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Biography

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Ralph Sherwin was born in 1550 in Rodsley, a hamlet near Longford in Derbyshire, in the Kingdom of England. Surviving records of his family are limited, though he is known to have been a nephew of John Woodward, a Catholic priest who held the rectory of Ingatestone in Essex. Sherwin was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where his ability was recognized early; he was elected a fellow in 1568, received the Bachelor of Arts in 1571, and the Master of Arts in 1574. He acquired a strong reputation as a classical scholar. During his years at Oxford he outwardly conformed to the Elizabethan Church of England, but a conversion to Roman Catholicism led him to resign his fellowship and leave the university in 1575 in order to train for the Catholic priesthood on the Continent.

He first studied at the English College at Douai, established to form clergy for the English mission. In 1577 he proceeded to the English College in Rome. On 23 March 1577 he was ordained priest by Thomas Goldwell, Bishop of St Asaph, the last surviving member of the Marian Catholic hierarchy. Sherwin remained in Rome for further study and was noted for learning and piety. On 18 April 1580 he left Rome with a group of missionary priests that included the Jesuit Edmund Campion, travelling north through Europe with the intention of ministering to recusant Catholics in England, where the Mass and the presence of priests ordained abroad were treated as criminal.

Sherwin reached England in 1580 and began clandestine pastoral work, celebrating Mass and administering the sacraments in private houses. His liberty lasted only months. In November 1580 he was arrested in London, confined first in the Marshalsea and then transferred to the Tower of London. There he was interrogated and tortured on the rack in an attempt to obtain names of harbourers and fellow priests; he refused to recant or to incriminate others. In November 1581 he was tried at Westminster with Campion, Alexander Briant, and other priests on a charge of high treason, the indictment alleging conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth I. The trial afforded the accused little opportunity of defence. He was convicted and sentenced to the full penalty for treason.

On 1 December 1581 Sherwin was drawn on a hurdle from the Tower to Tyburn, where he was hanged, drawn, and quartered. Contemporary reports state that he died invoking Jesus and praying for the queen and the realm. His remains were displayed according to the custom of the time. English Catholics regarded him as a martyr from the outset. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on 29 December 1886 among a group of English martyrs, and was canonized by Pope Paul VI on 25 October 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. He is commemorated on 1 December, the anniversary of his death.

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