The Pearl of York
(Dan.7:13-14; Rev.1:5-8; Jn.18:33b-37)
On the last Sunday of each liturgical year, we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. This is the day we’re reminded that Jesus Christ is our ultimate leader, for he reigns over heaven and earth with immense wisdom and the most selfless love.
Jesus’ kingship is totally different to the rule of so many earthly leaders, who too often are cruel and only interested in themselves. Take Henry VIII, for example. He was desperate for money and a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. He grabbed these things by ruthlessly trying to destroy the Catholic Church and installing himself as head of the Church of England.
Twenty years later, in 1556 and during the reign of Henry’s daughter Queen Elizabeth I, Margaret Middleton was born in the City of York. She grew to detest the persecution of Catholics and the laws enforcing attendance at Anglican church services.
When she was 18, Margaret married John Clitherow, a wealthy butcher twice her age, and together they ran his shop. Three years later, and with her husband’s blessing, she secretly became a Catholic.
Margaret raised their children as Catholics, and often sheltered priests in their home. She encouraged them to say Mass there, and later she sent her first child, Henry, to the Catholic college at Douai in France.
But people started to ask questions, and in 1577 she was gaoled for almost a year for refusing to attend Anglican services. While in prison, she gave birth to her third child and she taught herself to read and write, so that she could teach her children the faith.
Margaret was often in trouble, but her husband always paid her fines. And then in 1586, the sheriff and his men raided their home and found children being taught the Catholic faith. They threatened one boy with torture, forcing him to reveal the location of the secret ‘priest-hole,’ and again Margaret was arrested.
This time she knew the penalty was death, but she wanted to protect her family, so she refused to plead her guilt or innocence. ‘No, no, Mr. Sheriff, I die for the love of my Lord Jesu,’ she said. ‘I know of no offense whereof I should confess myself guilty. Having made no offense, I need no trial.’
But four days later, she was formally charged with having sheltered priests and attending Mass. Once again she refused to enter a plea, and when she was sentenced to death, she exclaimed, ‘God be thanked, I am not worthy of so good a death as this.’
After sentencing, she had her shoes sent to her daughter Anne as a reminder to follow in her faithful footsteps.
On Good Friday in 1586, Margaret was stripped naked and a handkerchief was tied over her face. Like Jesus on the Cross, her arms were stretched out wide and tied to stakes, and her own door was placed on top of her. Her executioners then crushed her with some 700 pounds of rocks.
‘Jesu! Jesu! Jesu! Have mercy on me!’ she cried out.
Fifteen minutes later Margaret Clitherow was dead. She was only 33 years old, and pregnant with her fourth child. She was buried near a dunghill, and today her right hand is preserved at St. Mary’s Convent in York.
Every martyrdom has its fruits.
Margaret would have been pleased to learn that her children Henry and William became priests, and Anne became a nun. And she would have been humbled to discover that in 1970, Pope St Paul VI canonised her among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
Today, St Margaret Clitherow is the patron saint of converts, martyrs and the Catholic Women’s League.
If ever you visit that oddly-shaped street known as The Shambles in York, go to number 35. On the wall outside is a green plaque which reads, ‘The Shrine of St Margaret Clitherow.’ This was her home, and today it serves as a chapel. The priest-hole is still there, near the fireplace.
The English poet-priest Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) was deeply moved by Margaret’s story, and wrote a poem about her. In it, he condemns the deceitful authorities who tried to talk her out of her faith:
‘Fawning fawning crocodiles
Days and days came round about
With tears to put her candle out;
They wound their winch of wicked smiles
To take her; while their tongues would go
God lighten your dark heart – but no,
Christ lived in Margaret Clitheroe.’ [i]
St Margaret’s faith in Jesus Christ was unbreakable, even in the face of the most brutal persecution. That’s why today she is known as ‘The Pearl of York.’
May she inspire us all.
[i] https://catholicism.org/the-poets-eye-gerard-manley-hopkins-margaret-clitheroe.html