- Jun 9, 2010
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At the end of April I spent four days in York . What a beautiful city !
I had only been to York once before , and that was on a Sunday afternoon coach trip from church in the 1950s . From the little I remember we had Mass in the home of Blessed Margaret Clitherow , now Saint Margaret Clitherow , and known as "The Pearl of York" .
She was the wife of a butcher and the mother of three children . She lived in a street called the Shambles . In 1574 she converted to Catholicism , a time when it was illegal to celebrate Mass in England .
Margaret provided a room above her house in the Shambles to hide priests and for the celebration of Mass . She was arrested on 10th March 1586 and charged with harbouring priests and attending Mass . She refused to plead guilty or not guilty because if she had , the only witnesses against her would have been her family , whom she did not wish to place in such a position . The penalty for refusing to plead was to be crushed to death by being placed on the ground under a door and heavy weights placed on top , while a sharp stone was placed under the person's back .
Those who were employed to carry out the execution could not bear to fulfil the task , and so beggars were hired to do it . Thus she died on 25th March 1586 which was also Good Friday . She was pregnant with her fourth child at the time .
Margaret Clitherow was canonised by Pope Paul VI , along with 39 other English martyrs , on 25th October , 1970 .
Her house in the Shambles is now a shrine dedicated to her . The beauty of it is its simplicity . Nothing ornate , just wooden benches and kneelers , with a plain altar , two statues and some framed manuscripts on the wall .
I was overwhelmed . Such courage ! Such faith ! What a pearl ! And how easy we have it ! How we take the Mass for granted ! How we take our priests for granted !
In the post to follow below are some photos I took .....the Shambles and the house , now the shrine . The statue of the man in one of the photos is Blessed Thomas Thwing , a priest who was executed in York in 1680 .
I had only been to York once before , and that was on a Sunday afternoon coach trip from church in the 1950s . From the little I remember we had Mass in the home of Blessed Margaret Clitherow , now Saint Margaret Clitherow , and known as "The Pearl of York" .
She was the wife of a butcher and the mother of three children . She lived in a street called the Shambles . In 1574 she converted to Catholicism , a time when it was illegal to celebrate Mass in England .
Margaret provided a room above her house in the Shambles to hide priests and for the celebration of Mass . She was arrested on 10th March 1586 and charged with harbouring priests and attending Mass . She refused to plead guilty or not guilty because if she had , the only witnesses against her would have been her family , whom she did not wish to place in such a position . The penalty for refusing to plead was to be crushed to death by being placed on the ground under a door and heavy weights placed on top , while a sharp stone was placed under the person's back .
Those who were employed to carry out the execution could not bear to fulfil the task , and so beggars were hired to do it . Thus she died on 25th March 1586 which was also Good Friday . She was pregnant with her fourth child at the time .
Margaret Clitherow was canonised by Pope Paul VI , along with 39 other English martyrs , on 25th October , 1970 .
Her house in the Shambles is now a shrine dedicated to her . The beauty of it is its simplicity . Nothing ornate , just wooden benches and kneelers , with a plain altar , two statues and some framed manuscripts on the wall .
I was overwhelmed . Such courage ! Such faith ! What a pearl ! And how easy we have it ! How we take the Mass for granted ! How we take our priests for granted !
In the post to follow below are some photos I took .....the Shambles and the house , now the shrine . The statue of the man in one of the photos is Blessed Thomas Thwing , a priest who was executed in York in 1680 .
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