Margaret of Antioch (Saint Marina the Great Martyr) | |
|---|---|
 Saint Marina the Great Martyr. An illustration in her hagiography printed in Greece depicting her beating a demon with a hammer. Date on the picture: 1858. | |
| Virgin-Martyr and Vanquisher of Demons | |
| Born | c. 289 Antioch of Pisidia (modern-dayYalvaç,Isparta,Turkey) |
| Died | c. 304 (age 15) |
| Feast | 20 July (Roman Catholic Church, Most ofAnglicanism,[1]Western Rite Orthodoxy) 17 July (Byzantine Christianity) |
| Attributes | slaying a dragon (Western depictions) hammer, defeated demon (Eastern Orthodox depictions) |
| Patronage | pregnant women, nurses,peasants,exiles, the falsely accused, the dying,kidney disease,Lowestoft,Queens' College, Cambridge,Sannat andCospicua |
Margaret, known asMargaret of Antioch in the West, and asSaint Marina the Great Martyr (Ancient Greek:Ἁγία Μαρίνα) in the East, is celebrated as asaint on 20 July inWestern Christianity, on 30th of July (Julian calendar) by theEastern Orthodox Church, and onEpip 23 andHathor 23 in theCoptic Orthodox Church. She was reputed to have promised very powerfulindulgences to those who wrote or read herlife or invoked herintercessions; these no doubt helped the spread of her following.[2] Margaret is one of theFourteen Holy Helpers in Roman Catholic tradition.
According to a 9th-century martyrology ofRabanus Maurus, Margaret suffered atAntioch in Pisidia (in what is now Turkey) in c. 304, during theDiocletianic Persecution. She was the daughter of a pagan priest named Aedesius. Her mother having died soon after her birth, Margaret was nursed by a Christian woman five or sixleagues (15 to 18 miles (24 to 29 km)) from Antioch. Having embraced Christianity and consecrated hervirginity to God, Margaret was disowned by her father, adopted by her nurse, and lived in the country keeping sheep with her foster mother.[3][4]
Olybrius, Governor of the RomanDiocese of the East, asked to marry her, with the demand that sherenounceChristianity. Upon her refusal she was cruelly tortured, during which various miraculous incidents are reported to have occurred. One of these involved being swallowed bySatan in the shape of adragon, from which she escaped alive when thecross she carried irritated the dragon's innards. Eventually, she was decapitated.
According to theEncyclopædia Britannica, Margaret's story is "generally regarded to be fictitious".[5][6] TheCatholic Encyclopedia states "even the century to which she belonged is uncertain".[7]
Doubts about her story are not new: by theMiddle Ages,hagiographerJacobus de Voragine (author of the well-knownGolden Legend) considered her martyrology to be too fantastic and remarked that the part where she is eaten by the dragon was to be considered a legend.[8]
The Greek Marina came from Antioch in Pisidia (as opposed toAntioch ofSyria), but this distinction was lost in the West. From the east her veneration spread towards England, France, and Germany, in the 11th century during theCrusades.
In 1222, theCouncil of Oxford added her to the list of feast days, and so her cult acquired great popularity. Many versions of the story were told in 13th-century England, in Anglo-Norman (including one ascribed toNicholas Bozon), English, and Latin,[9] and more than 250 churches are dedicated to her in England, most famously,St. Margaret's, Westminster, theparish church[10] of the BritishHouses of Parliament inLondon.[4] There is also aSaint Margaret Shrine inBridgeport, Connecticut.
She is recognised as a saint by theCatholic Church, being listed as such in theRoman Martyrology for 20 July.[11]She was also included from the 12th to the 20th century among the saints to be commemorated wherever theRoman Rite was celebrated,[12] but was then removed fromthe general calendar along with other European saints through the apostolic letterMysterii Paschalis.[13]
TheEastern Orthodox Church knows Margaret as Saint Marina, and celebrates herfeast day on 30 July. Margaret isremembered in theChurch of England with acommemoration on20 July.[14]
Every year on Epip 23 theCoptic Orthodox church celebrates her martyrdom day, and on Hathor 23 the church celebrates the dedication of a church to her name.Saint Mary church in Cairo holds arelic believed to be Margaret's right hand, previously moved from the Angel Michael Church (modernly known as Haret Al Gawayna) following its destruction in the 13th century AD.
In 2022, Margaret was officially added to theEpiscopal Church liturgical calendar with a feast day she shares withCatherine of Alexandria andBarbara of Nicomedia on 24 November.[15]
Margaret of Antioch is a patroness of pregnant women, servant maids, kidney-sufferers, and against diabolical infestations.
In art, she is often represented as a shepherdess, or pictured escaping from, or standing above, a dragon. While Western iconography typically depicts St. Margaret emerging from the dragon, Eastern Byzantine iconography tends to focus on her battle with the demon in her cell and depicts her grabbing him by his hair and swinging a copper hammer at his face.[16]
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Delehaye, Hippolyte (1911). "Margaret, St".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). p. 700.
