SAINT MARGARET
July 20
from The Golden Legend¹


Margaret comes from margarita, which is the Latin name for a pearl; and this precious gem is shining white, small, and endowed with virtue. So Saint Margaret was shining white by her virginity, small by her humility, and endowed with the power to work miracles. The virtue of this stone is said to be of good effect against the outpouring of blood and the disturbance of the heart, and for the strengthening of the spirit. Thus Saint Margaret had power against the outpouring of her blood by her constancy in martyrdom, and against the disturbance of the heart, that is the temptations of the Devil, by her victory, because she overcame the Devil himself, and likewise for the strengthening of the spirit by her doctrine, because by her teaching she strengthened the spirit of many, and converted them to the faith of Christ. Her life written by Theotimus, a learned man.

Margaret was born in Antioch, where her father Theodosius was chief priest of the pazan cult. After her birth she was committed to the care of a nurse by whom she was instructed in the Christian faith, so that when she came to the years of reason she received baptism, and thus incurred the hatred of her father. One day when she was fifteen years old, she and several other maidens were busy guarding her nurse's sheep, when the prefect Olybrius chanced to pass by the place, and seeing a maid of such radiant beauty, was quick to become enamoured of her. He therefore called his servants and said: 'Go and carry off this girl! If she is free-born, I shall take her to wife, if she is a slave, I shall have her for a concubine.' And when the child was brought to him, he questioned her upon her condition, her name, and her religion. She answered that she was of noble estate, that her name was Margaret, and that she was a Christian. Then the prefect said: 'The first two of them of these three things are most seemly for thee. For all in thee is noble, and no pearl can equal thy beauty. But the third befits thee not, namely that a damsel so fair and so noble should have for god one that was crucified.' And she asked: 'How knowest thou that Christ was crucified?' 'I have read it in the books of the Christians,' he answered. And Margaret said: 'Since thou hast read these books. thou hast seen both the Passion of Christ and His glory. How canst thou believe the one and deny the other?' Thereupon she expounded to him how Christ had freely accepted His death for our redemption, but that now He lived in the glory of eternal life. Angered at this, the prefect threw her into prison.

On the morrow he summoned her again, and said to her: 'Foolish child, have pity on thy beauty, and adore our gods, that all may go well with thee!' But she replied: 'I adore Him Who makes the earth to tremble, Who stirs the sea to its depths, and Whom creatures fear!' 'Unless thou yield,' said the prefect, 'I shall order thy body to be torn piecemeal!' 'No dearer wish have I,' she answered, 'than to die for Christ, Who condemned Himself to death for me!' Thereupon she was bound upon the rack, and beaten cruelly, first with rods, and then with sharp iron instruments, so that all her bones were laid bare, and the blood poured forth from her body as from a pure spring. And all those who stood by exclaimed: 'Ah, Margaret, how we pity thee! Oh, what beauty thou hast lost by thine unbelief! But now, to save thy life, at least, profess the true faith!' And she said: 'Begone from me, evil counselors! This torture of my flesh is the salvation of my soul!' Then she turned to the prefect and said: 'Ravening and shameless dog, thou hast power over my flesh, but my soul belongs to Christ!' Meanwhile the prefect, unable to bear the sight of such an outpouring of blood, hid his face with his mantle. He then had her taken from the rack and sent back to her prison, which instantly was filled with a great brightness.

While in prison, Margaret besought the Lord to make manifest in visible form the enemy who was striving against her. Then there appeared to her a hideous dragon, who sought to throw himself upon her and devour her. But she made the sign of the cross, and the dragon vanished. Or again, as another legend tells it, the monster seized her by the head and drew her into his maw, and it was then that she made the sign of the cross, and caused the dragon to burst, the damsel emerging unharmed from his body. But this legend is apocryphal, and all agree to consider it a groundless fable.

But the demon persisted in his attempt to deceive Margaret, and next appeared to her in the guise of a young man. And as she was in prayer, he came to her and took her by the hand, saying: 'Let what thou hast already done suffice thee, and torment me no more!' But Margaret laid hold of him by the head, stretched him on the ground, and put her right foot upon him, saying: 'Proud demon, lie prostrate beneath a woman's foot!' But the Devil cried out: '0 Margaret, I am conquered! And to complete my humiliation, my conqueror is a young girl, whose parents were my friends!'

The saint then compelled him to tell her wherefore he had come, and he said that it was to lead her to obey the prefect's orders. Then she asked him why he tempted the Christians so persistently. He answered that first it was because he hated all men of virtue, and also because, in his envy, he wished to deprive the Christians of a blessedness which he himself had lost. He said further that Solomon had imprisoned a horde of demons in a vase, but that after his death certain men, seeing flames issuing from the vase, imagined that it contained some treasure, and broke it open, thus setting the demons at liberty. In the end Margaret, having forced all these avowals from the demon, lifted her foot and said: 'Wretch, begone!' And the demon was off in a trice. Having conquered the master, it was the easier for her to conquer his underlings.

On the morrow, when she again refused to offer sacrifice to the idols, she was stripped of her garments and burned with lighted, torches. And all were astonished that a child could bear so many divers torments. Only the prefect remained without pity. To increase her pain by varying her sufferings, he had her plunged into a tub full of water: but instantly the earth shook, the tub was broken, and the maiden stepped forth unscathed before the eyes of the multitude. Seeing this, five thousand persons were converted, and were beheaded for professing the name of Christ. Finally the prefect, fearing still other conversions, ordered her to be beheaded as quickly, as possible. But she sued for leave to say a prayer, and prayed for, herself and her persecutors, and likewise for those who in time would invoke her aid. And she asked in especial that whenever a woman in labor should call upon her name, the child might be brought forth without harm. And a voice from Heaven told her that all her prayers were granted. Then she arose and said to the executioner: 'Brother, draw thy sword now, and strike!' And with a single blow the headsman cut off her head. Thus she won the crown of martyrdom, on the twentieth day of July, or according to others, on the thirteenth of that month.


1. From: The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, trans. and adapted by Ryan, Granger and Helmut Ripperger. (Arno Press: Longmans, Green & Co) 1941. pp. 351-354.