March 26
Margaret Clitherow of Yorkshire, England, was the wife of John Clitherow, whose family was Catholic. He had become a Protestant before he married, but Margaret became a Catholic two or three years after her marriage. Her husband loved her dearly, and his own brother was a Catholic priest, but Margaret always regretted that he would not come to church with her. At a time when being Catholic in England was illegal, Margaret’s home became a stopping-off place for priests. Mass was offered secretly there, and priests were hidden in secret closets or behind walls, in places called priest holes.
Margaret and her husband had three children. When Margaret sent their eldest son to France, to train for the priesthood, she and her husband caught the attention of the local authorities. Her husband was summoned to explain why their son had gone to France. The Clitherow house was searched. All of Margaret’s servants loved her and knew that she hid priests, but not one betrayed her, except a young Flemish boy. Out of fear, he revealed the place where priests hid. Margaret was arrested. She refused a trial because her husband and children would have been called to testify against her, perhaps undergoing torture, and she would not allow that to happen.
Even though Margaret was pregnant with the couple’s fourth child, she was sentenced by the judge to death. Margaret died on March 25, 1586, which was Good Friday. She was 30 years old. She was canonized in 1970, along with a group of other martyrs known as the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
(Image © Yorkshirian, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)