Next Thursday, 27^th February, we celebrate the feast of a remarkable woman from York, St Margaret Clitherow (1555-1586) whose faith and courage still inspire us today. During the Protestant Reformation she risked her life to stand against threats to the ancient Faith and to protect Catholic priests and give them a place to celebrate Mass and the Sacraments. For this she was martyred, which earned her the title of the “Pearl of York.”

The English Reformation began in the 1530s when King Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church because the Pope refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. So Henry pronounced himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England, and appointed a new Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, thereby ending nearly one thousand years of Catholic England. Henry, who was in desperate need of money, closed all the monasteries and seized all their land and property. Under his son Edward VI, who became King at nine years old, things became much worse. Anti-Catholic laws were passed, altars and shrines were destroyed, the Mass was abolished and Catholic doctrine was officially replaced with Protestant beliefs. Edward didn’t live long dying aged fifteen and was succeeded by Catholic Queen Mary I who reigned for just five years. She was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I, who to begin with was content to just fine Catholics who didn’t attend the Protestant services. But then a second wave of persecution began, when being a priest or even hiding one became punishable by death. So priests had to travel in secret and celebrate Mass and the Sacraments in the homes of brave Catholics who were willing to risk everything.

St Margaret Clitherow was one such person. She was born into a Protestant family and married a Protestant butcher. But after meeting a missionary priest, she converted to Catholicism. She was very fervent, secretly arranging for Masses to be celebrated in her home and hiding priests, while her husband John turned a blind eye. The priests, many of whom were Jesuits trained in France, would have to travel in disguise pretending to be merchants or common labourers to avoid detection, but there was always a danger of spies and informers.

In 1586, her home was raided and vestments and sacred vessels were found, proving that she had been sheltering Catholic priests who had been celebrating Mass. She was arrested and refused to enter a plea, because she knew a trial would endanger her family and friends. For that refusal, she was martyred on 25^th March 1546 by being pressed to death beneath a heavy wooden door, loaded with stones. As the life was squeezed out of her and her unborn child, her final words were, “JESUS, JESUS, JESUS, have mercy on me!” She was 36 years old.

Margaret Clitherow was canonised a saint in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Her house, 36 The Shambles in York, is now a shrine where Mass is celebrated daily. May her great faith and courage inspire us today. She and many others risked their lives so that priests might offer to God the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and preserve the True Faith. Yet how often do we, who at least for the time being, have plenty of opportunities to attend Mass, neglect to do so? What she treasured more than life itself, we often regard so lightly. Let us pray through her intercession for a great love of the Mass and for a deepening of our faith, especially in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. St Margaret Clitherow is the patron saint of both the Union of Catholic Mothers and the Catholic Women’s League.

Fr Paul Gillham, IC