ST MARGARET OF ANTIOCH, VIRGIN AND MARTYR - 20 JULY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 20th of July

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 ANTIOCH, VIRGIN AND MARTYR

Saint Margaret's mother died soon after her birth and Margaret was nursed by a pious woman five or six leagues from Antioch. Having embraced Christianity and consecrated her virginity to God, she was disowned by her pagan father and adopted by her nurse.

SHE WAS REPORTED TO THE AUTHORITIES

While she was one day engaged in watching the flocks of her mistress, a lustful Roman prefect named Olybrius caught sight of her, and attracted by her great beauty sought to make her his concubine or wife. When neither cajolery nor threats of punishment could succeed in moving her to yield to his desires, he had her brought before him in public trial at Antioch. 

SHE WAS THREATENED WITH DEATH UNLESS SHE RENOUNCED THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

Threatened with death unless she renounced the Christian faith, the holy virgin refused to adore the gods of the empire and an attempt was made to burn her, but the flames, we are told in her Acts, left her unhurt. She was then bound hand and foot and thrown into a cauldron of boiling water, but at her prayer her bonds were broken and she stood up uninjured. Finally the prefect ordered her to be beheaded. 

ST MARGARET ICONS

Her Acts place her death in the persecution of Diocletian (A.D. 303-5). St Margaret is represented in art sometimes as a shepherdess, or as leading a chained dragon, again carrying a little cross or a girdle in her hand, or standing by a large vessel which recalls the cauldron into which she was plunged. 

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913) 

St Margaret is invoked by pregnant women. She is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.