Helen Stirk

ON THIS DAY (27 January 1544) Helen Stirk was drowned in the River Tay for her faith.

On 25 January 1544, six people were arrested in Perth: Robert Lamb, William Anderson, James Hunter, James Finlayson, James Ronaldson, and his wife, Helen Stirk. Their chief crime was reading the Bible in their own language—an act considered dangerous and heretical at the time. Among the other accusations brought against them was that some had eaten a goose on All Hallows’ Eve, in defiance of a fast ordered by the Roman Catholic Church.

Helen Stirk was the only woman among the accused. One of the principal charges against her arose from a moment of intense personal suffering. During the recent birth of her child, she had refused to pray to the Virgin Mary for relief from pain, declaring instead, “I will pray only to God in the name of Jesus Christ.”

After trial, all six were condemned to death. As they were led past the place where they had been judged, Helen spoke words that proved prophetic:

“They sit in that place quietly, who are the cause of our death this day, but He who seeth this execution upon us shall shortly see their nest shaken.”

Some of the men were sentenced to be burned at the stake. Helen’s husband was to be hanged. She pleaded to die alongside him on the gallows, but her request was refused. As she was forced to part from him, she offered a final farewell filled with faith and hope:

“Husband rejoice, for we have lived together many joyful days, but this day in which we must die, ought to be the most joyful to us both, because we must have joy forever. Therefore I will not bid you goodnight, for we shall suddenly meet with joy in the kingdom of heaven.”

Helen was then taken to the banks of the River Tay. Her newborn child was handed to friends for safekeeping. She herself was sewn into a sack, bound, and cast into the icy waters, where she was drowned—becoming one of the most poignant and tragic martyrs of the Scottish Reformation.