Holy Women's History Month: Blessed Margaret de la Pole

Kathryn Pasker Ineck reflects on how Blessed Margaret de la Pole has inspired her faith journey.

During Women's History Month, Catholic Mom writers are celebrating the women who have inspired their faith journeys — whether canonized saints, saints in progress, or beloved women from Scripture. Through personal reflections and heartfelt stories, they share how these holy women have touched their lives, offering wisdom, strength, and a deeper connection to God. Join us as we honor the spiritual legacy of these remarkable women and the lasting impact they continue to have on our hearts and souls.

One snowy New Year’s Eve, my Grandma Kathryn was on her way to Mass to celebrate the Feast of Mary, Mother of God. Having lived in rural Iowa her entire life, she was intimately familiar with icy road conditions, but she was still rather surprised when her copper Mercury Monterey slid right underneath the trailer of a semi! Throwing herself sideways, she lay flat on the seat and emerged unscathed … but missed Mass. To make up for missing her obligation, she attended Mass twice the following Sunday.

This kind of commitment to Mass attendance is unusual in today’s culture, but back then, Holy Days of Obligation were universal days off work, restaurants boasted fish specials on Fridays, and most businesses were closed on Sundays. My son’s seminary rector, Father Daniel Barnett, comments that today, we are living in a post-Christian society, observing that secular principles have trumped traditional Christian ideals.

My friend, Margaret, lived in a similar time, albeit 500 years ago. Political and religious unrest made the time uncertain and even dangerous for Catholics. Sweeping pandemics and the loss of her husband to illness left her to fend for herself and her five young children alone.

But her faith sustained her.

From the Fear of Being Forgotten, Deliver Me Jesus

I first met Margaret de la Pole through historical fiction: not having any idea that she was a real person, I was taken with the story. After that, it was only a matter of time before she started showing up, nudging me, in my day-to-day life. My daughter was active in the Little Flowers Girls Club and as part of her weekly meetings the girls would focus on one saint virtue a week.

One week, I was floored to discover that Margaret was not only a real person but a “Blessed” as my little daughter colored her picture while listening to her leader read a summary biography. It turns out that not a lot of us know about Margaret Pole, yet she has so much to offer!

When the pandemic reared its ugly head in 2020, I already had an idea of what that could look like: after all, Margaret had lived through such a time. Through my friendship with her, I knew that pandemics can take as long as four years to run their course and that keeping a safe distance was paramount to not spread disease. But while we had social media, phone calls, and text messages, plus clean water and medications, she was a widow, had a gaggle of children, and a household staff to care for and protect with little understanding and direction.

From the Fear of Being Calumniated, Deliver Me, Jesus.

As the tug of war between the blues and the reds in this county often makes me feel seasick, Margaret shows up for me yet again. As the last Plantagenet heir to the throne of England, she was tangled in the wake of Richard III, Henry Tudor, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I.

A cousin by marriage to Henry Tutor, best friend of Queen Catherine of Aragon and godmother to Mary I, Margaret’s position in society was tenuous: she and her children were often suspected of trying to gain the throne of England by both the members of the nobility and by foreign monarchies, especially King Ferdinand in Spain.

Am I as powerful and well-connected as Margaret? Certainly not. But as a faithful Catholic, I struggle with fears that my children and I will be calumniated because of our beliefs; my husband and dad — both permanent deacons — suffer their share of bitter rebukes and rejection from those who hate Holy Mother Church.

If Margaret was fearful, she did not show it. She just made the next right step, whether it was to take refuge in a convent, entrust her sons to monasteries or nearby landowners, or hunker down. She reminds me to stop looking at the dangers but look at what is possible for me to accomplish in my own little corner of the world, always with our eyes trained on Christ and our feet propelling us onward.

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From the Fear of Being Suspected, Deliver Me Jesus

As each new monarch ascended to the throne, the culture of the people of Medieval England remained largely unchanged...until Henry VII cast off his bride, Queen Catherine. He went to great lengths to reject the Pope’s decree that his marriage was valid — even demanding that Margaret’s son, Reginald Cardinal Pole, overturn the Pope’s decision.

Margaret and Reginald remained steadfast in their support of Catherine and her daughter Mary, which put a spotlight on them and on Margaret’s other children. She would see her sons beheaded for treason, and was separated from Reginald, Catherine, and Mary. She buried the statuary, chalices, ciboriums, altar cloths, and vestments from her home’s chapel so the Protestant nobility would be unable to seize them for their own profit.

Upon Henry’s death, the pendulum would swing heavily from Protestant to Catholic and back to Protestant with terrifying results. Margaret was in her late 60s when she was executed under Elizabeth I for remaining in contact with her Catholic son, the cardinal — an act of treason against the queen as the head of the Church of England. I know that I will never face the kind of public scrutiny or attack that Margaret did. Looking to her for guidance, though, offers me peace and safety: if she lived through so much, so many centuries ago for Christ, surely I can, too.