St. Margaret Ward

Bible study was cancelled  tonight due to the inclement weather (which I promised to try to send to a rep in California today -- can you email snow?).  So my Saint for tonight is in honor of my Walking With Purpose ladies. Our Table Leader's name is Megan, which is a the Welsh diminutive of Margaret. There are several Saints by this name - today we will discuss St. Margaret Ward.

Margaret was born in Cheshire, England, about 1550. She was a gentleman's daughter and worked as a companion in the service of a noble woman. Upon learning that a priest named William Watson was imprisoned and being treated harshly, she made arrangements to get permission to visit him. When she was thoroughly searched at her early visits, but after a time the authorities became less cautions. She managed to smuggle a rope to the priest and Fr. Watson escaped - but then things began to go wrong.

Fr. Watson was injured in the escape, he left the rope hanging from the window and the boatman that Margaret had engaged as his "getaway driver" refused to carry our his part of the plan. Margaret confided her distress to a young man named John Roche who agreed to help by providing a boat and exchanging clothes with the priest. Fr. Watson made good on his escape, but the clothes gave John Roach away and, having been the priest's only visitor, Margaret was also arrested.

Margaret was kept in irons for eight days, was hung up by her hands and was scourged - but she still refused to disclose the whereabouts of the priest. At her trial, she admitted to having helped Fr. Watson to escape, and rejoiced in "having delivered an innocent lamb from the hands of those bloody wolves". She was offered a pardon if she would attend a Protestant service but refused. She was hanged on August 30, 1588.

St. Margaret Ward's feast day, along with all the English martyrs, on May , However, in the Roman Catholic dioceses of England, she shares a feast day with fellow female martyr saints Margaret Clitherow and Anne Line, on August 30.