St. Ralph Sherwin (Oct. 19, 1550 to Dec 1, 1581)

  Two days ago, a young woman was searching my blog because her ex-boyfriend became a priest and she wants to forget him. My response to her is to "count your blessings. It's not like he left you for another woman. He left because he had a calling from God. How cool is that?"
  Still, becoming a priest doesn't always have a happy ending. St. Ralph Sherwin was born on Oct. 19, 1550 in Derbyshire, England. He was a classical scholar who earned a master of arts degree from Exeter College in Oxford.
  St. Ralph Sherwin converted to Catholicism and was ordained a priest in France in 1577. He studied in Rome, Italy then went back to England to convert other people to Catholicism. In 1580, he was arrested for the crime of priesthood and taken to Marshalsea prison.
  St. Ralph Sherwin continued to try and convert people while there and a month later was imprisoned in the Tower of London, tortured on the rack, and thrown in the snow. Queen Elizabeth told him she'd make him a bishop if he left the Roman Catholic Church. He wouldn't and remained in prison one more year then was hanged, drawn, and quartered on Dec. 1, 1581.
  St. Ralph Sherwin is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales who was canonized in 1970 along with St. Anne Line and his feast day is Dec. 1.
  (The image above is from englishcollegerome.org)