Who Was Saint Margaret Ward?

Saints

An English laywoman executed at Tyburn in 1588 for helping a Catholic priest escape imprisonment.

Saint Margaret Ward was an English laywoman of London who helped a Catholic priest, William Watson, escape from prison during the Elizabethan persecution, an act of mercy for which she was tortured and executed at Tyburn on August 30, 1588, at about thirty-seven years old. She was beatified in 1929 and canonized in 1970 among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, remembered for her active courage in aiding the persecuted Church.

No known portrait of Saint Margaret Ward
No portrait or image of Saint Margaret Ward is known to survive; this icon marks pages without an identifiable image.

Quick Facts

  • Born: c. 1550
  • Died: August 30, 1588, age about 37
  • Place: Tyburn, England
  • Venerated as: Laywoman of London, martyr

Who Was Saint Margaret Ward?

Saint Margaret Ward was an English laywoman of London, known to history as ‘Margaret the Hangwoman’ for her role in helping a Catholic priest, William Watson, escape from prison, an act for which she was tortured and executed at Tyburn on August 30, 1588, at about thirty-seven years old.

Historical Setting

England’s Elizabethan penal laws made assisting a Catholic priest a capital offense, part of a broader campaign to suppress the underground Catholic Church following the excommunication of Elizabeth I. Tyburn, London’s principal place of public execution, became the site of death for dozens of Catholic martyrs during this period, including many laypeople who aided priests rather than priests themselves.

Why the Church Remembers Saint Margaret Ward

Margaret is remembered for her direct, active courage: rather than passively harboring a priest, she took concrete personal risk to secure his escape from imprisonment and near-certain execution, paying for that act of mercy with her own life when she refused to reveal his whereabouts even under torture.

Canonization and Feast Day

Available records show Margaret’s beatification in 1929 and canonization in 1970, when Pope Paul VI canonized her among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

Margaret’s willingness to risk everything to help another escape death is a vivid model of active Christian charity, showing that mercy sometimes demands not just compassion but real, costly action.

A Prayer to Saint Margaret Ward

Saint Margaret Ward, courageous helper of the persecuted, give us your boldness in showing mercy to others, whatever the personal cost. Amen.

Sources

  • Vatican.va (canonization of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, 1970)
  • Butler’s Lives of the Saints
  • The Roman Martyrology