New resting place for Edinburgh’s angel of mills

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New resting place for Edinburgh’s angel of mills
Campaign grows to make nun a saint
CLAIRE WALKER and HUGH FARMER

DURING her lifetime Margaret Sinclair devoted herself to poverty and prayer, helping the poor and underprivileged, and fighting the cause of the underdog. She gave up life as a mill worker and trade unionist at the age of 23 to enter the Order of the Poor Clares, only to die two years later.

For 75 years her body has lain in a graveyard in Edinburgh, where she was born, but yesterday the Catholic Church in Scotland announced that her body is to be exhumed and re-interred in a chapel on the city's Royal Mile as part of a growing campaign to have her declared a saint.

Her mortal remains are being moved from the Mount Vernon cemetery at the request of Scotland's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Archbishop Keith O'Brien. He is the principle promoter of Margaret's Cause - the case for her to be canonised - and has lobbied Pope John Paul II on several occasions.

The campaign is supported by Sir Jimmy Savile, the veteran television presenter, who has claimed that his life was saved by Miss Sinclair after his mother prayed to her when he was very sick as a youngster.

Her new resting in St Patrick's Church on the Royal Mile will become a shrine to the life of the nun, with thousands expected to make a pilgrimage there every year.

Father Edward Hone, of St Patrick's Church, said: "She has been at Mount Vernon a long time and there is no real need to move her but it is being done to promote her cause and to bring more attention to her."

He said it could take several hundred years for a person to be canonised but noted the current Pope had recognised more saints than all his predecessors put together and that momentum was growing.

"Rome likes to see a sign of devotion from people. Moving her to St Patrick's means more people will be asking for her prayers and that builds up momentum towards canonisation," he added.

She was one of nine children born to a corporation dustman and his wife in a two-roomed basement in Edinburgh amid abject poverty. The young Margaret displayed an early interest in religion and attended mass daily.

As a teenager she ventured into the slums of Edinburgh offering care and compassion to the old or the lonely.

She worked as a French polisher at the Waverley Cabinet Works, where she joined the trade union before losing her job when the factory shut down.

Miss Sinclair joined the enclosed Order of Poor Clares in Notting Hill, London - there was no room at their Edinburgh convent - in 1923, when she took the name of Mary Francis of the Five Wounds. She died two years later from tuberculosis, but it did not take long for people to come forward with feats of compassion attributed to the nun they called the "Edinburgh Wonder Worker".

She was made a Servant of God in 1942 by pope Pius XII, and in 1978 Pope Paul VI declared she had practised Christian virtues to a heroic degree and gave her the title The Venerable Margaret Sinclair.

Every autumn, hundreds of people make the pilgrimage to her grave at Mount Vernon. This year will be the last, as she is due to move in October.

Her new resting place will be marked by a 6ft marble slab with her name and details set into the floor at the Sacred Heart Chapel at St Patrick's. A room at the church is already dedicated to Miss Sinclair and houses her habit, bed and some of her personal effects.

If Miss Sinclair was canonised she would be her the first modern saint to have come from the factory floor. Father Hone said it was Miss Sinclair's "ordinariness" that made her a candidate for canonisation.

"She was a mill girl and combined her ordinary working life with being a Christian. It was her ordinariness that was special. She showed you don't have to be extraordinary to be a saint. Margaret Sinclair was an example of virtue and piety. Her following will grow and grow."

The priest explained how for the final stage of canonisation Miss Sinclair would have to satisfy the "very strict" criteria that she had performed two miracles. These would have to be attested and witnessed and proven "beyond reasonable doubt" to be miracles he said.

The move in October will be the second time Miss Sinclair's remains have been exhumed. After her death in February 1925 she was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London. Two years later her remains were exhumed and re-interred in Mount Vernon Cemetery.


Steps to sainthood
A bishop in a diocese will take up the cause for a Catholic's sainthood if they believe they lived a life of "heroic virtue".

Their case then goes before the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome.


If they agree that the person has lived a devoted life then the case is then referred to a group of theologists in Rome. Meanwhile, the would-be

saint is afforded the title of Venerable.


The group investigates whether the person has led a saintly life and proof is required of a miracle before they can be beatified - made blessed - by the Pope.


After beatification another miracle is required before the Pope will canonise the person, making them a saint.


- July 11th

Source: http://www.theherald.co.uk/