Martyrs' Day 2007

Today is Martyrs' Day - the anniversary of the martyrdom of St Ralph Sherwin and his companions, the first martyrs of the Venerable English College in Rome.

The former students of the Venerable English College gathered yesterday for Mass at Tyburn convent, about a mile north of the Cathedral and close to the site of the gallows where many of the martyrs suffered. Fr Terry Phipps preached upon the relevance of St Ralph Sherwin's martyrdom for us today and how, despite the fact that our relations with other churches and faiths are very different for his time, we are still called to be proud of our Catholic faith, and even suffer for it.