Daughter of Thomas and Jane Middleton, a candle maker and the Sheriff of York for two years. Raised in the Church of England. Married to John Clitherow, wealthy butcher and chamberlain of the city of York, on 8 July 1571. Converted to Catholicism around 1574. Imprisoned several times for her conversion, for sheltering priests (including her husband's brother), and for permitting clandestine Masses to be celebrated on her property. During her trial in Tyburn on 14 March 1586, she refused to answer any of the charges for fear of incriminating her servants and children; both her sons became priests, her daughter a nun.

Born 1556 as Margaret Middleton at York, England

Died pressed to death on Good Friday, 25 March 1586 at Tyburn, York, England

Beatified 1929 by Pope Pius XI -  Canonized 1970 by Pope Paul VI

Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, between 1535 and 1679

    Following the dispute between the Pope and King Henry VIII in the 16th century, faith questions in the British Isles became entangled with political questions, with both often being settled by torture and murder of loyal Catholics. In 1970, the Vatican selected 40 martyrs, men and women, lay and religious, to represent the full group of perhaps 300 known to have died for their faith and allegiance to the Church between 1535 and 1679. They each have their own day of memorial, but are remembered as a group on 25 October.

 

They are

Carthusians:

Augustine Webster

John Houghton

Robert Lawrence, 1535

Brigittine:

Richard Reynolds, 1535

Augustinian friar:

John Stone

Jesuits:

Alexander Briant

Edmund Arrowsmith

Edmund Campion

David Lewis, 1679

Henry Morse

Henry Walpole

Nicholas Owen

Philip Evans, 1679

Robert Southwell, 1595

Thomas Garnet

Benedictines:

Alban Roe

Ambrose Barlow

John Roberts

Friar Obervant:

John Jones

Franciscan:

John Wall

Secular Clergy:

Cuthbert Mayne

Edmund Gennings

Eustace White, 1591

John Almond

John Boste

John Kemble

John Lloyd

John Pain

John Plesington

John Southworth

Luke Kirby, 1582

Polydore Plasden, 1591

Ralph Sherwin, 1581

Laymen:

John Rigby

Philip Howard

Richard Gwyn

Swithun Wells, schoolmaster, 1591

Laywomen:

Anne Line

Margaret Clitherow

Margaret Ward
 

Sts. Chrysanthus and Daria
Sts. Crispin and Crispinian

    These two glorious martyrs, who were brothers, were born of a distinguished Roman family; they came from Rome to preach the Faith in Gaul toward the middle of the third century, and took up residence in Soissons. They instructed many in the Faith of Christ, which they preached publicly during the day. At night they worked at making shoes, following the example of Saint Paul who recommends that the preachers of Christ imitate him — that is, sustain themselves when necessary by the work of their own hands. The infidels who came to their workshop were charmed by their polite and affable manners, and enjoyed coming to ask their services and converse with them. The profound conviction which imbued all they said about Christianity made a strong impression on those who heard them. They remained about forty years in this occupation at Soissons without being troubled, even though they determined many to renounce the cult of false gods.

    But the time was coming when they were destined to give the most perfect testimony possible to their faith, by suffering many and varied tortures and shedding their blood. In 285 the emperor Diocletian sent his vicar Maximian Herculeus into Gaul, where this tyrant revealed his intentions by ordering the massacre of the entire Theban legion. At Soissons, he soon discovered that the progress of the religion of the Nazarene was largely the effect of the presence there of the two brothers. When summoned to appear before him, they were not moved by either threats or promises; and Maximian, seeing he could do nothing with them, sent them to his minister Rictiovarus, prefect of Gaul, with orders to spare them no sort of torture. At Soissons the memory of their torment is still much alive; an abbey was built at the site of the prison where they were enclosed.

    They were suspended by pulleys and struck with clubs; they were tormented in their hands and mouth with wires, and strips of flesh were cut off their backs. They ceased not to pray; when certain instruments destined for them turned against their tormenters, they were regarded as magicians. They were attached to millstones and thrown in the river, but the stones detached themselves, and they swam to the far shore. A hotbed of fire, molten lead and tar did not consume them, and they sang hymns to the Lord. A drop of this mixture seemed to leap from the fire into the eye of Rictiovarus. Out of his mind with fury, he threw himself onto the brazier and there met his end. The martyrs were patient and constant under these fearful torments and finished their course by the sword in the year 286. A Christian brother and sister buried their bodies on their own terrain, where later a public oratory was constructed. On its site, the parish priest of Mattaincourt, Saint Peter Fourier, long afterwards established the Congregation of teaching Sisters which he founded.

Events of October 25 - Saints of October 25: