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Edinburgh's saint-in-making takes to the stage at the Fringe Festival 2016


Scotland's very own saint-in-the-making will take to the stage during next month's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Margaret Sinclair Story (6-12 August) is a brand new one-woman play that will be performed at the city's St Patrick's Church, the site of Venerable Margaret's tomb.

"This new one-woman play is such an exciting, novel and entertaining way to tell the story of an ordinary Edinburgh girl who lived a most extraordinary life of holiness such that her saintly reputation still inspires people worldwide," said Archbishop Leo Cushley of St Andrews & Edinburgh at the media launch for the play.

The Venerable Margaret Sinclair was born in Cowgate in Edinburgh's Old Town in 1900, one of six children who grew up in poverty in a two-room basement. Her father was a dustman and she left school at 14. She worked as a French polisher, then in a biscuit factory and became a trade union activist.

In 1923 Margaret entered a convent of the Order of Poor Clares in London, becoming Sister Mary Francis of the Five Wounds, where she helped the poor before dying of tuberculosis in 1925. She was declared "Venerable" by the Catholic Church in 1978 - two steps away from sainthood.

Joining Archbishop Cushley for the play's media launch were Stephen Callaghan, the drama's writer and director, and actress Maryfrances Jennow who will play the role of Venerable Margaret.

"I'm very honoured to have been asked by the Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh to write this play which I hope will be a joyful, vibrant and compelling depiction of Venerable Margaret's life," said Stephen, who is also the Director of the Archdiocese of Glasgow Arts Project.

"I really think that Maryfrances Jennow is the perfect young actress to dramatically convey why Margaret is such a fabulous example of the joy of the Gospel lived out in daily life, a great example for our times - and especially for young people."

25-year-old Maryfrances hails from Glasgow and trained at the University of the West of Scotland. She turned professional as an actress last year and has been steadily building a successful stage career since.

"I guess the first thing that struck me when I was offered the part of Margaret Sinclair is that we have the same name given her religious title was Mary Francis - we're also similar ages," said the young actress. The more I've got to know about Venerable Margaret, the more I realise the drama, the struggle and, at times, the humour that's involved in the heroic pursuit of being good, being virtuous in the day-to-day things of life - I've found her story inspirational and I just hope others who come to see the play arrive at the same conclusion."

During his 1982 visit to Scotland, Pope St John Paul II stated that "Margaret could well be described as one of God's little ones, who through her very simplicity, was touched by God with the strength of real holiness of life, whether as a child, a young woman, an apprentice, a factory worker, a member of a trade union or a professed sister of religion".

The Margaret Sinclair Story will take place at St Patrick's Church, Cowgate, Edinburgh between August 6-12 at 7.45pm and August 9 and 11 at 3pm. Tickets: £6 waged and £5 unwaged/concession.

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