SAINT FEAST DAY 30 AUGUST: ST MARGARET WARD

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 30th of August

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST MARGARET WARD, MARTYR

⬅️ Forty Holy Martyrs of England and Wales

St Margaret Ward, martyr, was born at Congleton, Cheshire. Nothing is known of her early life except that she was of good family and for a time dwelt in the house of a lady of distinction named Whitall then residing in London. 

SHE FURNISHED HIM WITH A CORD WHETEBY HE COULD MAKE HIS ESCAPE

Knowing that William Watson, the priest who wrote the work known as the "Quodlibets", was imprisoned, she obtained permission to visit him. After several visits she disarmed the vigilance of the gaoler and furnished him with a cord whereby he could make his escape. At the appointed time the boatman whom she had engaged to convey the priest down the river refused to carry out his bargain, and in her distress she confided her difficulty to a young man, Venerable John Roche (or Neele), who undertook to assist her. He provided a boat and exchanged clothes with Watson, who made good his escape. 

But the clothes betrayed John Roche, and the rope convinced the gaoler that Margaret Ward had been instrumental in the flight of the prisoner. They were both arrested and loaded with irons. Venerable Robert Southwell wrote: 

SHE WAS FLOGGED AND HUNG UP BY THE WRISTS

She was flogged and hung up by the wrists, the tips of her toes only touching the ground, for so long a time that she was crippled and paralysed, but these sufferings greatly strengthened the glorious martyr for her last struggle.

She was tried and condemned at Newgate, her liberty being offered her if she would attend Protestant [government] worship. 

St Margaret Ward was executed at Tyburn, London, on August 30, 1588.

(Excerpts from Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913. "Saint" has been inserted afterwards instead of the original "Venerable", as beatification and canonisation took place in the meantime.)

➡️ SS. Margaret Clitherow, Anne Line, and Margaret Ward, Martyrs