Venerable Margaret Sinclair

Margaret Anne Sinclair, (29 March 1900 – 24 November 1925), religious name Mary Francis of the Five Wounds, was a Scottish Catholic nun of the Colettine Poor Clares. She was declared venerable by Pope Paul VI on 6 February 1978. Andrew Sinclair, from Edinburgh, husband to Elizabeth ('Leebie') Kelly, from Dundee, moved to Edinburgh in 1897 from Dundee. They had six children. The eldest male, John, the eldest female, Isabella (Bella). Margaret Sinclair was their third child, and second eldest female. Born on 29 March 1900, at nine in the evening, in the two roomed flat beneath the ground floor, at 24 Middle Arthur Place, Edinburgh. She had three younger siblings: Andrew, the second eldest male; the youngest female Elizabeth (Lizzie); and, finally, Lawrence. Before Lawrence was born, Margaret's parents lost two children. First, James, who died aged only one year old; then, Mary, alive for only a matter of days. Andrew and Elizabeth were married on New Year's Day, or the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, in the Church, in 1896. St. Joseph's Church in Dundee was the venue for the wedding, but Margaret's parents left Dundee within a year, so that Andrew returned to Edinburgh with his wife. Elizabeth was Catholic from birth, but Andrew converted so that they could marry. Andrew had gone to Dundee to search for work, and whilst Elizabeth worked manufacturing jute in a mill from thirteen years of age onward, Andrew became a tanner. On returning to Edinburgh, he found work with the town council as a road-sweeper, rising early and being paid a low wage. Margaret Sinclair was baptised at St Patrick's Church on 11 April, 1900. On 8 May 1910, she was confirmed in St Patrick's Church, Edinburgh and received the Eucharist for the first time. Both her older brother John and her father served in World War I.