Margaret Clitherow
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Saint Margaret Clitherow (1556 – 1586) is a saint and martyr of the Roman Catholic Church. She is sometimes called "the Pearl of York".
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[edit] Life
She was born the daughter of a Sheriff of York in Middleton after Henry VIII of England split the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church. She married John Clitherow, a butcher, in 1571 (at the age of 15) and bore him two children. She converted to Roman Catholicism at the age of 18, in 1574. She then became a friend of the persecuted Roman Catholic population in the north of England. Her son, Henry, went to Reims to train as a Catholic priest. She regularly held Masses in her home in the Shambles in York. There was a secret tunnel between her house and the house next door, so that a priest could escape if there was a raid. A house in the Shambles once thought to have been her home, now called the Shrine of the Saint Margaret Clitherow, is open to the public (it is served by the nearby Church of St Wilfrid's and is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough); her actual house (10, the Shambles) is further down the street.
[edit] Martyrdom
In 1586, she was arrested and called before the York assizes for the crime of harbouring Roman Catholic priests. She refused to plead to the case so as to prevent a trial that would entail her children being made to testify, and she was executed by being crushed to death – the standard punishment for refusal to plead. On Good Friday of 1586, she was laid out upon a sharp rock, and a door was put on top of her and loaded with an immense weight of rocks and stones. Death occurred within fifteen minutes.
[edit] Canonization
She was canonized in 1970 by Pope Paul VI along with other martyrs from England and Wales. The group of candidates canonized at that time is commonly called "The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales". Her feast day in the current Roman Catholic calendar is March 26.
[edit] Reference
Rayne-Davies, John (2002). Margaret Clitherow: Saint of York. Beverley : Highgate of Beverley. ISBN 1-902645-32-4.
[edit] External links
- The Official Shambles Website More information about Margaret Clitherow from the Official Website of the Medieval Street where she lived.
- Sacred Destinations A page on the shrine, with photographs
- Catholic Encyclopedia Entry on St. Margaret Clitherow
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
