CLITHEROW, MARGARET, BEATA, MARTIRE

CLITHEROW, Margaret, Blessed, martyr. Known as “the Pearl of York,” she was born in York c. 1552 to Thomas Middleton, a wax merchant and sheriff of York. Reared in heresy, she married in 1571 the wealthy John C., an Anglican conformist who had two Catholic brothers, one of them a priest. In 1574 Margaret C. learned the Catholic faith and was converted. Longing for martyrdom, she led a life of heroic penance and devoted herself to sheltering persecuted priests, providing them with places and means to celebrate Mass and carry on their apostolate; often she went barefoot to the site where the martyrs of York had been executed since 1582. In 1586 she was accused of harboring priests and hearing Mass. She refused to defend herself in court for fear that her relatives might be forced into complicity with her death through extorted testimony. A twelve-year-old Flemish boy, terrified into submission, revealed the chapel where C. organized her Eucharistic gatherings. On this flimsy evidence she was crushed to death on 25 March 1586. She was beatified on 15 December 1929.