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ST MARGARET OF HUNGARY, VIRGIN - 18 JANUARY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY

Saints celebrated on the 18th of January

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.

ST MARGARET OF HUNGARY, PRINCESS AND VIRGIN

She was the daughter of King Bela I of Hungary and his wife Marie Laskaris, she was born in 1242 and died January 18, 1271. 

HER PARENTS VOWED THAT THEIR NEXT CHILD SHOULD BE DEDICATED TO RELIGION

According to a vow which her parents made when Hungary was liberated from the Tatars that their next child should be dedicated to religion, Margaret, in 1245 entered the Dominican Convent of Veszprem. 

Invested with the habit at the age of four, she was transferred in her tenth year to the Convent of the Blessed Virgin founded by her parents on the Hasen Insel (an isle) near Buda, the Margareten Insel near Budapest today, and where the ruins of the convent are still to be seen.

Here Margaret passed all her life, which was consecrated to contemplation and penance, and was venerated as a saint during her lifetime. 

SHE APPEARS TO HAVE TAKEN SOLEMN VOWS WHEN SHE WAS EIGHTEEN

She strenuously opposed the plans of her father, who for political reasons wished to marry her to King Ottokar II of Bohemia. 

Margaret appears to have taken solemn vows when she was eighteen. All narratives call special attention to Margaret’s sanctity and her spirit of earthly renunciation. 

DEVOTIONAL EXERCISES AND PENANCE

Her whole life was one unbroken chain of devotional exercises and penance. She chastised herself unceasingly from childhood, wore hair garments, and an iron girdle round her waist, as well as shoes spiked with nails; she was frequently scourged, and performed the most menial work in the convent.

HER CANONISATION

Shortly after her death, steps were taken for her canonisation, and in 1271 - 1276 investigations referring to this were taken up; in 1275 - 1276 the process was introduced, but not completed. 

Not till 1640 was the process again taken up, and again it was not concluded. Attempts which were made in 1770 by Count Ignatz Batthyanyi were also fruitless; so that the canonisation never took place, although Margaret was venerated as a saint shortly after her death; and Pius VI consented on July 28, 1789, to her veneration as a saint. 

SEVENTY-FOUR MIRACLES

The minutes of the proceedings of 1271 - 1272 record seventy-four miracles; and among those giving testimony were twenty-seven in whose favour the miracles had been wrought. These cases refer to the cure of illnesses, and one case of awakening from death. Margaret’s remains were given to the Poor Clares when the Dominican Order was dissolved; they were first kept in Pozsony and later in Buda. 

After the order had been suppressed by Joseph II, in 1782, the relics were destroyed in 1789; but some portions are still preserved in Gran, Györ, Pannonhalma. The feast day of the saint is January 18. In art she is depicted with a lily and holding a book in her hand. 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)

➡️ Helena, Tutor of Princess Margaret

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