BL. MARGARET COLONA - 30 DECEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 30th of December

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

BL. MARGARET COLONA, VIRGIN

Blessed Margaret was a Poor Clare, born in Rome, date uncertain; died there, September 20, 1284. 

Her parents died in Rome when she was still a young girl, and she was left to the care of her two brothers, the youngest of whom was raised to the cardinalate by Nicholas III in 1278. 

PIETY AND PENANCE

Having resolutely refused the proposal of marriage made to her by the chief magistrate of Rome, she retired to a lonely retreat near Palestrina where she passed her time in practices of piety and penance. 

HER CHARITY TOWARDS THE POOR WAS UNBOUNDED

Her charity towards the poor was unbounded, and was more than once miraculously rewarded. Through the influence of her brother, Cardinal Colona, Blessed Margaret obtained the canonical erection of a community of Urbanist Poor Clares at Palestrina, of which she most probably became superioress. 

Seven years before her death she was attacked with a fearful and painful ulcer which till the end of her life she bore with the most sublime and generous resignation. 

THE COMMUNITY WAS MOVED

After the death of Blessed Margaret, the community of Palestrina was transferred to the convent of San Silvestro in Capite. 

The nuns were driven from their cloister by the Italian Government at the time of the suppression; and the monastery has since been used as the central post-office of Rome. 

The exiled religious found shelter in the convent of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, to which place the body of Blessed Margaret was removed. 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)