A champion of factory workers' rights in the 1920's is about to be made a saint.Margaret Sinclair,who was originally buried in Kensal Green Cemetery following her death in 1925,is to be reinterred in St Patrick's Catholic Church in the Cowgate,Edinburgh.Born in 1900,Sinclair worked in six factories over a nine year period losing her job five times.She became a full-time apprentice at 14 and joined a trade union after witnessing what workers had to endure.This made her determined to improve working conditions and to help the unemployed.She became a nun in her early 20's and joined the Poor Clares in Notting Hill, West London.Her name as a nun was Sister Mary Francis of the Five wounds.Dozens of miracles have been attributed to her but none have been ratified by the Vatican.Sinclair's body was first exhumed from Kensal Green Cemetery to Mount Vernon cemetery in Edinburgh two years after her death from tuberculosis.Permission to move her again from Mount Vernon cemetery to St Patrick's Church has been granted by the civil authorities,by her family and by the Poor Clares.Supporters want to have Sinclair buried in the church were she was christened and took Holy Communion. It is also hoped that the new site will also encourage pilgrims to pray for the two ratified miracles which are needed before the Pope can beatify or canonize Sinclair.
A champion of factory workers' rights in the 1920's is about to be made a saint.Margaret Sinclair,who was originally buried in Kensal Green Cemetery following her death in 1925,is to be reinterred in St Patrick's Catholic Church in the Cowgate,Edinburgh.Born in 1900,Sinclair worked in six factories over a nine year period losing her job five times.She became a full-time apprentice at 14 and joined a trade union after witnessing what workers had to endure.This made her determined to improve working conditions and to help the unemployed.She became a nun in her early 20's and joined the Poor Clares in Notting Hill, West London.Her name as a nun was Sister Mary Francis of the Five wounds.Dozens of miracles have been attributed to her but none have been ratified by the Vatican.Sinclair's body was first exhumed from Kensal Green Cemetery to Mount Vernon cemetery in Edinburgh two years after her death from tuberculosis.Permission to move her again from Mount Vernon cemetery to St Patrick's Church has been granted by the civil authorities,by her family and by the Poor Clares.Supporters want to have Sinclair buried in the church were she was christened and took Holy Communion. It is also hoped that the new site will also encourage pilgrims to pray for the two ratified miracles which are needed before the Pope can beatify or canonize Sinclair.
