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Mass of Christian Burial with limited attendance set for Msgr. Ralph Martin at Saint Catherine of Siena

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Msgr. Ralph Martin

Arrangements are set for funeral services for Msgr. Ralph Martin, the longtime Diocese of Wilmington priest who died Jan. 12 at 88.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated by Bishop Malooly on Jan. 22 at 11 a.m. at Saint Catherine of Siena. Due to the pandemic, attendance will be limited.
Interment will immediately follow at All Saints Cemetery.
Msgr. Martin was born in Connellsville, Pa. A graduate of St. Mary’s High School and King’s College, both in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., he was ordained to the priesthood in May 1965 by Bishop Michael W. Hyle.

He served as an associate pastor at St. Thomas the Apostle, Resurrection and St. Matthew’s, all in Wilmington; and Good Shepherd in Perryville, Md. After his first assignment at St. Thomas, he earned a master’s degree in religious education and joined the faculty at Saint Mark’s High School for three years, with residence at Corpus Christi, Elsmere.

He received his first pastorate in 1980 at St. Catherine of Siena in Wilmington. In 1995 he attended the Institute of Continuing Theology in Rome, and upon his return to the Diocese of Wilmington, he was appointed administrator, then pastor, of St. Polycarp in Smyrna. He retired from the pastorate in 2002 and became the director of seminarians and newly ordained priests for the diocese, a position he held until 2007. He was the first person to hold that position after it was created by Bishop Michael A. Saltarelli.