Background
Sherwin was born at Rodsley, Derbyshire, and was educated at Eton College.
Sherwin was born at Rodsley, Derbyshire, and was educated at Eton College.
English College; Eton College.
He is a Catholic martyr and saint. On 2 August 1577, he left for Rome, where he stayed at the English College, Rome for nearly three years. On 18 April 1580, Sherwin and thirteen companions left Rome for England.
On 9 November 1580, he was arrested while preaching in the house of Nicholas Roscarrock in London and imprisoned in the Marshalsea, where he converted many fellow prisoners, and on 4 December was transferred to the Tower of London, where he was tortured on the rack and then laid out in the snow.
He is said to have been personally offered a bishopric by Elizabeth I if he converted, but refused. After spending a year in prison he was finally brought to trial with Edmund Campion on a charge of treasonable conspiracy.
He was convicted in Westminster Hall on 20 November 1581. Eleven days later he was taken to Tyburn on a hurdle along with Alexander Briant and Campion, where the three martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered.
Sherwin"s last words were "Iesu, Iesu, Iesu, esto mihi Iesus!"
He was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. He was canonized on 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales with a common feast day of 25 October.
His individual feast day is celebrated on 1 December, the day of his martyrdom.
Sherwin was the first member of the English College in Rome to be martyred.