Saint Margaret Clitherow

Margaret Clitherow (née Middleton, c. 1556 – 25 March 1586) was an English Catholic recusant known as The Pearl of York. She was pressed to death for refusing to enter a plea to the charge of harbouring Catholic priests. She was canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI. Margaret Clitherow was born in 1556, the youngest child of Thomas and Jane Middleton née Turner. Her father, a respected freeman, was a businessman who worked as a wax-chandler. He also held the office of Sheriff of York, in 1564, and was churchwarden of St Martin's Church, Coney Street between 1555 and 1558. He died when Margaret was fourteen. On 1 July 1571, she married John Clitherow, a wealthy butcher and chamberlain of the city, who was also a widower with two sons. She gave birth to three children, and the family lived at today's 10–11 The Shambles. She converted to Roman Catholicism in 1574. Although her husband, John Clitherow, belonged to the Established Church, he was supportive as his brother William was a Roman Catholic priest. He paid her fines for not attending church services. She was first imprisoned in 1577 for failing to attend church, and two more incarcerations at York Castle followed. Her third child, William, was born in prison and she learned to read and write while incarcerated. Margaret risked her life by harbouring and maintaining priests, which was made a capital offence by the Jesuits, etc. Act 1584. She provided two chambers, one adjoining her house and, with her house under surveillance, she rented a house some distance away, where she kept priests hidden and Mass was celebrated through the thick of the persecution. Her home became one of the most important hiding places for fugitive priests in the north of England. Local tradition holds that she also housed her clerical guests in The Black Swan at Peasholme Green, where the Queen's agents were lodged. She sent her eldest son, Henry, to the English College, relocated in Reims, France, to train for the priesthood.