Vladimir Ghika was a Romanian diplomat and Catholic priest born in Constantinople in 1873. A member of the princely Ghica family, he converted from Eastern Orthodoxy to Catholicism and later became a pioneer of the lay apostolate. He was ordained in 1923 and served as an Apostolic Protonotary, traveling extensively for his ministry. Following the rise of the Communist regime in Romania, he was arrested for his religious convictions and died in Jilava prison in 1954 after enduring torture and mistreatment.