Minster Mass for Saint Margaret Clitherow (From York Press)
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Minster Mass for Saint Margaret Clitherow
9:23am Monday 28th March 2011 in News
A procession passes through York after a Catholic Mass in memory of Margaret Clitherow was held in York Minster
HUNDREDS of pilgrims came to York this weekend to pay their respects to a saint who was killed for her religious beliefs.
Saint Margaret Clitherow, who lived in York, was crushed to death on Ouse Bridge in 1586 rather than deny her Catholicism, and a Latin Mass was held at the Minster on Saturday to commemorate her sacrifice.
It was also the first time since the Reformation that a Latin Mass had been held at the Minster’s High Altar.
Father Stephen Maughan sang the Mass, and said the event went extremely well: “We had about 800 people turn out for the service, but we really didn’t know how many were going to come.
“Buses came from Birmingham, London and Oxford to the Mass, so there’s a real devotion to Margaret Clitherow. We had no idea the depth of devotion there was to this wonderful woman.”
After the Mass, a procession left the Minster and passed through Shambles, where she lived, over Ouse Bridge, to the Church of the English Martyrs in Dalton Terrace, where a relic, the hand of Margaret Clitherow, was presented and Benediction was sung.
