Margaret Middleton was martyred during the Elizabethan persecutions of the Catholic Church. She was born in 1556, one of five children to her protestant parents. Her father was a respected businessman and Sheriff of York, who died when Margaret was 14. In 1571, she married John Clitherow, who was a wealthy butcher and a Protestant, bearing him three children. John was also responsible for reporting Catholic worshipers to the authorities, at a time where it was against the law to practise the Catholic faith. Not only that, but it was a criminal offence simply not to attend the services of the State religion, which was Protestantism. The Saint converted to the Catholic Faith 3 years into her marriage. She was quick-witted, good-humoured, and well-liked among those around her. However, she was firm and unyielding in her convictions about the truth of the Catholic faith. She provided hiding places for Priests in her home and while her house was under surveillance, she rented another house for Priests to hide in, where Mass was celebrated all through the persecutions. She was first imprisoned in 1577 for not attending the services of the State religion with two more incarcerations that followed in York Castle. While in prison she learned to read Latin, so that she could read and speak the Latin Mass. (This may be part of the reason why she is the co-patroness of the Latin Mass Society) In response to the deaths of her fellow Catholics, she went on a pilgrimage during the night to Tyburn and Knavesmire, where Catholic Priests were martyred in 1582.
During a home raid in 1586, a boy revealed to the authorities the location of the cupboard kept in a secret room in Margaret’s house where she kept the Priest’s vestments along with the wine and bread for Mass. The Saint was arrested for harbouring Catholic Priests, which was a crime punishable by death.
She was arrested, and though the judges stressed the barbarity of the execution to make her conform to trial by jury, she refused to plead; hence, she was sent for her execution, which was at Ouse Bridge in York on the 25th March 1586. She was pressed to death under what would have been about eight hundred to nine hundred pounds. She was stripped of her clothes and laid with her own door on top of her and a sharp rock, the size of a man’s fist under her back.
At the time she was killed, she was pregnant with her fourth child. Her death happened within fifteen minutes, but her body was left for six hours before the weights were removed. Though her husband remained Protestant, her example inspired her children, whom she educated in the faith. Her son Henry Clitherow went abroad to become a Priest and then returned to England as a Missionary. Her daughter Anne ran away from home and was similarly imprisoned on account of the faith in 1593. She became a nun at St Ursula’s in Louvain in 1598. Her stepson, William became a seminary Priest in 1608 and her other stepson, Thomas was imprisoned for not attending the services of the State religion and died in Prison in 1604.
Saint Margaret Clitherow was canonized on 25th October 1970 by Pope Paul VI, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
What I find particularly interesting about this Saint is her circumstances. She was a normal, amiable woman, married with children. The fact that she was a convert from Protestantism, while married to a Protestant man, who’s very job it was to inform the authorities of Catholic worshipers, shows a woman who was put in a very interesting and testing set of circumstances. She had to make difficult moral decisions; whether to obey her husband or God, whether to obey the law or God. After converting, she dedicated her life choosing to obey God above all others. She prioritised the protection of priests both in her own home and in multiple other places that she could possibly find for them, above the reputation of her husband and family. However, Margaret was also faithful to her moral obligations to her family, like child-rearing and their Catholic education as well as her wifely and homely duties. It seems that Margaret had always been preparing for her martyrdom since the earliest days of her-becoming-Catholic; she knew each time she broke the law for the good of the faith she was always one step away from giving her life to God in Martyrdom. By the time, the opportunity arrived for her to give up her life for Christ, having been found a ‘priest harbourer’, she immediately took this as a grace from God, not trying to find a way out, but instead fearlessly running to her martyrdom, which she saw as her salvation. She emulated joy and even laughed while awaiting her death in such a way that people thought she had gone mad; it indeed was a supernatural peace. Having brought up her children in the faith, she did not leave them unaided and the fruits of this maternal commitment are clear in her children’s unyielding conviction of faith that was no doubt inspired by their Mother.
Each of us find ourselves in a set of circumstances that we may not have chosen in our lives. But it would do us well remember that God places us in the time we live in that is best for our eternal salvation. I encourage anyone who reads this to be inspired by the life of St Margaret, a woman who seems to us, found herself in a less-than-ideal situation of being married to someone who didn’t share her convictions of the true faith and living in a society vehemently opposed to the Catholic Faith. Whether we are directly persecuted for being a Catholic or find ourselves in obscure situations where we need to make a moral decision, we must always choose God’s law above anyone else’s. This is all that matters.