St. Margaret Clitherow
Feast day: March 26
St. Margaret Clitherow was an English martyr who died for her faith during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 50 years after King Henry VIII split the Church in England away from Rome. Born in 1556 in York, she was raised Protestant but converted to the Catholic faith at 18, three years after her marriage to John Clitherow, a wealthy butcher and chamberlain of the city. Their marriage was strained by her husband’s responsibility to report Catholic worshippers to the authorities. However, John supported Margaret’s conversion to Catholicism and paid the fines for her recusancy, or refusal to attend Protestant services.
English laws against the Catholic faith eventually became more harsh as the government was determined to eradicate the faith in Yorkshire, where it was strong. For her persistent recusancy, Margaret was imprisoned in 1577 and twice more over the next seven years, with her final incarceration lasting two years. In prison, she learned to read Latin in order to better understand the Mass, and she relished her time of prayer there.
In between her imprisonments, St. Margaret risked her life by harboring and maintaining Catholic priests, which was considered an act of treason. She regularly allowed the Mass to be celebrated in her home above the family shop and cut holes in the attic of her house and the adjoining house, so that a priest could escape in the event of a raid. Her home became a stopping-off place for priests, and St. Margaret also ran a small school to teach the Catholic faith to children. In all of these activities, St. Margaret was more than aware that she would be persecuted, and potentially executed, if discovered. Five priests were hanged in York between 1582 and 1583, and Margaret was known to make pilgrimages during the night to pray at the gallows where they died.
Although people knew that St. Margaret hid priests, for a long time no one betrayed her as she was admired for being a good housewife, a capable businesswoman and someone loved by her husband despite her Catholic fervor. However, on March 10, 1586, John Clitherow was summoned by the authorities to explain why his son was studying abroad to become a priest, and the Clitherow residence was then searched. A frightened young boy revealed the home’s hiding place for priests, chalices and vestments. Fortunately, the priest Margaret was sheltering at the time was hidden in the house next door and avoided being arrested, but she was seized in the raid.
Under arrest, St. Margaret refused to plead guilty or innocent, stating adamantly that only God could judge her. She also probably did not want to involve her friends and family, particularly her children, in a trial where they would be pressured to give evidence against her. She told the judge, “I know of no offense whereof I should confess myself guilty. Having made no offence, I need no trial.” She explained to the sheriff, as she was tormented, that she was ready to die for love of her Lord Jesus, saying, “God be thanked, I am not worthy of so good a death as this.”
The penalty for prisoners who refused to enter a plea was to be crushed with heavy weights until they capitulated or died. St. Margaret was pressed with an 800-pound weight on March 25, 1586, the feast of the Annunciation, which was also Good Friday that year. She prayed aloud but gave away no information about any priests. Her last words were “Jesu! Jesu! Jesu! Have mercy on me!” She died after about 15 minutes, but her body was left pressed by the weight for six hours after her death as an example to others. Six weeks later her body was taken by friends and buried at an unknown location with Catholic rites. It is believed that St. Margaret was probably expecting a child when she died. Queen Elizabeth I later wrote to the citizens of York and noted that St. Margaret should never have been executed since she was a woman.
St. Margaret was survived by three children, whom she had educated in the Catholic faith. Her sons Henry and William became priests, and her daughter, Anne, a nun. She was canonized by Pope Paul VI in October 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
Today one of St. Margaret’s hands is housed as a relic in the chapel of the Bar Convent in York. There is also a shrine to her in St Wilfrid’s Church in York and on the Shambles, the street where she lived and worked. A plaque at the Micklegate end of the Ouse Bridge commemorates the site of her execution. St. Margaret Clitherow is also commemorated in England on Aug. 30.
Reflection
Dear Jesus, give me the strength to defend the faith no matter the situation at hand. May I trust in your providence to give me the grace when I need it the most.
Prayer
Almighty and merciful God,
who brought your martyr blessed Margaret
to overcome the torments of her passion,
grant that we, who celebrate the day of her triumph,
may remain invincible under your protection
against the snares of the enemy.
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.
