CHRISTIANS came together in a Protestant church in York to celebrate the life and achievements of a Catholic saint and martyr.

Members of churches of both denominations from throughout the city heard a call to work together when they met in St Martin’s Church in Coney Street to mark the 40th anniversary of the canonisation of Margaret Clitherow. Canon Malcolm Grundy, who took yesterday’s service, said: “Margaret Clitherow was baptised in the very font which still stands in the church where her parents worshipped, and where she was married.

“She was somebody of strong Christian faith. Whatever the differences of understanding and politics that divided people of faith through the centuries, now is the time to work together in all possible ways.”

All the congregation were invited to renew their baptism vows and light a candle to signify hope and a commitment to work together.

Yesterday’s event marked the first time that the saint’s life and work had been celebrated in her own church, using her baptismal font. The service was hosted and organised by St Martin’s.

St Margaret was born in about 1553, the daughter of Jane and Thomas Middleton, a wax chandler and later sheriff of York. The family lived in the parish, and her father was churchwarden of St Martin’s in 1555-8. The church register records her marriage on 1 July 1571 to ‘John Clitherowe, butcher’.

They lived in the Shambles, where there is a shrine to her.

Within two or three years she had converted to Roman Catholicism, and with other York women gave active support to the cause, hiding Roman Catholic priests operating illegally and welcoming the celebration of the mass in her home.

After refusing to plead to charges of harbouring priests and Jesuits in her home, she was pressed to death in York in 1586.