Biography of st margaret

St margaret of scotland feast day

Saint Margaret c. Her influence, which stemmed from a lifelong dedication to personal piety, was essential to the revivification of Roman Catholicism in Scotland , a fact that led to her canonization in The daughter of the English Prince Edward the Exile and granddaughter of Edmund Ironside, Margaret was born and raised in Hungary , a country that had welcomed the deposed royal family Farmer, Though her family returned to Britain after the power of its Danish overlords waned, the young princess and her surviving relatives were soon forced to flee again—this time by the death of her father C.

According to Turgot Margaret's hagiographer , the young noblewoman's penchant for personal piety was already well-established by this time:. Whilst Margaret was yet in the flower of youth, she began to lead a very strict life, to love God above all things, to employ herself in the study of the Divine writings, and therein with joy to exercise her mind.

Her understanding was keen to comprehend any matter, whatever it might be; to this was joined a great tenacity of memory, enabling her to store it up, along with a graceful flow of language to express it Turgot, King Malcolm, who had been widowed while still relatively young, was both personally and politically attracted to the possibility of marrying Margaret as she was both a beautiful woman and one of the few remaining members of the Anglo-Saxon royal family.

Though she demurred initially, the two were eventually wed ca. Their married bliss, captured in various histories and hagiographies of the era, proved to be a turning point in the political and religious culture of Scotland. Seeking to rectify the Roman Catholicism of her adopted homeland, the young queen convened several synods, each aimed to address various practical issues—from the "practice of Easter communion" to the "abstinence from servile works on Sundays" Farmer, Butler also notes that "many scandalous practices, such as simony, usury, and incestuous marriages, were strictly prohibited.

How many st margaret's are there

King Malcolm could not help but be influenced by his wife's piety, a fact that eventually led to his equal participation in many of her "faith-based" initiatives, as described in her hagiography:. By the help of God, [Margaret] made him most attentive to the works of justice, mercy, almsgiving, and other virtues. From her he learnt how to keep the vigils of the night in constant prayer; she instructed him by her exhortation and example how to pray to God with groanings from the heart and abundance of tears.