Clitherow, St Margaret

views updated

Clitherow, St Margaret (1556–86). Catholic martyr. Daughter of a sheriff of York and a butcher's wife, she became a catholic (1574). She was tried at York for harbouring Jesuits and priests and hearing mass in her house. To save her children from giving evidence she refused to plead, was condemned and pressed to death. Her sons studied at Rheims and Rome for the priesthood and her daughter became a nun at Louvain. A fine example of recusant courage and the brutality of the age, she was canonized in 1970.

Revd Dr William M. Marshall

More From encyclopedia.com