Bl. Margaret Ball

Margaret Bermingham was born around 1515 at Skreen in Ireland into a well-off family. At sixteen she married Bartholomew Ball, later Mayor of Dublin, and they had many children.

Under Elizabeth I, when Catholic worship was outlawed, the widowed Margaret sheltered priests in her home. Her own son Walter, who was seeking to become Mayor of Dublin, denounced her, and she was imprisoned.

She died in prison in Dublin in 1584, in her seventies. John Paul II beatified her in 1992 among the Irish martyrs.

Margaret Ball was beatified in 1992.

Beatification allows public veneration, usually in a particular region or religious family. Canonization extends it to the whole Church.