Ralph Milner
English martyr
Feast: 7 July (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Ralph Milner, an almost illiterate labourer of Hampshire with a wife and eight children, was struck by the lives of the Catholics he knew and was received into the Church, but was arrested on the day of his First Communion.
Trusted by his jailer, he used his parole to help prisoners and guide priests to scattered Catholics. He was condemned for helping a priest and executed at Winchester on 7 July 1591.
The miracles
As a martyr he was raised to the altars without a miracle.
Why that counted as sanctity
A labourer and father of eight who died for helping priests.
The cause
The cause continues. No postulation address is published here yet. Favours received through this person’s intercession, and offers of help, are best sent to the religious order or congregation they belonged to, or to the diocese where the cause was opened; either will pass them to the postulation.
Connected on this site
- Roger Dickenson Blessed“At Winchester in England, Blessed martyrs Roger Dickenson, priest, and Ralph Milner, a farmer and father of a family, poor and illiterate but firm in the faith, who under Queen Elizabeth I were captured together and put to death by the punishment of the gallows.” — this site's research
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - Ralph Milner
- Wikidata Q3031361 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Ralph Milner and companion (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.