Day: January 18, 2017

Saint of the Day – 18 January – St Margaret of Hungary O.P. (1242-1271) – Virgin & Nun

Margaret was born to Béla IV, king of Hungary, at a moment when the country was threatened by enemies.   So the king promised God that if things reversed in his favour he would dedicate his little princess to the religious life.   The prayer was answered and Béla put Margaret in the care of the Dominican Sisters at Veszprém.   When Margaret was 12, Béla built a convent for her on an island in the Danube near Buda.   There the young teenager professed her vows.

A young woman of extraordinary beauty, St. Margaret attracted the attention of suitors even though she was a nun.

Ottokar, the king of Bohemia, was determined to marry her. For political reasons, Béla liked the idea.   He asked Margaret to get released from her commitments and marry Ottokar.   Béla had not bargained for the steely resistance of his strong-willed daughter.   She responded to his request with defiance:

“When I was only 7-years-old, you tried to espouse me to the Polish Duke.   You will remember my answer then.   I said that I wished to serve Him only to whom you had espoused me at my birth.   As a child, I would not yield to your will in opposition to God’s claims on me.   Do you think that I am likely to give in to you now that I am older and wiser?   And am I more capable of grasping the greatness of the divine grace that has been given me?   Then, my Father, stop trying to turn me from my determination to remain a religious.   I prefer the heavenly kingdom to that which has been offered me by the King of Bohemia.  I would rather die than obey these commands of yours that will bring death to my soul.   Mark my words.   If matters ever come to such a pass and I am driven to it, I will surely put an end to the whole affair by mutilating myself, so that I shall never again be desirable to any man.”

So Béla backed down.   Witnesses say that had he persisted, gritty Margaret would likely have fulfilled her threat.   Margaret punished herself with extreme self-abnegation that some observers call “self-crucifixion.”   Butler’s Lives of the Saints says that she performed “marvelous” service to the sick, so nauseating that its “details cannot be set out before the fastidious modern reader.”   Although she was a princess among nuns, she objected to any special treatment and went out of her way to perform the most menial tasks to help the poor and sick.    Since she was a princess and the convent was built for her, no one seems to have been able to temper her excesses.   A life of extreme austerity lead to great fatigue and her ultimate death on January 18, 1271.