Hollywood action star Tom Cruise has come a long way in his career. The father of one’s successful show business life has kept his private life more than idle from the tabloids but there is one unbelievable fact about Katie Holmes' ex-husband.

Cheatsheet reports that Cruise in her younger years was training to become a Catholic priest -- quite a big stray from his now new church, The Church of Scientology.

Cruise attended a Franciscan seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio after he was drawn to a speech by Father Ric Schneider.

Schneider sat down with New York Daily News and revealed the astonishing fact about the actor. He explained that Cruise was instantly hooked after his speech, and was said to be looking for a good education in the midst of his parent’s divorce.

A close friend of Cruise in the seminary, Shane Dempler also revealed some unknown facts about the action star, claiming that the now Scientologist was a man of faith before.

“He had a very strong Catholic faith. We went to Mass, spent time in the chapel and enjoyed hearing stories from the priests. We thought the priests had a great lifestyle and we were really interested in priesthood,” Dempler said.

Dempler also admitted that, looking back, both he and Cruise were too young to make such a big decision.

Unfortunately for Tom, his dreams of becoming a priest was cut short after he was apparently caught stealing alcohol from the Father’s in the school.

Cruise was said to have instigated other boys to go with him to the woods on the school grounds to get drunk. Several of the boys admitted their wrongdoings to the Priest, which lead the school to contact their parents.

According to Dempler, the Priests wrote their parents a letter saying that they liked Tom and Shane very much but preferred that they not return.

Years later Tom Cruise appeared in the movie Taps, which kicked off his Hollywood career.

Despite Cruise being an avid Catholic in his younger years, it's hard to imagine that the once devout Christian is now one of the high ranking officials in the Church of Scientology.

Tom Cruise got involved in the Church starting in 1990 and has been an advocate of its word since then. Both his marriages to Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes ended up in divorce after they wanted to leave the Church.