Lenten Campaign 2025
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Did you know that there is a patron saint specifically for Catholic businesswomen?
St. Margaret Clitherow is their patron (she’s also the patron of martyrs, converts, and difficult marriages!).
Her feast day March 26 is a great opportunity to see how her example inspires Catholic women in business today.
Who was St. Margaret?
Raised in the Church of England at a time when it was illegal to be Catholic in England, St. Margaret converted as an adult. Her home became “a center of clandestine Catholic life in late 16th-century Yorkshire.”
She was imprisoned for her faith several times before her brutal execution while she was pregnant with her fourth child. Because she assisted in her father’s business running a wax factory and her husband’s butcher shop, she is the patron saint of women in business.
“The amazing witness of Margaret Clitherow gives a stunning example of what women should strive for,” said Theresa Barbale, founding partner of Donum Plan, a charitable gift financing firm, CEO of BMG Sol, and member of Legatus, an international organization of lay executives whose mission is to study, live, and spread the Catholic faith. “Margaret’s ability to support her family and her faith is exemplary.”
Support like St. Margaret’s
St. Margaret found support in her small but mighty clandestine Catholic community. She collaborated with her husband’s brother, a Catholic priest in hiding, and with other local Catholic recusant families, such as the woman who instructed her in Catholic teaching during her conversion.
Community is so important to living out a saintly vocation within the Body of Christ. As a Catholic businesswoman, Barbale has found that kind of help and support in Legatus:
There are so many amazing businessmen and women who are awesome examples of faith in the workplace. Their great advice, like “iron sharpens iron,” helps in living my faith as a businesswoman and being focused on the responsibility of providing a great service to promote the kingdom of God with godly employees.
St. Margaret found ways of supporting and strengthening her community just as they did for her. Similarly, Barbale encourages Catholic women to use their skills to help Catholic organizations. She said:
Catholic business owners can aid in many ways: first prayer, then sponsoring tables or supporting events, such as allowing nonprofits to put small information links or signs in applicable places. In my finance firm, Donum, we have committed to support nonprofits by supporting the need of the organization to participate in the program and providing unparalleled support through our generosity. I believe we have a responsibility as business owners to be an example of how we are supposed to live. Our actions will be a huge witness to the mystical body of Christ.
Faith in the face of challenges
For Catholic women in business today, St. Margaret's unwavering commitment to her faith despite persecution provides powerful inspiration when facing workplace challenges.
“St. Margaret Clitherow remained always steadfast in her faith in the face of ridicule, persecution, and imprisonment,” said Judy Dunn, Legatus Board of Governors member. “She was martyred at the age of 30; I am amazed at her unwavering commitment to Jesus Christ in the midst of a society that so profoundly hated the Catholic Church!”
Dunn, who spent over 25 years as a business executive and owned a wine distributorship in Michigan, faced her own trials in the corporate world. She said:
I have spent most of my professional life working in a man's world. In spite of that, I built lasting working relationships and friendships. My faith was challenged a lot but I tried to always pray that our Lord had a plan for me and I needed to stay strong but let him lead me; I needed to trust!
Like many professionals, Dunn struggled with work-life balance, sometimes prioritizing business responsibilities over family and friends. She finds inspiration in St. Margaret's example of leadership while maintaining her priorities:
She was such an effective leader in her local community: encouraging participation in the sacraments, bringing in priests from all over the country, harboring them and living a “normal” life. She defines for me work/life balance…and I thought this was a new thing!
Organizations like Legatus have provided Dunn and other Catholic executives with crucial support:
Legatus opened wide the door to my Catholic faith through outstanding speakers in the workplace who faced the same issues. I was not alone in this world!
Legatus events gave her the opportunity to meet and develop friendships with like-minded people facing the same conflicts and bias she had faced: “I now have good Catholic friends from all over the country,” she said.
Dunn encourages Catholic businesswomen to volunteer their professional skills with Catholic organizations: “There are so many wonderful Catholic apostolates, charities and your parish that need and want to learn better management, leadership, development, financial and communication skills.”
Over the past decade, Dunn has dedicated herself to Catholic work, including fundraising for parish capital campaigns, organizing retreats, and serving on boards for organizations like FOCUS and ENDOW (Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women).
“Once you step out there and offer to help, Jesus Christ will use the gifts he has given you, forever changing your life in the process,” she said.
Legatus Vice-Chairman Berni Neal said, “Judy knits together the strengths of Legatus: faith formation, fellowship, and best practices. However, it's her openness to drawing in others, old friends, new friends, even the not-yet-friends, that speaks to her self-awareness as a disciple in Christ and magnet for good!”
Continuing the legacy of St. Margaret
Just as St. Margaret Clitherow stood firm in faith while navigating business and family life in 16th-century England, today's Catholic businesswomen follow her example by bringing their convictions into the marketplace.
Her legacy reminds us that unwavering faith and moral courage are as powerful in modern boardrooms as they were in her butcher shop, inspiring women to lead with both professional excellence and spiritual integrity.
