , where he was tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow. He is said to have been personally offered abishopric by Elizabeth I if he apostasised, but refused. After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial withEdmund Campion on a trumped up charge of treasonable conspiracy. He was convicted inWestminster Hall on20 November 1581 . Eleven days later he was drawn to Tyburn on a hurdle along withAlexander Briant , where he washanged, drawn and quartered . His last words were "Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, esto mihi Jesus!"CathEncy|title=Blessed Ralph Sherwin |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12636b.htm, accessed 9/16/07]Sherwin was the first member of the English College in Rome to be martyred. He was
beatified in the late 19th century andcanonise d in 1970 as one of theForty Martyrs of England and Wales . His feast day is on1 December , the day of his martyrdom.Notes
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