A man converts after being hit by a rosary thrown into a crowd!

In 17th century England, Catholics were the target of a brutal persecution. Father John Ogilvie was tried in Glasgow on October 15, 1614, for having said that, in the spiritual realm, the Pope is above the king. Condemned to death for this statement, he spent his captivity as cheerful and humorous as usual.

After being tortured, he was taken to the scaffold on March 10, 1615, where he renewed his loyalty to the king in the temporal realm and declared that he would die for his loyalty to the Pope. Then, suddenly, he took his rosary and threw it into the crowd. The rosary hit a Hungarian Calvinist who was visiting Glasgow in the chest: this man was Johann von Echesdoff, who later converted to Catholicism. The blow of the rosary worked for him as a coup de grace.

John Ogilvie was canonized by Paul VI in mid-October 1976.

Taken from the Minutes of Father Ogilvie's trial

National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh