Saint Margaret of Clitherow Saint Margaret of Clitherow was born as Margaret Middleton in York, Yorkshire, England in 1556. She married John Clitherow, a butcher, at the age fifteen, in 1571 whom she bore three children : Henry, William, and Anne. She took on the role of being a businesswomen, when she helped her husband with his butcher shop. In 1574, at the age of eighteen, she converted to Roman Catholicism. Her husband, who had taken on the state religion of being Protestant, was supportive of her converting to Catholicism, because his family was Roman Catholic. Margaret practiced her faith by praying one and a half hours a day and fasting four times a week. She would always participate in mass and went to confession regularly. When laws were passed against Catholics, Margaret was imprisoned numerous times for not attending Protestant services. The laws against the Catholic faith became more strict and the government was positive that Catholicism would be extinguished in Yorkshire where it was especially thriving. In 1585 a law was passed that made it a high crime for a priest to live in England and a major felony for anyone to harbor a priest. Margaret, continuously risked her and her family’s life by converting her home into a stopping - place for priests, where Mass was offered secretly. Margaret’s husband showed his support with her converting to Catholicism by sending their oldest son to France to get a Catholic education, which was considered a felony.
Margaret was a devout Catholic who promoted the Catholic faith which made people want to convert to Catholicism. She would also convert people that practiced the states’ religion, back to their original Catholic faith. Margaret of Clitherow was loved by many people, and a lot of people knew she had priests hiding in her home, but no one dared to betray her. She was a perfect wife to her husband, but his only regret was that she could not attend church with him. Her husband was questioned one day by the authorities why their oldest son was sent away to get an education, and the Clitherow house was searched. A Flemish boy, fear for his life, revealed the hiding place of the priests. On March 10, 1586, Margaret was arrested, alongside another housewife who had attended Mass in the Clitherow residence. Margaret’s only concern was that her family was to remain safe. On March 14, 1586, she was sent before Judges Clinch and Rhodes and the Council of the North. Her only statement was, “Having made no offense, I need no trial”. If she wanted to go on trial, her family would have been called in as witnesses against her, and she was certain that she did not want that to happen. Margaret refused to plead, and her only witnesses were her children and servants, but she refused to involve them because they would feel guilty for the cause of her death. The judge sentenced her to be “pressed to death”. Ten days were allowed to pass before her execution. On the day of her death she was very calm and forgiving. She was praying when she asked God to turn Queen Elizabeth I to the Catholic
