ST MARGARET CLITHEROW, MARTYR - 26 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 26th of March

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SAINT MARGARET CLITHEROW, MARTYR 

⬅️ Forty Holy Martyrs of England and Wales

Margaret Clitherow was born as Margaret Middleton. The daughter of a wax chandler, she married a butcher called John Clitherow when she was 15 years old in 1571. They had three children.

When Margaret was 18 she converted to Catholicism, although her husband, while supportive of his wife, remained Protestant.

SHE BECAME A FRIEND OF PERSECUTED CATHOLICS

Margaret became a friend of persecuted Catholics in the north of England. Her son, Henry, trained at Reims [seminaries and Catholic churches were outlawed in England for several centuries] in order to become a Catholic priest and they regularly held [clandestine] Masses at her home in York. In the event of a raid, there was a hole in her attic that enabled priests to escape to the adjoining house. The house believed to have been hers is now called the Shrine of the St Margaret Clitherow and is open to the public.

Margaret was arrested in 1586 for harbouring Catholic clergy. She refused to plead guilty because she knew her children would be brought forward as witnesses and subsequently might be subjected to torture.

SHE REFUSED TO PLEAD GUILTY

Margaret was executed by being crushed to death on Good Friday 1586. The two sergeants hired to kill her used four beggars to do the deed instead. It took her 15 minutes to die as she was crushed with rocks and stones. Her last words were “Jesu! Jesu! Jesu! have mercy on me!”

Her body was left for six hours until the weight was removed. Her hand was saved following her death and is now a relic in the chapel of the Bar Convent in York. When Elizabeth I heard of Margaret’s horrific death, she wrote to the citizens of York condemning the act and arguing that women should not be executed.

Margaret’s son William also became a priest and her daughter Anne became a nun in Louvain, Belgium.

THE PATRONESS OF THE CATHOLIC WOMEN'S LEAGUE

Margaret was beatified in 1929 by Pope Pius XI and canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI. She is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. In 2008, a commemorative plaque was installed at the Micklegate end of Ouse Bridge in York marking the site of her martyrdom. St Margaret is the patroness of the Catholic Women’s League.

This article was published in “The Catholic Herald”, paper edition, issue March 21 2014

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

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who know how courageously your holy martyr Margaret confessed the faith, may experience her goodness as she intercedes for us with you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

➡️ More details about St Margaret's martyrdom