Blessed Margaret Colonna

Our Saint remained for some time in the house of her brothers, devoting herself with ardor to the practices of piety, finding all her happiness in the participation in the divine Eucharist, and in long and frequent visits to the foot of the altars. But she did not delay in feeling the need for a more retired and solitary life: her brothers continually received people from their family and acquaintances, and gave numerous and splendid feasts. Margaret could hardly excuse herself from appearing at these gatherings, but this splendor and noise were a burden to her; they disturbed her recollection and prevented her from conversing in the depths of her heart with God. She therefore resolved to escape them, and, secretly leaving the house, she retired to the mountain of Palestrina, where sh e kept an absolute s montagne de Préneste Place of Margaret's solitary retreat. olitude. Driven more and more by grace, she felt the desire to embrace the Rule of Saint Clare, and thus to devote herself without retu Sainte-Claire Foundress of the Poor Ladies and sister of Agnes. rn to a life of poverty and penance. To this end, she procured a Poor Clare habit, and put it on. Her hair was magnificent, habit de Clarisse Religious order whose way of life was adopted by Margaret. and she had always cared for it with great solicitude; but she understood that she now had to make a sacrifice of it. This reflection made, she herself took scissors, and cut off without hesitation the only earthly ornament in which she had always taken pleasure. Fortified by this act of courage, which required more heroism than one would be tempted to suppose, Margaret henceforth gave herself over to the practices of the most austere penance, fulfilling the Seraphic Rule in all its rigor, but without being attached to any convent. For, not yet being of age, she did not have free disposition of her person, and her brothers, already annoyed by her refusal of marriage and her abandonment of their house, would not have allowed her to take things further by entering a monastery.

Margaret used the leisure of her solitude for the service of the poor. She visited the sick and cared for them with love. The delicacy of her nature was at first somewhat repulsed when she was confronted with certain loathsome diseases; but she courageously triumphed over these aversions, and carried her heroism to the point of seeking out by preference the most disgusting wounds. Grace alone can give the strength to overcome in this way the natural feelings of the heart in the presence of such evils; thus, it was in prayer and in union with Jesus Christ that our Saint drew the courage necessary for her ministry of devotion.

When Margaret had reached her majority, she came into possession of her fortune, and at the same time her freedom; it is easy to understand that she had no other thought than to consecrate both to the Spouse to whom she had already given herself entirely. She began by distributing her patrimony to the poor; then she went to the convent of Saint Clare, in Assisi , and Assise Site of the arrest of Saint Sabinus. asked to be received as a postulant. She was accepted with eagerness, but she could not carry out this plan, because of a violent illness that seized her, and which so shook her health that the superiors of the monastery no longer deemed it appropriate to admit her. Margaret, resigned to the holy will of God, which had manifested itself in such a perceptible way, returned to her solitude of Palestrina, and resumed the life of charity and penance that she had already led there, continuing to observe, in her private life, the Rule of Saint Clare. But as she had already distributed all her fortune to the indigent, she had no means left to relieve the unfortunate who came to implore her help, or whom she visited at home. Her heart suffered very keenly from this powerlessness, and she resolved, to create resources for herself, to go and ask from door to door for the means to come to the aid of the needy. She put this generous thought into execution, and one could see the daughter of the Colonna holding out a suppliant hand to the rich she met on her way, happy to purchase through a few humiliations the money that enabled her to provide for the needs of the poor of Jesus Christ.

We have already seen that one of Margaret's brothers had been chosen by the Lord to cultivate in her the love of chastity, and to help her remove the obstacles that stood in the way of her religious consecration. This brother, whose name w as Giac Jacques Brother of Marguerite, priest and later cardinal, who served as her spiritual guide. omo, was himself the object of the Savior's privileged graces. Having become a priest, and then a cardinal of the holy Church, he never ceased to encourage his sister in the pursuit of ever greater perfection, thus continuing the work he had begun some years earlier. It was under his guidance and in his company that Margaret made a pilgrimage to the tomb of the apostles Saint Peter saint Pierre Apostle mentioned for the setting of the procession date. and Saint Pau saint Paul Apostle cited by Saint Jerome to illustrate divine decrees. l; a pious journey which contributed not a little to strengthening her in goodness, by showing her how far our love for Jesus Christ must go, if necessary.

Margaret had been tested several times by violent illnesses, among others by the one that had prevented her from entering the convent of Saint Clare, and she had shown, in these circumstances, a very great resignation. But her divine Spouse wished to mark her in an even more perfect way with the sacred seal of suffering. That is why He sent her, during the last seven years of her life, a dreadful ulcer, which made her endure horrible tortures. Margaret bore her ailment with heroic patience, and did not let any murmur escape her lips. When she saw that she was near death, she asked for the last sacraments, which she received with admirable fervor, then she went to receive in heaven the reward of the virtues she had practiced to such a sublime degree while she lived on earth (December 17, 1284). Pius IX beatified her in 1847. Excerpt from the Francisc an Yea Pie IX Pope who canonized Josaphat in 1867. r.