TODAY''S SAINT (Margret of Antioch)

JULY 20

(d. ca. 304)
One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers

Also known as: Margaritha, Margaretha, Marina, Marine

Margaret of Antioch was one of the most popular virgin martyrs in the canon of the Church during the Middle Ages, but later scholars believe that while she may have been martyred, anything else attributed to her was purely legend and attributable to a forgery written in the 10th century, allegedly by Theotimus, Margaret's servant. She is no longer a part of the Catholic calendar.

Her story is as follows: Margaret was the daughter of a pagan priest in Anitoch, Pisidia, and was nursed by a Christiann woman who became her guardian after Margaret's own conversion. One day, while tending her guardian's flocks, Margaret came to the unfortunate notice of the prefect Olybrius, who lusted for her. Margaret spurned his advances, and Olybrius vindictively turned her in to the tribunal as a Christian. She was imprisoned, where the devil appeared to her as a dragon and swallowed her. But brave Margaret holding a cross, so irritated the devil-dragon that he either disgorged her or exploded. The next day the authorities trried to torture Margaret, first by fire then by immesion in a cauldron of boiling water. Neithe worked, and the thousands who witnessed her ordeal were so moved that they converted to Christianity en masse, then were promptly executed. Finally, the executioner fell dead at her feet so he could join the virgin in heaven, and a noble widow buried ber body in Antioch.

Martaret was one of the voices herad by St. Joan of Arc, along with SS. Catherine of Alexandia and Michael the Archangel. Pregnant womenn of ten pray for Margaret's intecesson, believing that her disagorgement from the dragon is a sign of safe deliverey during chilbirth . Her supposed relics were stolen from Antioch in 980 and brought to San Pietro della Valle, then translated to Montefiascone in 1145. Some relics were moved to Venice in 1213, and others are claimed in churches throughout Europe.

Feast: July 20 in the West; July 13 in the Eastern Church

Patronage: against death; aginst sterility; childbirth; escappe from devils; exiles; kidney diseace; loss of milk by nursing mothers; martys ; nurses; peasants; people falsely acused; prregant women; women; women in labor; Queen's College, Cambridge