Saint Margaret (Marina) of Antioch

In the meantime, it happened that a praetorian prefect named Ol ybrius, Olybrius Praetorian prefect and persecutor of Margaret. a man swollen with fury and impiety, was traveling from Asia to Antioch to persecute the Christians. As he passed through this city, he caught sight of the blessed Margaret, who was grazing her sheep with other young girls of her age. Struck by her beauty and overcome by concupiscence, he gave this order to his servants: "Go at once, inquire diligently about this young girl. If she is of free condition, I will make her my wife; if, on the contrary, she was born into slavery, I will pay the price she deserves to redeem her, and she shall take her place among my concubines." The servants hastened to execute their master's orders and brought the young Margaret to him in great haste. While these impious men were leading her, the blessed Virgin, seized with fear and dread at the thought of the fragility of her sex, began to tremble in every limb; and her terror redoubled as she thought of the atrocious barbarity of the torments that the pagans were then inflicting upon the faithful.

She therefore addressed herself to Jesus, her spouse, and implored him to give her the courage to endure the most horrible torments rather than betray the faith she had sworn to him. "Send," she said to him, "your holy Angel; let him guard, protect, and defend my body and my soul." While the blessed Virgin was praying thus, the prefect's men arrived before him and said: "This young girl is an enemy of the gods and of the empire; she adores Jesus, once crucified by the Jews, and neither our threats nor our promises have been able to shake her." The iniquitous judge ordered that she be presented to him without delay. When she was before him, he spoke to her thus: "Fear nothing, young girl; but tell me what is your origin, and reveal to me clearly whether you are free or a slave." The Virgin replied to him: "My family is well known in this city, and I am not of such obscure birth that I must hide my origin; but, since you speak of freedom, know that I depend on no man: I confess with heart and mouth that I am a servant of my master Jesus Christ, whom from my tenderest age I have learned to revere, to honor, and whom I shall always adore." — "What is your name?" — "Men call me Margaret; but at holy Baptism I received another more illustrious one: I am called Christian." This response filled the president with unspeakable fury; and immediately he gave the order to lock her in a dark prison, and forbade anyone from giving her any help, not even food or drink; he hoped that this deprivation of all human assistance and the darkness of the dungeon would make her consent to his desires. But Margaret, consoled by a visit from the holy Angels and favored with a celestial light, only persevered with greater constancy in the confession of the name of Christ, and regarded as very little all that had been devised to make her suffer.

The prefect, seeing that nothing could shake her in her faith, neither kind treatment nor the fear of torture, continued his journey toward the city of Antioch. As soon as he arrived, he summoned the nobility of the city along with all those who appeared to have the most wisdom, in order to take counsel from them on all means, not to destroy Margaret by putting her to death, but to overcome her, either by artful reasoning or by terror. After he had explained the matter at length, he settled on the plan of producing the young Virgin in the assembly of the people and examining her publicly, adding: "Perhaps the shame of seeing herself thus exposed to the gaze of the multitude will make her yield, and what neither hunger nor prison could do, intimidation will obtain." On the second day after his entry into the city, the prefect therefore gave the order that a splendid tribunal be erected for him and that the whole city be summoned to the spectacle he wished to give it in the interrogation of the Virgin.

On the appointed day, a great gathering of people of both sexes took place. The prefect, adorned in his most magnificent ornaments, sat on his throne and commanded that she who cultivated the faith of Christ in her heart be brought into the presence of everyone. After she had been presented to him, he began by addressing benevolent words to her; he invited her to renounce her errors, which would bring upon her torments and even death, while by returning to sounder ideas, she would gain his good graces. "Choose," he said to her in closing, "I offer you today life or death, joy or torments."

The Virgin of Christ replied: "The true life and joy, thanks be to God, I have already found; I have placed them, never to depart from them, in the strong citadel of my heart: I mean that I adore, that I glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, that I venerate him with assured confidence, and that I will not cease to honor him with all my soul. Furthermore, do not trouble yourself so much on my account, and do not weary yourself with your uncertainties; know it well, no human power, no torture, is capable of taking such a precious treasure from my heart." Olybrius then said to her: "Your pride, your obstinacy are strange! The more I am clement, the more you show bitterness. This is what would make us believe that these speeches do not come from you, but that another has suggested them to you; I am persuaded that someone has entangled you in all these chimeras as if in a net. From this comes that you do not know how to return to your heart, and that you have given us such answers. Your age alone proves obviously what I assert; for of yourself you would not have known how to speak in this way. Well! Tell us without evasion who is the person who has coached you so well." The blessed Margaret replied: "You claim that I have been seduced and indoctrinated with foolish extravagances; if you wish to listen to me, you will not be long in knowing how it is, on the condition, however, that you believe in Christ." And the prefect: "Yes, I will listen to you willingly; for I desire to know what you have to say to us."

Margaret, resuming her speech: "Do not be astonished, O judge," she said, "at what my weakness is about to unfold before your eyes; for these are not human arguments. Listen then, and may your wisdom profit from it. He who serves Our Lord Jesus Christ has no need of a mortal master to instruct him and teach him to prepare what he must answer; for He himself wished to make the promise to those who trust in Him, saying to them: When you are delivered to the powers of the age, and you appear before kings and presidents, do not think of what you will have to say, nor in what manner you must answer; the Holy Spirit will speak worthily for you. Therefore, if this is so, or rather because it is thus, it is not by human means, but by faith that I have been instructed. Indeed, it is by believing that I have found a master, and it is also by believing that we learn to preserve our faith and to resist your infernal persuasions."

The president replied: "We thought you were going to tell us something sensible; but you have produced only an impudent lie. We had already learned that the seduction of Christ is such that he who has once been imbued with his doctrine, no discussion, no violence can shake him. Thus, thanks to your stubbornness, we now know by experience what we had already heard tell. But may such a master never come to address my intelligence; far from me a similar doctrine which, by making one despise the power of princes, deprives us of the most seductive joys and throws us into perpetual tribulation. It is because you are ignorant, young girl, of how great is the indignation of the emperors against the faith of the Christians, that you claim to preserve without worry what seems to you right and holy. If you wished to listen to the advice we address to you, you would see clearly what is the means to avoid death and to find life. But do not let yourself be deceived by a vain hope; know, on the contrary, that the invincible emperors have constituted me judge in this place, so that all the partisans of Christ who do not adore the gods, I may put them to pieces without pity, by various torments, and that after having thus torn them, I may make them undergo the most bitter death. And as these orders have been sanctioned by imperial edicts, see what you have to do, now that you have the leisure and that our indulgence is willing to thus condescend to your youth, for fear that later you seek this time of indulgence, without being able to find it anymore, when your stubbornness has begun to feel our indignation. Once again, do not let yourself go to the foolish hope that you will be able, in one way or another, to escape the power of my arm, and be well persuaded that no force is capable of delivering you from my hands. If such were your thoughts, disabuse yourself. Return rather to yourself, hasten to accomplish what we order, and prepare yourself to come with us, on the appointed day, to adore the majesty of the gods: otherwise, you will expire in the midst of the most cruel torments."

The blessed Margaret replied: "What is the use of threatening me with torments, impious judge? Why wish to destroy the Christian religion by terror, and boast that no one could tear me from your hands? If my Lord Jesus Christ were only a man, as your folly makes you believe, and if He were not rather and most truly God and man all at once, and furthermore the King of heaven and earth, your threats could inspire me with fear and constrain me to obey Him by adoring mute simulacra; but, because He dwells in the heavens, from where He sees all that is most humble, and that, according to a prophet, 'heaven is the throne of His glory, and the earth the footstool of His feet'; and that He has a power such that, if He wished it, at that very instant hell would swallow you up alive with your entourage: what signal stupidity would it not be to abandon such a Lord to bow the head before vain idols and render them glory! Therefore, O judge, I must not leave you in any uncertainty in this regard; listen and be assured of what I am going to tell you: I do not obey the edicts of the emperors, I do not fear the effect of your threats. Kill me, if you wish, tear me, have me burned alive, throw me under the tooth of beasts; you can put me to death; but separate me from the love of Christ, never."

The president, furious at such speeches, ordered her to be suspended by the head and struck with rods in repeated blows. The executioners carried out these orders in such a cruel manner that the blood escaping from the delicate body of the young virgin streamed onto the ground like a spring. Many men and women, witnesses to such a barbaric execution, could not hold back tears of compassion and groans; and, as if to console her, they said to the blessed martyr: "O most beautiful virgin, we are greatly afflicted by the torments you endure in your limbs, and we would undertake anything to deliver you; but we cannot. Listen, however, to our advice: this tyrant, as you see, is still in the boiling of his fury, and thus beside himself with anger, he hastens to erase your memory from the earth. But you, O virgin, you who are gifted with such wisdom, spare your life at last, have pity on yourself: and for this, acquiesce at least for a moment to what the judge asks of you, and probably touched by compassion, he will not deliver you to death." The holy martyr replied to them: "Enough, enough, O illustrious men; withdraw, O noble women, and do not, by your tears, weaken my courage; for, as the Apostle says, bad company corrupts good morals. I forgive you, however, because you act in this out of humanity, and, walking in darkness, you do not enjoy the true light. If you knew the light of the truth, not only would you not want to make me abandon the right path, but rather you would spontaneously deliver yourselves to the tortures for the name of Jesus Christ."

Then the president Olybrius, indignant, gave the order to suspend her on the rack, and to tear her flanks with very sharp iron claws. The executioners, setting to work immediately, lacerated the flesh of the young martyr so pitilessly that they removed it in shreds down to the entrails, which appeared exposed, and blood gushed from all sides. The bystanders could not bear such a spectacle, and all, even the execrable prefect, turned their faces away, so much did this atrocious barbarity horrify them. As for the Saint, fortified by heavenly aid, she counted as nothing the torments she endured; and several of those who were present, admiring her courage, said to themselves: "See how a tender and delicate young girl endures bloody tortures that the most valiant men would not even dare to look at." But the prefect's men took the occasion of what should have softened their inhumanity to invent new torments that were to lead to death. Seeing that the virgin of the Lord laughed at the iron claws, they strove to imagine even more atrocious tortures, which were to either force her to surrender or procure for her the most cruel kind of death. They therefore resolved to deliver her to the flames the following day. And after they had decided on this plan, they gave the order to lead her back into the darkness of her prison.

The martyr having entered, raised her hands toward the Lord, and prayed to God to grant her manly perseverance in the torture and temptations. While she was thus imploring the help of God, the demon, with his thousand ways of harming, prepared to frighten her with various artifices and fantastic illusions. Transforming himself before her into a dragon, and spewing an infectious fire from his maw and nostrils, he seemed ready to devour her. The blessed virgin, at the sight of this threatening form, resorted, as was her custom, to the weapons of prayer, and forming the sign of the cross against the enemy, she implored the help from above: "Lord Jesus Christ, defender of your soldiers, you who have humiliated by the victory of your cross the pride of the demon, rise to help me; say to my soul: I am your salvation. For you yourself have said: You shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample underfoot the lion and the dragon." At these words, the ancient serpent withdrew in confusion, and could undertake nothing against the virgin. And immediately, filled with joy at the heavenly assistance, Margaret gave great thanks to God, Savior of all those who hope in him. The enemy of the Christian name tried again to frighten the Saint by appearing to her in the form of a horrible man; but Margaret ordered him, in the name of the Lord, to depart from her, and he obeyed her, confessing his defeat.

To these infernal attacks succeeded a heavenly visit that filled the virgin of Christ with joy. A divine light, resplendent as the sun, shone in the prison; then, in this light, appeared the image of the cross of salvation, at the top of which came to rest a dove whiter than snow, and immediately a voice was heard to congratulate the young martyr and exhort her to perseverance. This visit fortified the blessed virgin more and more; and her soul received such an increase of vigor and patience that she would have defied all torments.

Morning having come, the judge, who had lost none of his fury against the Saint, gave the order to extract her from the disgusting prison where he had had her locked up, and to bring her to his tribunal before the assembled people. As she presented herself with the face of a person who had suffered no harm, Olybrius made terrible threats to her to shake her constancy: he told her that if she did not immediately consent to worship the gods of the empire, he would make her suffer the torture of fire. The holy martyr replied to the proud tyrant: "Why are you worried, O judge! and what is the use of these threats to burn me alive? We do not fear your threats, and we do not dread your tortures at all; for he who contemplates the greatness of the rewards easily despises torments. That is why neither fire, nor sword, nor the peril of death, will ever be able to separate me from my Lord Jesus Christ. Only, I pray you not to delay what you wish to do; for we despise you as well as your gods, and I will not cease to worship and glorify the Lord and him alone."

When she had ceased speaking, the cruel judge, even more exasperated, ordered her to be stripped and suspended by means of pulleys, then to have all her limbs burned with blazing torches. During this torture he said to her in derision: "Rejoice, Margaret, thrill in your Christ, whom you will not deny in any way, as you assure. It is he who has acquired for you this rest, this pleasure. Well! let him come to your aid, if he can, and let him deliver you from this fire. But if you want to obey our orders and take pity on yourself, there is still time; we will procure for you so many and such great delights that you will promptly forget all the torments you have endured." The blessed Margaret replied to him: "You joke about this torture of a fire that is only momentary, and you do not think of the one that is eternal! That is the glory of Christians, which leads them to a joy that will never end. I have always had the desire to suffer what you are making me endure, and this thought made me sigh. This fire, it is true, burns my limbs for a few moments; but you, so aged in idolatry, will be delivered to eternal blazes. This same Lord of heaven and earth, who delivered three children from a blazing furnace, also procures for me, his servant, a sweet refreshment that tempers my sufferings, so that this fire does not overcome me, and that after having conquered your stubborn persistence, I may have the happiness of singing with them the hymn of glorification." After having spoken thus, she raised her eyes to heaven and made this prayer: "Lord, creator of all things, you to whom all elements obey, hear my cries that rise to you, and ensure that I am not overcome by this fire." O wonder of the power of the Lord! These blazing lamps provided her with a refreshment as of a sweet dew, and she said to the judge: "Understand, at least now, who is my Lord whom I worship; he is endowed with such power that this fire has lost all its vigor and no longer burns my limbs."

The executioners, tired and defeated, left her suspended, but without any lesion, and they said to the prefect: "May our master deign to order in what manner one must punish this enemy of the gods, for until now all our efforts have been in vain." Olybrius then ordered a large cauldron to be brought, to be filled with boiling water, and for the Martyr to be thrown into it, hands and feet bound. When Margaret had been thrown to the bottom of the cauldron, she prayed thus: "Break these bonds, Lord, so that I may offer you a sacrifice of praise, and that the peoples, seeing it, may believe that you are the only God full of glory, whom this wretched world ignores." She was still speaking when her bonds broke, and the Saint stood up safe and sound. Those who were present, seeing so many wonders that God was working in her, cried out, delighted with admiration: "Yes, he is truly great, he is the only true one, the God whom this young virgin serves and who, at her prayer, has made so many and such great wonders burst forth!" The holy martyr took the opportunity to speak to them about God. She said to them: "O wise men! consider and know that the Lord is the creator of all things, to whom all creatures obey, as you have been able to convince yourselves by what has happened to me. Leave then the worship of these vain simulacra, and convert yourselves to your Creator, the Savior of souls, who has called you from darkness to his admirable light. If you return to him with all your heart, and if, after having been washed by holy baptism, you observe by your works and your words the Christian faith, not only will your souls enjoy blessed rest, but, moreover, when the general resurrection takes place, you will receive a double reward; then your bodies, like your souls, will swim in an ineffable joy that will have no end." This exhortation produced its effect; and a multitude of people, leaving the errors of paganism, embraced the faith of Christ.

The detestable president, having learned what had happened, began to fear that the people would rise up against him and cause him to lose, along with his life, his honors and his dignities. That is why, without making any inquiry, he ordered the beheading of all those who had followed the advice of the blessed virgin. It is beyond doubt that these Martyrs received in the shedding of their blood the regeneration of holy baptism and merited eternal life.

After they had been executed, the perfidious tyrant, seeing the invincible constancy of the virgin and despairing of obtaining anything from her, ordered that she be subjected to the capital sentence. The executioners seized her and led her outside the city, to the place destined for executions. The blessed Margaret asked for a few moments to collect herself, and when she had finished her prayer, she told the executioner that he could strike. And he, seizing his sword, as he had been ordered, cut off her head. This blessed virgin was martyred for the name of Christ on the 16th of the Kalends of August.

Saint Margaret of Antioch is represented: 1° leading a chained dragon, a symbol of the temptations suggested to her by the enemy of salvation, which she knew how to overcome; 2° carrying a belt in her hand, because, in some pilgrimages in honor of this Saint, women wear a belt containing her relics, and this devotion aims to avoid accidents during pregnancy or various kidney ailments. In Italy, and especially in France, and particularly at Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Sai nt Margaret was honore Saint-Germain des Prés A site for the preservation of relics in Paris. d as the protector of pregnant women; 3° with a large vessel near her that recalls the cauldron of boiling water into which she was plunged; 4° carrying a small cross in her hand, a symbol of her great love for Jesus; 5° in a shepherdess costume, tending the sheep of her nurse.

## CULT AND RELICS.

The faithful, having learned of her martyrdom, came to take her body and gave it an honorable burial, according to the rite of the Christians. When peace had been restored to the Church, a basilica was erected in that place in honor of the holy virgin martyr. It was in the 11th century, and during the Crusades, that her cult passed from the East to the West. It soon became very famous there, especially in France, England, and Germany.

Vida, the glory of the Christian muses, composed two hymns in honor of the Saint, who is one of the titular patrons of the city of Cremona, the poet's homeland. In the first, he implores the Saint to cast an eye of compassion upon Italy, and upon Cremona in particular, which, at that time, were exposed to the ravages of war. In the second, the poet asks, through the intercession of the one whose praises he sings, not for a long life, riches, or honors, but for the grace to live and die holily, in order to obtain the happiness of praising God in the company of the elect.

Various relics of Saint Margaret were brought to France: in the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in Paris, a chin bone, placed at the base of a rich silver statue, a gift from Marie de' Medici, wife of Henry IV, and also a belt of the Saint; at the convent of the Ave Maria, in Paris; at the abbey of Froidmont, in the diocese of Beauvais; in the church of Saint-Bieux, in Senlis; in the collegiate church of Andrelec, in the suburbs of Brussels, some parts of the head; at Abbeville, at Gisors, etc., various bones. The greater part of her body is said to be in Montefiascone, in the States of the Church. The cathedral of Troyes still possesses, in a gilded wooden reliqu Troyes Episcopal see of Manasses. ary, the foot, well-preserved, with the bones, nerves, and even the flesh, of Saint Margaret; this distinguished relic has existed for centuries in the treasury of the basilica. It was saved, during the Revolution of 1793, through the care of M. Rebours, canon-treasurer, who returned it to the said cathedral at the time of the restoration of the Catholic cult. Its recognition was carried out in 1802 by the canons of the former chapter of Troyes. Monseigneur de Boulogne verified its authenticity in 1811 through testimonial letters.

Acta Sanctorum, translation by the Benedictines of France; Local notes provided by M. l'abbé Cœur, vicar-general of Troyes.