The Chapel of St Michael the Archangel
St. Michael is one of the principal angels; his name (which means Who is like God) was the war-cry of the good angels in the battle fought in heaven against the enemy and his followers.
St Michael is the Patron Saint of Soldiers and Swordsmiths, amongst others.
The Chapel at Markenfield, and its connected 600 acre Parish (which has the same boundaries as the estate), is classed as an Ecclesiastical Peculiar – that is, exempt from the Bishop's control (though the house is on excellent terms with him, and he takes an annual service here by invitation).
The Chapel is a Catholic one, at which Anglican services are welcome. In practice the two churches share 50/50, and Services are fortnightly.
Services - January to June 2012
Wednesday 8th February 6:00pm Evening Prayer - Canon Paul Greenwell
Wednesday 22nd February 6:00pm Mass for Ash Wednesday - Fr. John Berry
Thursday 8th March 6:00pm Choral Evensong (BCP) - The Rev'd James Thom and the choir of St Columba's, Topcliffe
Monday 19th March 6:00pm Mass for the Solemnity of St Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Fr. John Berry
Thursday 29th March 6:00pm Holy Communion (BCP) Canon Keith Punshon
Monday 23rd April 6:00pm Mass for the Solemnity of St George, Martyr and Patron Saint of England - Fr. John Berry
Thursday 3rd May 6:00pm Evening Prayer (BCP) - The Rev'd Paul Cressal, Vicar of Markington
Friday 25th May 6:00pm Mass for the Feast of St Bede the Venerable, Priest and Doctor of the Church - Fr. John Berry
Thursday 7th June 6:00pm Holy Communion (BCP) - Canon Michael Glanville-Smith
Friday 29th June 6:00pm Mass for the Feast of St Peter and St Paul - Fr. John Berry
OF YOUR CHARITY PRAY FOR THE SOUL OF SIR THOMAS MARKENFIELD, the last of that great family to live at Markenfield before it was confiscated for High Treason and he had to flee in to exile for his life.
He was the main instigator of the Rising of the North in 1569 – The Rising against the Protestant Queen Elizabeth in a vain attempt to restore Catholic freedom of worship to the North.
A large contingent of the Rising gathered in the Courtyard at Markenfield on 20 November 1569, under the leadership of Sir Thomas and the Rising's standard-bearer the venerable Sir Richard Norton (whose portrait now hangs in the Chapel). They last heard Mass in this Chapel before riding out at the head of a large host to Ripon Minster where they overturned the high altar, burned the new Protestant Prayer Books and held a solemn High Mass. It is highly possible that young Sir Thomas, a passionate and devout Catholic, went to the Chantry Chapel of his ancestors during that tumultuous day and prayed for something of their military prowess in the battles that lay ahead.
Alas, the Rising was routed and the lucky ones, including Thomas, managed to flee; over two hundred others were caught and hideously executed. Thomas himself was sentenced in absentia to be hanged, drawn and quartered on capture. He waited for a while in Scotland with the other rebels, but as the net closed round him there, he had to flee again, across the North Sea to the Low Countries where he somehow survived in increasing poverty. In 1576 Cardinal Como wrote to the Bishop of Liege saying that His Holiness had been “moved to compassion by the great indigence to which an English nobleman, Sir Thomas Markenfield, was now reduced” and requesting that he be taken in and looked after by some wealthy monastery.
For whatever reason, this did not happen. And sixteen years later, in August 1592, a papal correspondent, Richard Verstegan, wrote that “Sir Thomas Markenfield has been found dead, lying on the bare floor of his chamber, no creature being resent at his death… He died this last week in Bruxells, in very extreme want and in a most miserable cottage”. Perhaps among his last thoughts were of this, his beloved Chapel at Markenfield and his family Chantry Chapel in Ripon Cathedral, where he too would be resting in peace but for this catastrophe.
