The witness of a Northern Saint

(St. Margaret of York)
1556-1586

Imagine you are a convert from Protestantism, happily married with three children and you help your husband run his business. You are practising your faith, praying every day for more than an hour, fasting four times a week and going to Mass and confession regularly – and all this under the Catholic suppression of Queen Elizabeth 1

You risk your life helping and concealing priests, the penalty for which is death. You send your son to Douai, France for Catholic schooling. For this, and because a secret hiding place was found, you are arrested and, because you refuse to plead, you are pressed to death, sandwiched between a rock and a wooden slab while weights are dropped upon you.

Such was the example of the life of St Margaret Clitherow – faithful Catholic mother, wife and martyr.

Saint Margaret of York.

Pray for us.