SINCLAIR, MARGARET. — In religion MARY FRANCIS OF THE FIVE WOUNDS, b. at Edinburgh on 25 March 1900, d. at London on 24 Nov. 1925.
Her outstanding characteristic was her devotion, even from childhood, to the Eucharist; she visited the Blessed Sacrament as frequently as possible. As a factory worker and shop assistant, in order to avoid missing daily Communion, she often gave up breakfast so as not to be late for work. Even in Protestant surroundings, where she might have encountered considerable opposition, she always wore visibly on her breast the badge H.B.S. (“Handmaid of the Blessed Sacrament”). To help her poor family, she had to go to work at the age of fourteen; yet in every environment, even among adversaries, she earned the reputation of a saint. In 1923 she entered as a lay sister among the Poor Clares in London; but her stay in the monastery was brief, for in May 1925 she had to be taken to the Warley sanatorium for tuberculosis of the larynx, which led to her death a few months later. After her death, graces and extraordinary favours obtained through her intercession multiplied so abundantly that she has been compared to the Little Flower of Lisieux. The cause of beatification was introduced on 15 Feb. 1942.