July 7th - Blessed Ralph Milner By: Maxin Mathew

Blessed Ralph Milner was a very obscure person from the Middle Ages. He was born into a family of farmers and grew up illiterate. He supported his wife and eight children by working manual labor. He was raised as an Anglican Protestant, but later converted to Catholicism. However, he was arrested and imprisoned right after his First Holy Communion. This time in England they were often hunted down and imprisoned, sometimes even killed. Ralph was actually known to be a very friendly person; this helped him get out on parole often. He was trusted by his jailers and had been given great leniency within the jail. Milner used their trust to bring other Catholic priests into the jail in order to administer sacraments to the other Catholic inmates. One day, he was caught with one of the priests he had brought into the jail and put in close confinement. The judge even offered Milner freedom if he would attend just one Protestant service. Even when his children were brought to him with hopes of converting him away from Catholicism, he refused and remained unshaken in his decision. He was later executed on July 7, 1591.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER
Lord help all those who are imprisoned to stay hopeful and strong as Blessed Ralph Milner did. Keep us in our faith and forgive those who have sinned. Amen.