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 2010
The 700th anniversary of the building of Markenfield and its Chapel
Thursday 11 February 6pm Evensong (BCP) - Canon Keith Punshon
Wednesday 17 February 6pm Mass for Ash Wednesday - Father Patrick Waldron
Saturday 27 February 11am Tridentine (Latin) Mass of Thanksgiving for the
Chapel on its 700th birthday - Fr Ronald Creighton-Jobe and Fr Adrian Convery OSB with other monks from Ampleforth Abbey.
Monday 1 March 6pm Sung Evensong of Thanksgiving for the Chapel - Canon Paul Greenwell and the choir of St Columba’s Topcliffe.
Thursday 4 March 6pm Holy Communion (BCP) - The Rt Rev’d John Packer, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds.
Friday 19 March 6pm Mass for St Joseph’s Day - Father Patrick Waldron
Thursday 8 April 6pm Evensong (BCP) - Canon Glanville Smith
Friday 23 April 6pm Mass for St George’s Day - Father Patrick Waldron
Thursday 13 May 6pm Holy Communion (BCP) - Rev'd James Thom
Tuesday 25 May 6pm Mass for St Bede’s Day - Father Patrick Waldron
Sunday 13 June 11:30am Mass of Thanksgiving - The Rt Rev’d Arthur Roche, Bishop of Leeds, with Choristers from Leeds Cathedral.
Thursday 17 June 6pm Evensong (BCP) - Canon Ronald McFadden
Tuesday 22 June 6pm St John Fisher and St Thomas More - Father Patrick Waldron
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.
A Requiem Tridentine (Latin) Mass will be held for him, and three other members of his family, at 11:00am on Saturday 22 August 2009 to be sung by Monks from Ampleforth Abbey. It will be celebrated by the Rev’d Fr Ronald Creighton-Jobe, Cong. Orat
