Margaret of Antioch
Margaret of Antioch (Marina of Antioch) (no date). Very popular in the later Middle Ages in England and elsewhere, Margaret probably never existed as a historical person, but only as a character in pious fiction.
Her Legend was declared apocryphal by Pope Gelasius in 494; there was no ancient liturgical cult. Her name first appeared in the West in the Martyrology of Rhabanus Maurus (9th century). Some supposed relics were translated from the East to San Pietro della Valle (near Lake Bolsena) in 908, and thence to Montefalcone cathedral in 1145 and to Venice in 1213. She became famous in the time of the Crusades.
According to her Legend she was the daughter of a pagan priest, Aedisius of Antioch. She became a Christian, was turned out of home, and lived as a shepherdess. Olybrius, governor of Antioch, carried her off to his palace and tried to seduce or marry her. She proclaimed herself a Christian and refused. She was then tortured and tempted in various incredible ways. She was even swallowed by a dragon which later burst asunder. Through her preaching she converted immense numbers to Christianity. They were beheaded in the persecution of Diocletian; so was she.
At the end of her life she promised, as the Sarum breviary relates: that those who write or read her ‘history’ will receive an unfading crown in heaven, that those who invoke her on their death‐beds will enjoy divine protection and escape from the devils, that those who dedicate churches or burn lights in her honour will obtain anything useful they pray for, and that pregnant women who invoke her will escape from the dangers of childbirth, as will their infants. These apocryphal promises contributed powerfully to the spread of her cult.
This can be traced back before the Norman Conquest in England, when the first of seven vernacular Lives were written. Well over 200 ancient English churches were dedicated to her, including fifty‐eight in Norfolk. She was frequently depicted in wall paintings and stained‐glass windows, often transfixing a dragon with a spear or else emerging unharmed from inside it. Wace, Bokenham, and Lydgate were among those who wrote her Life. Joan of Arc believed that she heard the voice of Margaret of Antioch encouraging her in her mission to the French king.
Patroness of childbirth, she became recognized as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. Feast: in the East, 13 July; in the West, 20 July. Her cult was suppressed by the Holy See in 1969.
Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.
- AA.SS. Iul. V (1727), 22–44 with Propylaeum, p. 297; H. Delehaye, Les Légendes hagiographiques (1905), pp. 222–34
- G. H. Gerould, Legends of the English Saints (1918)
- F. M. Mack, Sainte Margarete virgin and martyr (E.E.T.S., 1934)
- N. R. Ker, Facsimile of MS. Bodley 34 (E.E.T.S., 1960)
