Saint Margaret, Queen of Scotland

Canute died in 1036. He was succeeded by Harold I (1036-1039); Harthacnut or Hardeknut (1039-1041); Edward the Confessor (1041-1066). The latter, when he saw himself established on the throne, had Edward, nicknamed Etheling or the Exile, invited to come from Hungary to England with his three children; and he received them in London, in 1054, with all possible marks of honor and affection. Edward the Exile died in that city three years later, and was buried in the church of Saint Paul. His son Edgar was naturally to succeed Saint Edward the Confessor; but as he was still very young, and moreover born in a foreign country, this was taken as an opportunity to exclude him from the crown, and Earl Harold was placed on the throne in 1066. The latter claimed that Edward had designated him as his successor. William, Duke of Normandy, asserted a similar claim. Consequently, he crossed the sea, conquered England, and killed Harold in the famous battle that took place near Hastings, on October 14, 1066. Several Englishmen declared themselves uselessly for Edgar. This prince, being too weak to support his rights by force of arms, was forced, with all the nobility, to receive the conqueror in London.

Some time later, he fled secretly to escape the tyranny of William. The ship, on which he embarked with his sister, was assailed by a violent storm that cast it onto the coast of Scotland. Malcolm III, king of that country, received them both, and gave them a welcome all the more favorable a Malcolm III King of Scotland and husband of Saint Margaret. s he himself had, in a similar circumstance, found refuge and support at the court of Edward the Confessor.

Touched by the unfortunate fate of Edgar and Margaret, he provided them with all the help that depended on him. Far from handing them over to William who claimed them, he took up arms in their favor and obtained that Edgar would be treated as a friend by the Norman king.

Meanwhile, Margaret gave Scotland the spectacle of all virtues. She had learned, from her earliest years, to despise the deceptive glitter of worldly pomp and to regard pleasures as a poison all the more dangerous as it flatters while dealing death. It was much less by her rare beauty than by a happy combination of all the qualities of mind and heart that she attracted the admiration of the whole court; and the honors rendered to her did not in the least affect her humility. Her only ambition was to make herself pleasing to the King of kings. She found satisfaction only in the charms of divine love; and this love, she maintained and nourished by the exercise of prayer and meditation, to which she often happened to devote entire days. Considering Jesus Christ in the person of the poor, she seized every opportunity that presented itself to serve them, to console them, and to provide for their various needs.

Malcolm, touched by so many virtues, conceived the highest esteem for Margaret; he even believed he should propose to unite with her by the bonds of marriage, and he was at the height of his wishes when the princess had given her consent. Margaret was married and crowned Queen of Scotland in 1070. She was in the twenty-fourth year of her age.

Although Malcolm had manners that were not very refined, there was nothing in his character that smacked of pride or eccentricity, and no bad inclination was noticed in him. Margaret, through conduct full of respect and condescension, soon made herself mistress of his heart; and she used the influence she had over him to make religion and justice flourish, to procure the happiness of the people, and to inspire in her husband those sentiments that made him one of the most virtuous kings of Scotland. She softened his character, cultivated his mind, polished his manners, and imbued him with love for the practice of evangelical maxims. The king was so charmed by the wisdom and piety of his wife that he not only left the administration of his domestic affairs to her, but also guided himself by her advice in the government of the State.

Margaret, in the midst of the tumult of affairs, knew how to preserve the recollection of the soul and to guard against the dangers of dissipation. An extreme exactitude in performing all her actions with a view toward God, the continuous exercise of prayer, and the constant practice of self-denial were the principal means she employed to maintain herself in such a perfect disposition. The breadth of her genius did not yield to the eminence of her virtues. Her prudence, which provided for everything, was admired in Scotland and even in foreign countries; as was her application to public and private affairs, her ardor in seizing every opportunity to make the people happy, and finally her wisdom and dexterity in the fulfillment of the duties attached to the exercise of royal authority.

God blessed the marriage of Margaret and Malcolm; and several children were born of it, who did not degenerate from those from whom they had received life. The queen became the mother of six princes, namely: Edward, Edmund, Edgar, Ethelred, Alexander, David; and of two princesses, who received, one the name of Matilda, and the other that of Mary. The former married Henry I, King of England; the latter was married to Eustace, Count of Boulogne. Edgar, Alexander, and David succeeded to the crown of Scotland in turn, and all reigned with a great reputation for valor, wisdom, and piety. David distinguished himself even above his two brothers, and it has been rightly said of him that he was the greatest ornament of the Scottish throne.

Margaret was the principal instrument God used to form these princes in virtue. She took care to warn them early against the pitfalls upon which those born in the courts of kings too often founder. At the same time that she made them feel the emptiness and nothingness of human things, she painted virtue for them with all its charms, and inspired in them a horror of sin, along with the love of God and the fear of His judgments. The tutors and governors she placed with them were men filled with religion; she kept away from their persons all those who did not have a recognized piety. Experience and the nature of the human heart had taught her that children almost never rid themselves of the impressions they have received from the conduct of their masters and all those with whom they have had to live in their early years. She had the progress of the young princes reported to her, and often took upon herself the care of teaching them what the profession of Christianity required of them.

When her daughters, the princesses, were of an age to benefit from her examples, she associated them with her spiritual exercises and all her good works. She was not content with inspiring in them the love of various virtues; she also prayed fervently to ask God for the preservation of their innocence and their advancement in piety. She made them savor her instructions through the sweetness and charity with which she knew how to season them. Vicious persons dared not approach her, any more than they did the princes their brothers; they did not even dare to appear at court, where virtue alone could serve as a recommendation and where a lack of piety was a title for exclusion from all positions.

Margaret looked upon the kingdom of Scotland as a great family of which she was the mother; she therefore believed herself obliged to use both the rank in which Providence had placed her and the authority the king had placed in her hands to make it happy: but knowing that the happiness of peoples is inseparable from the practice of religion, she applied herself above all to reforming abuses and banishing the ignorance in which most Scots lived regarding their principal duties: thus her first care was to establish holy ministers and zealous preachers everywhere. She supported the clergy and magistrates with her authority, so that they might more effectively stop the course of disorders: by this means she succeeded in preventing the profanation of Sundays and feast days, as well as the violation of the Lenten fast. It was a great joy for her to see religion reclaim its rights, and the people hasten to vie with one another in rendering to God what they owed Him on the days and times specially consecrated to His service. She banished with equal success simony, usury, incestuous marriages, superstition, and several other scandals. She showed no more leniency to those who did not even receive communion at Easter, under the pretext that they feared receiving the Eucharist unworthily. It was represented to them, by her orders, that such a disposition came from a foundation of cowardice and impenitence; that sinners should work to purify themselves of their crimes through the tears of sincere repentance, and that the spirit of the Church was that one should participate in the body and blood of Jesus Christ. These instructions produced the effect the pious queen expected from them.

Having formed the praiseworthy project of polishing and civilizing the Scottish nation, she granted her protection to those who excelled in the arts and sciences. The love of letters, after having softened the ferocity of manners, enlightened minds, making them more sociable and more suited to the practice of moral virtues. She founded various establishments which Malcolm approved and whose stability he ensured through laws full of wisdom.

Among all the virtues that shone in her person, charity toward the poor occupied one of the first places. Her revenues could not suffice for the multitude of her alms; she often gave a portion of what was intended for her own needs. Whenever she appeared in public, she was seen surrounded by a crowd of widows, orphans, and the unfortunate of every kind, who ran to her as to their common mother. She never sent away those who implored her help without having consoled and assisted them. Upon returning to her palace, she would find it still filled with the poor, whose feet she washed and whom she served with her own hands. It was her custom not to sit down to table until she had given food to nine little orphans and twenty-four adult poor. Often, especially during Advent and Lent, the king and queen would have as many as three hundred of the latter brought in, to whom they would distribute, on bended knee, dishes similar to those prepared for their own table. Malcolm served the men, and Margaret the persons of her own sex. The queen also visited hospitals very frequently, where the sick could not tire of admiring her humility and her extreme tenderness for them. Through her alms, she also freed insolvent debtors and relieved ruined families. Her charity extended beyond Scotland: she ransomed captives everywhere, but especially the English. She also had a preference for those who had fallen into the hands of harsh and intractable masters. Poor foreigners found an asylum in the hospitals she had founded to receive them.

Malcolm joined Margaret in all these good works. "He learns from her," says Turgot, her confessor, "to often spend the night in exercises of piety. It is something astonishing to see the fervor of this prince during prayer: he possesses th e spirit of recollectio Thierri, son confesseur Confessor and biographer of Queen Margaret. n and the gift of tears to a degree far superior to the state of a man who lives in the world. The queen," says another author, "excited him to works of justice and mercy and to the practice of other virtues; in which she succeeded marvelously by an effect of the grace of God. The king always showed himself ready to second her pious dispositions. Seeing that Jesus Christ dwelt in the heart of Margaret, he never failed to follow her advice."

As the Saint slept little, and deprived herself of all those amusements that people of the world are accustomed to allow themselves, she had much time left each day for her exercises of piety. In Lent and Advent, she rose at midnight and went to the church to attend Matins. Upon returning to her room, she would wash the feet of six poor people who were waiting for her; after which she would give them generous alms: she would then rest for an hour or two. Upon waking, she would return to her chapel, where she heard four or five low masses, independently of the one that was sung in the choir. Besides this, she had set hours to pray in her cabinet, and she did so with such fervor and recollection that she was often found bathed in tears. "She kept," says Turgot, "the most rigorous sobriety in her meals, eating only as much as was necessary to not die, and fleeing everything that could have flattered sensuality. She seemed to taste rather than eat what was presented to her. In a word, her works were more astonishing than her miracles: for the gift of performing them was also communicated to her. She possessed the spirit of recollection to an eminent degree. When she spoke to me of the ineffable sweetness of eternal life, her words were accompanied by a marvelous grace. Her fervor was so great on these occasions that she could not stop the abundant tears that flowed from her eyes; she had such tenderness of devotion that, in seeing her, I felt myself penetrated with a lively recollection. No one kept silence in church more exactly than she; no one showed a spirit more attentive to prayer." Often she pressed her confessor to warn her of everything that might be reprehensible in her words and actions; it seemed to her that he spared her too much in this regard. It was her profound humility that made her desire the reprimands that others are accustomed to endure so impatiently.

Every year, she observed two Lents, each of forty days, one before Christmas and the other before Easter; and she practiced extraordinary austerities at those times. Each day she recited the little offices of the Trinity, of the Passion, and of the Blessed Virgin, not counting that of the dead.

Filled with admiration for such virtue, such ascetic perfection, her confessor and biographer says that he has no need to seek whether Margaret performed miracles, since her entire life was a wonder. He believes he should cite only one fact, and the example is so well chosen that, by failing to reproduce it, we would be committing a culpable negligence. Let us therefore leave the floor to the monk of Durham: "The queen had a book of Gospels adorned with precious stones, and where not only were the images of the four evangelists admirably painted, but also every capital letter stood out against a gold background. Accustomed to reading from this book, she was very attached to it. A servant, tasked with carrying this precious volume, not having taken care to wrap it well in his cloak, let it fall one day while he was fording a river: far from suspecting this loss, the servant continued on his way, and it was only at the moment when he wanted to return the book to the queen that he realized the misfortune that had occurred. Long and useless searches were made. Finally, at the very bottom of the river, the Gospel was spotted, its pages constantly opened and agitated by the violence of the current. Everyone was convinced that the book was henceforth worthless, that it had not kept a single leaf intact. However, it was pulled from the water in such a perfect state that one would have thought it had never been there. Not a tear, not a stain; the pages were as white as before, and the gold of the capital letters had not undergone the slightest alteration. The queen, at the sight of this miracle, giving thanks to Jesus Christ, loved her Gospel book all the more."

Having pacified his states through successful wars, Malcolm applied himself to making letters and the arts flourish there. He reformed his household, enacted sumptuary laws, and abolished various abuses that had been introduced among the people. He had the cathedral of Durham built, and to the four bishoprics that existed in Scotland, he added those of Murray and Cathness. Together with th e Queen, h Dumfermlin Site of the foundation of the monastery of the Trinity and burial place of the saint. e founded the monastery of the Trinity at Dunfermline.

But William Rufus, who had ascended the throne of England in 1087, having taken Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, which belonged to the King of Scotland, the latter, after having vainly requested its restitution, resolved to resort to war. Margaret implored him not to place himself at the head of his army. For the first time, Malcolm did not follow her advice, which he attributed to an excess of kindness.

The Queen was ill during this war. Here is the account of what happened during her final illness, according to the monk Theodoric:

"Margaret," says this author, "knew by an inner light the moment of her death long before it arrived. Having asked to speak to me in private, she made a general review of her life; torrents of tears flowed from her eyes at every word she spoke; and her compunction was so vivid that I could not help but weep myself. From time to time, sighs and sobs suffocated us both so much that it was impossible for either of us to utter a word. She finally said to me the following: 'Farewell, for I shall soon disappear from the earth. You will not be long in following me. I have two favors to ask of you: one is that you remember my poor soul in your prayers and sacrifices, as long as God leaves you life; the other is that you assist my children, and that you teach them to fear and love God. Promise me to grant what I ask of you in the presence of the Lord, who is the only witness of our conversation.'"

Four days before her death, she appeared sad and pensive, and said to those around her: "Perhaps a misfortune has befallen Scotland today such as it has not experienced for a long time." On the last day, her sufferings having diminished a little, she had herself taken to her oratory, where she received the holy Viaticum. When she had returned to her apartment, a resurgence of fever and pain forced her to return to bed, and she ordered her chaplains to commend her soul to God. At the same time, she sent for a cross that was held in great veneration in Scotland; she embraced it devoutly and with it made the sacred sign of salvation on her body several times; then, clutching it in her hands, and fixing her eyes upon it, she recited the Miserere psalm and several other prayers.

Meanwhile, Edgar, her son, arrived from the army. She asked him how King Malcolm and Edward, her son, were doing. Edgar, fearing to worsen her illness by telling her that Malcolm and Edward had been dead for four days, replied that they were well. "I know how it is," she replied. Then, lifting her eyes to heaven, she offered the following prayer: "Almighty God, I thank you for having sent me such a great affliction in the final moments of my life; I hope that with your mercy it will serve to purify me of my sins." A moment later, feeling that she was about to expire, she redoubled her fervor, and repeated these words several times: "Lord Jesus, who by your death gave life to the world, deliver me from all evil." Finally, her soul was freed from the bonds of the body on November 16, 1093, in the forty-seventh year of her age. The monk Theodoric, who was able to contemplate the holy queen asleep in the slumber of beatitude, speaks of it to us thus:

"There was in her death such tranquility, such peace, that one could not doubt that her soul had been admitted into the abode of eternal tranquility, of eternal peace. A prodigious thing! Her face, upon which death had placed its habitual pallor, received, even after death, a hue so pure and so perfect of rose and white, that one would not have said the Queen had passed away, but that she was sleeping."

She is represented visiting and caring for the poor and the sick; washing the feet of the poor and pilgrims in a hall of her palace; praying near a representation of purgatory from which a soul emerges, apparently that of her husband Malcolm or her son Edward, whose tragic end we have reported.

She is the patron saint of Scotland.

## CULT AND RELICS.

The Saint was transported, as she had desired, to the church of the Trinity, which she had founded at Dunfermline, fifteen miles from Edinburgh. There, in accordance with the wish she had expressed, she was buried against the altar, facing the cross she had planted in that place. Thus, her body rested where she had so often mortified it with vigils, genuflections, prayers, and tears. At the time of the so-called Reformation, Catholics secretly removed her relics as well as those of her husband; the principal part was transferred to Spain, under the reign of Philip II, who had a chapel built in the palace of the Escorial to receive them. They are still kept there, and one reads on the reliquary this inscription: Saint Malcolm, King, and Saint Margaret, Queen.

The head of the Saint was sent to Scotland, to Queen Mary Stuart; but this princess, having been forced to flee to England, a Benedictine took the relic, which he carried to Antwerp in 1597. He later gave it to the Scottish Jesuits of Douai, in whose church it was preserved until the destruction of the religious communities of France. She was canonized in 1251 by Innocent IV. In 1693, Innocent XII fixed her feast day on Jun Innocent IV 13th-century pope who testified to the saint's miracles. e 10.

Taken from her two Lives, one written by Theodoric, a monk of Durham, her confessor, and the other by Saint Aelred. See also the histories of Scotland and England, and the idea of a perfect lady, in the Life of Saint Margaret, Queen of Scotland, 1661, in-8°.