Margaret of Lorraine, Duchess of Alençon (1463 at the castle ofVaudémont,Lorraine – 2 November 1521 inArgentan, Normandy) was a Frenchnoblewoman and anun of the order ofPoor Clares (Ordre des Clarisses). She was beatified in 1921.^[1]

Blessed Margaret of Lorraine
Duchess of Alençon
Born	1463 Castle ofVaudémont,Lorraine, France
Died	2 November 1521 (aged 58) Argentan,Normandy
Venerated in	Roman Catholicism
Beatified	10 March 1921,Rome byPope Benedict XV
Feast	November 2

Margaret was born in 1463 in Vaudémont Castle,Lorraine as the youngest daughter ofFrederick II, Count of Vaudémont andYolande d'Anjou. She lost her father when she was the age of seven, and was brought up atAix-en-Provence by her grandfatherRené of Anjou. When latter died in 1480, she was sent back to Lorraine to her brother,René II. He arranged her marriage toRené, Duke of Alençon, whom she wed inToul on 14 May 1488.^[2]

Alençon and Margaret had three children:

• Charles IV of Alençon (1489–1525), marriedMarguerite of Angoulême as her first husband.
• Françoise of Alençon, Duchess of Beaumont (1490- 14 September 1550), married firstly in 1505, François, Duke of Longueville; married secondly in 1513,Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, by whom she had thirteen children.
• Anne, Lady of La Guerche (30 October 1492- 18 October 1562), married in 1508,William IX Palaeologos, Marquis ofMontferrat by whom she had three children.

Margaret died on November 2, 1521, inArgentan,Orne from natural causes.

Almost 400 years after her death, she wasbeatified on March 10, 1921, byPope Benedict XV.

Left a widow in 1492, she busied herself in the administration of her duchy and the education of her children. When she was relieved of the duties imposed upon her by her position, she decided to renounce the world and retired to Mortagne, to a monastery of religious women who followed the rule of Saint Elizabeth. Later, having brought with her to Argentan some of these nuns, she founded there another monastery which she placed, with the authorization of the pope, under the rule ofSaint Clare, modified by the Minor Observants.^[3]

She herself took the religious habit in this house and made her vows on 11 October 1520. On 2 November 1521, after having lived an austere life for a year, she died in her modest cell, at the age of fifty-eight. Her body, preserved in the monastery of the Poor Clares, and when that monastery was suppressed, was transferred to the church of Saint Germain d'Argentan. In 1793, during theFrench Revolution, it was profaned and thrown into the common burial place.^[3]

The memory of Margaret of Lorraine is preserved in theMartyrologium franciscanum and in theMartyrologium gallicanum. After an invitation made by thebishop of Séez,Jacques Camus de Pontcarré,Louis XIII askedPope Urban VIII to order a canonical inquiry into the virtues and the miracles of the Duchess.

Attribution

  This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Blessed Margaret of Lorraine".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.