Saint Margaret of Antioch

Virgin and Martyr
(died c. 304)

Saint Margaret of Antioch, known in the Eastern Church as Saint Marina, is one of the most popular of the early Christian martyrs, venerated throughout both East and West and numbered among the Fourteen Holy Helpers whose intercession was especially invoked in the later medieval period. She was one of the saints who spoke to Saint Joan of Arc, and her image appeared in countless medieval churches across Europe. Though the details of her life as recorded in her Acts belong more to the world of pious legend than to verifiable history, she was recognised as a martyr from a very early date.

According to her Acts, Margaret was the daughter of a pagan priest of Antioch in Pisidia. She was given as an infant into the care of a Christian nurse who converted her and brought her up in the faith. When she came of age and refused to renounce Christianity and marry Olybrius, the Roman governor of Antioch, she was subjected to terrible tortures. During her imprisonment she is said to have been swallowed by a dragon, from whom she emerged unharmed when she made the sign of the cross, and this detail of her legend made her the patroness of those in danger of swallowing and, by extension, of women in childbirth.

She was eventually beheaded, but not before converting thousands of onlookers by the serenity and courage she displayed under torture. Her relics were brought to the West during the Crusades and were venerated with great devotion in many European cities. She is the patron of childbirth, of peasants, of women, and of those falsely accused, and her feast has been kept by the Church from very early centuries.

She was removed from the Roman Calendar in 1969 due to uncertainty about the historical details of her life, but she continues to be venerated throughout the Catholic world and is still observed in many local calendars. Her feast is kept on July 20th in the traditional Roman Calendar.