Scottish Catholic Observer

An Edinburgh pensioner is asking for people to make a special pilgrimage to the capital city next month to pray for the Beatification of her Godmother, the Venerable Margaret Sinclair.

“I pray I’m spared to see that day that Margaret is declared blessed by the Pope—I would love to see that day and would ask everybody to pray that it happens soon,” 95-year-old Norah Smith said. “Margaret is with me every day. I pray to her every day. She’s part of my life. I’m so blessed to have her as my Godmother.”

Ms Smith made her comments as she was joined in her Edinburgh home by Archbishop Leo Cushley to promote the Annual Margaret Sinclair Pilgrimage that will take place on the afternoon of Sunday September 20 at St Patrick’s Church in Edinburgh’s  Cowgate, the resting place of Venerable Margaret herself. It was also where Norah Smith was Baptised in 1920.

“Our family were neighbours with the Sinclairs at 13 Blackfriars Street in the Cowgate,” Ms Smith said “When I was born, Mrs Sinclair came to visit my mother to say that she had two daughters who would make wonderful godmothers—Margaret and her sister Bella. My mother chose Margaret.”

Three years later, Margaret Sinclair entered a Convent of the Order of Poor Clares in London. There she brought relief to the poor of that city for a short time before she died of tuberculosis in 1925. She was declared ‘Venerable’ by the Church in 1978—two steps away from sainthood.

“The September pilgrimage is a great opportunity to gather, to worship and to celebrate the life of someone who was special and who was known to be special within days and weeks after her death in 1925,” Archbishop Cushley said. “There is an instant understanding among the people of God that here was an extraordinary person—it’s now time for our generation to rediscover that.”

The annual pilgrimage on Sunday September 20, will begin at 2pm with a Holy Hour and will conclude with Holy Mass at 4.30pm. The principle celebrant will be Archbishop Cushley. The homily will be given be Fr Joe McAuley, the Archbishop’s Delegate for Venerable Margaret’s Cause of Beatification.

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—This story ran in full in the August 14 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.