Mary's Blog

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MARGARET, POWERFUL PATRONESS OF THE PREGNANT Posted: 20 Jul 2022 10:54 AM PDT   Margaret of Antioch was a Syrian Saint who lived during the brutal reign of Emperor Diocletian (284 - 305). We know from how Diocletian orchestrated the martyrdom of St Philomena that he had quite a thing for chopping off the heads of beautiful young women who could not be forced into marriage against their will. Diocletian had a neck that was thick as a tree-stump, and under his rule, there was a prefect by the name of Olybrius who brought Margaret up on charges of being a Christian and sought to use the law to punish her, or at least he said this was the reason he persecuted her... Prefect Olybrius came upon young Margaret one day when she was tending sheep. She served as a shepherdess for her adoptive mother. Margaret's biological father was a pagan priest who utterly rejected his daughter after she spurned paganism and was baptized. Her mother had died when she was an infant, and so she was not around to remonstrate with her father for his rash renunciation of her.  The nurse her father had employed to care for her as a babe in arms was the one who brought Margaret to Faith and gave her shelter when she was thrown out of home. In return, Margaret herded her sheep.  Margaret was a ravishingly beautiful woman and after she caught the eye of Prefect Olybrius, he wanted to make her his mistress or wife. He tried to woo her with platitudes and also threats of retribution, but neither moved her. At a public trial, she was convicted of being a Christian and at attempt was made to burn her alive, but miraculously the flames did not touch her. Then she was bound in ropes and flung into a huge kettle of boiling water. But the water did not boil her to death, instead the ropes were snapped and she stood up in the bubbling bath and looked perfectly normal. T'was a good thing that the fire had not reduced her body to ash and that the water had not cooked her to a piece of bloated meat because that would have caused her body to disintegrate completely before a Christian burial could take place. Instead, she died when her head was cut clean off. In the centuries that followed, Margaret became known as a grand helper of pregnant women.  It has baffled some that from antiquity to modern times, Margaret has been upheld as a special intercessor for women who are with child. They ask why would a virgin-martyr who refused to become a wife and mother enjoy such a celebrated reputation as one who often gives miraculous help to pregnant women? Margaret has earned this fame, and some years ago when I wrote about her for The Catholic Herald, I myself was surprised that people were in touch to say that their prayer to her had meant they had overcome severe problems in pregnancy.  The fact that Margaret never even entered a relationship where pregnancy was even a possibility for her - she never became a girlfriend and never became a spouse - does not disqualify her from being a great friend to pregnant women.  While she did not know the lived experience of having a babe in the womb, we need bear in mind that Margaret's mother died shortly after giving birth to Margaret and she may have a difficult pregnancy and labor, which prompted Margaret to seek to give support and be of service to women who find themselves in the same jeopardy as her mother.  Margaret has always sought to be the heavenly helper to expectant mothers, a helper that her mother did not have.  * * * The classics painting of St Margaret of Antioch were executed by Onorio Marinari and Guido Reni.

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