Margaret Clitherow was born in 1556 to Thomas Middleton, a wax chandler and sheriff of York, England. A wax chandler makes and sells candles. In July 1571, at the age of 15, she married John Clitherow, a wealthy butcher and city chamberlain. They were married in St. Martin’s Church on Coney Street in York. Margaret and John had three children. They lived in the Shambles, a street in York that was used by butchers.
Conversion to Catholicism
In 1574, at the age of 18, Margaret converted to Catholicism. John remained Protestant, but, because he had a brother who was a Catholic priest, was supportive of Margaret. Catholicism was illegal in England and Catholics were persecuted. Margaret held masses in her home. In addition, she had a secret room in between the attics of her house and the house next door so that a priest could escape if there was a raid. These secret rooms were known as Priest Holes.
Arrest and Martyrdom
On March 10, 1586, Margaret was arrested and charged with harboring Roman Catholic priests. She was arraigned before members of the Council of the North in York. She refused to plead in order to prevent a trial. The only witnesses called would be her children and her servants, whom she did not want tortured. The standard punishment for refusal to plead was peine forte et dure (“hard and forceful punishment), or pressed to death. The person would have heavier and heavier stones placed on their chest until they agreed to plead or died of suffocation. On Good Friday of 1586, Margaret was stripped naked and laid upon a small sharp rock. The rock would break a person’s back when the heavy rocks was laid down. A door was placed on top of Margaret and heavy stones were stacked on top of the door. Margaret Clitherow was dead in 15 minutes.
Legacy
Margaret’s right hand is kept at St. Mary’s Convent in York. Her burial site is unknown. Margaret and John’s children continued to be involved in Catholicism. Her sons, Henry and William, became priests and her daughter, Anne, became a nun. Anne lived in the convent at St. Ursula’s in Louvain, France.
A house that was once believed to be her home, Number 10 in the Shambles, is open to the public and serves as a shrine. It is part of the Catholic Diocese of Middlesborough and is served by the Church of St. Wilfrid’s. It is now believed that her actual house was on the other side of the street. This house is the only house in the street to have a Priest Hole.
Margaret Clitherow’s life was recorded by her confessor, John Mush. Margaret was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970. She was included in a group of martyrs known as The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Her feast day is March 26. She is the patroness of the Catholic Women’s League and a number of schools in England and the United States have been named for her.
Sources:
Catholic Encyclopedia. “St. Margaret Clitherow” (accessed July 28, 2009)
Inside York. “ The House of Saint Margaret Clitherow ” (accessed July 28, 2009)
Maynard, Jean Olwen. Margaret Clitherow: Saints of the Isles. London: Catholic Truth Society, 2003.
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