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Thursday, October 25 |
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Liturgical Color: Green |
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Saint Margaret Ward
Saint Margaret Ward is a London martyr whose story is bound up with the River Thames and the grim Tower that stands on its banks. She lived for a while in Whitehall and, using her good political and social connections, was able to visit the Tower of London where a priest, Father William Watson, was imprisoned. She made arrangements for him to escape and provided a rope, enlisting the help of a boatman, John Roche.
Roche switched clothes with the priest as part of the escape plan, and Father Watson was able to get away -- but Roche and Margaret were later arrested and imprisoned. Margaret was subjected to a hideous torture, being flogged and hung up by her wrists, her toes just occasionally able to touch the ground, so that eventually some of her limbs dislocated and she became partially paralyzed. After a brief trial, she was executed at Newgate. Her story was recorded partly due to the hero priest Father Robert Southwell, who was later himself to undergo similar cruelties before being hanged, drawn, and quartered.
Today, the place-names have not changed and even the streets still follow the same routes that Margaret Ward, Margaret Clitheroe, and Anne Line knew. The Thames still flows through London past the Tower. But Catholics are free to practice their faith, and the names of these women martyrs ought to be honored by all who share the Faith for which they suffered.
As women, they have a particular message for us, especially in these days when we are frequently told that women should feel oppressed by the Church as they are not able to be ordained as priests. These courageous women martyrs from long ago -- who like us were also busy with homes and family responsibilities, knew that loyalty to the Catholic Church -- to the pope in Rome, and to the truths of an unchanging Faith is fundamental. They did not feel that the Church oppressed them: on the contrary, the truths taught by the Catholic Church were glorious and spoke of eternity, of a covenant made by God with His people and cherished down through the centuries. Now they are enjoying the “Marriage Feast of the Lamb” in Heaven, we could ask their intercession for our work as Catholic women today.
Our present Pope Benedict needs our loyalty and our prayers. No one is going to imprison or torture us for our loyalty to Rome, for going to Mass and for affirming our allegiance to the teachings of our Church.
Sometimes, we may find that we are hurt by attacks on the Church, by media distortions of basic teachings, by insults hurled at the pope, by crude jokes or simply by silly remarks from people who have not bothered to discover what Catholicism is really all about. Before we allow any of this to disturb our commitment to the Faith we might remember the courage of these women martyrs.