Patron Saints Of The Latin Mass Society.

Saint Margaret Clitherow

“The Pearl of York”.

Artist: Gwyneth Thompson-Briggs, 

whose Web-Site can be found HERE

Illustration: LATIN MASS SOCIETY

Text and Illustrations are from The Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, whose Web-Site can be found HERE

The “Pearl of York” married a York butcher, John Clitherow, in 1571 and converted to Catholicism in 1574.

Following the practice of some other families with Catholic sympathies, her husband continued to attend Anglican Services, but paid the fines for Margaret’s Recusancy (refusal to attend Anglican Services), and allowed her to maintain a secret Chapel and to harbour Priests.

Her house was, in time, raided; evidence of Catholic Worship was discovered and Margaret was arrested. At her trial, she refused to plead; the most likely explanation is that she did not want her children to be forced to testify against her.

The penalty for refusing to plead was death, with a special method of execution. She was accordingly taken to Ouse Bridge, in York, laid on the ground with a sharp stone under her back, and a door placed upon her. This was loaded with heavy weights until she died.

This took place on the Feast of the Annunciation, Lady Day, 25 March 1586, which that year fell on Good Friday.

She was Beatified in 1929 and Canonised in 1970.

An Annual Pilgrimage is held in her honour by the York Oratory; her Shrine is in the York Shambles, the old butchers’ quarter, and a plaque commemorates her Martyrdom on Ouse Bridge. Her hand is preserved in the Bar Convent in York.

The image (above) was commissioned by The Latin Mass Society from the artist Gwyneth Thompson-Briggs in 2024.

The Prayer shown is the Collect of a Martyr not a Virgin from the 1962 Missal, used at Masses in her honour. 

The Church emphasises, in honouring female Martyrs, that God’s “power is made perfect in weakness’”(“virtus in infirmitate perficitur”: 2 Corinthians 12:9).

DEUS, qui inter cétera poténtiæ tuæ mirácula étiam in sexu frágili victóriam martýrii contulísti: concéde propítius; ut, qui beátæ Margarétæ Mártyris tuæ natalítia cólimus, per eius ad te exémpla gradiámur, per Christum Dóminum nostrum. 

Amen.

O GOD, Who, amongst other marvels of Thy power, hast bestowed also to the weaker sex victory in Martyrdoms, graciously grant that we, who cherish the Heavenly birthday of Blessed Margaret Thy Martyr, may advance towards Thee through her example, through Christ our Lord. 

Amen.