Margaret Clitherow
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| Saint Margaret Clitherow | |
|---|---|
 Margaret Clitherow, the Pearl of York. |
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| One of the "Forty Martyrs of England and Wales" | |
| Born | 1556, York[1] |
| Died | 1586, York |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Canonized | 1970, Rome by Pope Paul VI |
| Major shrine | The Shambles, York |
| Feast | March 26 |
Saint Margaret Clitherow (1556 – 1586) is an English saint and martyr of the Roman Catholic Church.[2] She is sometimes called "the Pearl of York".
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[edit] Life
She was born as Margaret Middleton,[3] the daughter of a wax-chandler, after Henry VIII of England had 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 hole cut between the attics of 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 and 11, 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.
As of 2008, a commemorative plaque is to be installed at the Micklegate end of Ouse Bridge to mark the site of her martyrdom; it is planned that the Bishop of Middlesbrough will unveil this in a ceremony on Friday 29th August.
[edit] Canonisation
She was canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI along with other martyrs from England and Wales. The group of candidates canonised at that time is commonly called "The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales". Her feast day in the current Roman Catholic calendar is August 30.
[edit] Legacy
A number of schools in England are named after Margaret Clitherow, including schools at Bracknell, Brixham, Manchester, Nottingham, Stevenage, Thamesmead SE28, Brent, London NW10 and Tonbridge.
The Roman Catholic primary school in Nottingham's Bestwood estate is named after Margaret Clitherow. It serves children from five years to 11 years and attracts pupils from across the city and beyond. The school's academic record is shown on The Guardian's website [4].
She is also the patroness of the Catholic Women's League, an organisation of Catholic women founded in 1906, with small groups (known as branches) and sections (groupings of branches, usually along diocesan lines) across the world.
In the United States, St. Margaret of York Church and School, located in the Cincinnati, Ohio suburb of Loveland, is also named after her.
[edit] References
- ^ Britannica.com
- ^ Rayne-Davies, John (2002). Margaret Clitherow: Saint of York. Beverley : Highgate of Beverley. ISBN 1-902645-32-4.
- ^ St. Wilfrid's Catholic Church - York
- ^ 2007 key stage 2 results: Nottingham, City of | Schools special reports | EducationGuardian.co.uk
[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
"St. Margaret Clitherow" in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia.- Works by or about Margaret Clitherow in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
