Saint Margaret Ward

Saint Margaret Ward was an English Catholic laywoman who, in a time of persecution under Queen Elizabeth I, helped a priest imprisoned for the faith to escape. For this she was hanged in London. She is one of the three women among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. The Church commemorates her on August 30.

She was born at Congleton in Cheshire and came from a good family. The year of her birth is not known, and very little information about her youth has survived. In London she lived in the house of a lady of distinction, Mrs. Whitall, in whose service she was.

At that time a Catholic priest named Watson was being held in Bridewell prison in London. Under torture and the harsh conditions of prison he had once attended a Protestant service and regained his freedom, but he soon bitterly regretted it, publicly retracted what he had done, and was sent back to prison, where he was treated very severely. With her mistress’s permission, Margaret began to visit him and bring him food in a basket. At first she was searched thoroughly, but in time the guards became less watchful.

When Watson confided to her that he could escape if he had a long enough rope, Margaret brought him one hidden in her basket. A young Irishman, Blessed John Roche, helped her with the escape: he got a boat ready and later exchanged clothes with the priest. Watson managed to get away, but the rope left behind led the jailers to Margaret, and the priest’s clothes betrayed Roche. Both were arrested and put in irons.

In prison Margaret was flogged and hung up by her hands, so that her toes barely touched the ground. As Saint Robert Southwell wrote, this went on so long that she was left crippled and paralyzed. Yet she did not reveal where the priest was hiding. Before the court she openly admitted that she had helped him escape. She was promised her freedom if she would ask the queen’s pardon and begin attending Protestant services. She answered that she had never offended the queen, and that going to their church would be against her conscience.

Sentenced to death, she was hanged at Tyburn on August 30, 1588. The Roman Martyrology says that she embraced martyrdom joyfully. On the same day and at the same place the priest Richard Leigh died, together with the laymen Edward Shelley and Richard Martin, both English, John Roche, an Irishman, and Richard Lloyd, a Welshman. Leigh gave his life because he was a priest, and the others because they had given shelter to priests.

Pius XI beatified her on December 15, 1929, as one of one hundred thirty-six martyrs of England. Paul VI canonized her on October 25, 1970, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Besides her, two other women belong to this group: Saint Margaret Clitherow and Saint Anne Line.