Saint Margaret Clitherow

Life story

Margaret Clitherow was born around 1556 in York, in northern England. She married John Clitherow, a prosperous butcher of the city who held civic office. He remained in the Church of England, while in 1574 she joined the Catholic Church despite the penalties for those who did not conform. She was repeatedly fined and imprisoned for refusing to attend the parish church.

In the following years she set up a hiding place for Catholic priests in her house and allowed it to be used for Mass. An Act of 1585 made harbouring a priest a capital offence. In March 1586 her house was searched and she was arrested. She refused to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. Tradition says she did so to spare her children and neighbours from being forced to testify against her.

Because she would not plead, she was sentenced to the penalty reserved for those who refused to stand trial. She was pressed to death under heavy stones at York on 25 March 1586, at about thirty years of age. She is called the Pearl of York. Pope Paul VI canonised her on 25 October 1970 among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. She was executed on 25 March 1586. Her trial took place at York, and early Catholic writers, notably her confessor John Mush, preserved the account of her last days. Her sentence was an old penalty for those who would not enter a plea, and it was rarely carried out in England by that time.

Works and witness

• Became a Catholic in 1574 and suffered fines for non-attendance
• Sheltered Catholic priests in her home in York
• Arrested in March 1586 and refused to plead
• Pressed to death on 25 March 1586
• Canonised in 1970 among the Forty Martyrs

Saints from the same country

Saint Thomas Becket, Saint Thomas More, Saint Carlo Acutis, Saint Bede the Venerable

References

• Martyrologium Romanum
• Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile
• John Mush, A True Report of the Life and Martyrdom of Mrs Margaret Clitherow

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.