MAROABBT
655
MARGABIT
bom 1242; died 18 Jan., 1271. According to a vow
which her parents made when Hungary was liberated
from the Tatars that their next chud should be dedi-
cated to religion, Margaret, in 1245, entered the Do-
minican Convent of Veszpr^m. Invested wilii the habit
at the age of four, she was transferred in her tenth year
to the Convent of the Blessed Virgin founded by her
parents on the Hasen Insel near Buda, the Margareten
insel near Budapest to-day, and where the ruins of
the convent are still to be seen. Here Margaret passed
all her life, which was consecrated to contemplation
and penance, and was venerated as a saint during her
lifetime. She strenuously opposed the plans of her
father, who for political reasons wished to marry her
to King Ottokar II of Bohemia. Margaret appears to
have taken solenm vows when she was eighteen. All
narratives call special attention to Margaret's sanctity
and her spirit of earthly renunciation. Her whole life
was one unbroken chain of devotional exercises and
penance. She chastised herself unceasingly from
childhood, wore hair garments, and an iron girdle
round her waist, as well as shoes spiked with nails; she
was frequently scourged, and performed the most
menial work in the convent.
Shortly after her death, steps were taken for her canonization, and in 1271-1276 investigations refer- ring to this were taken up; in 1275-1276 the process was introduced, but not completed. Not till 1640 was the process again taken up, and again it was not con- cluded. Attempts which were made in 1770 by Count Ignatz Batthydnyi were also fruitless; so that the canonization never took place, although Margaret was venerated as a saint shortly after her death; and Pius VI consented on 28 July, 1789, to her veneration as a saint. Pius VII raised her feast day to a festum duplex. The minutes of the proceedings of 1271-1272 record seventy-four miracles; and among those giving testimony were twenty-seven in whose favour the miracles had been wrought. These cases refer to the cure of illnesses, and one case of awakening from death. Margaret's remains were given to the Poor Clares when the Dominican Order was dissolved; they were first kept in Pozsony and later in Buda. After the order had been suppressed by Joseph II, in 1782, the relics were destroyed in 1789; but some portions are still preserved in Gran, Gyor, Pannonhalma. The feast day of the saint is 18 January. In art she is depicted with a lily and holding a book in her hand.
N£mstht-Frakn6i, ArptidhAzi b. Margit tHriineiihex (Buda- pest, 1885), beiog oontributioaa on the history of Blessed Mar- garet of the House of Arpaden; Demk6, Arpddhdzi b. MaraU ilete (Budapest, 1895), a hfe of the saint. Further bibliqgrapn-
ih
ogr
ical particulars in Arpdd and the Arpaden^ edited by (JsXnki
(Budapest, 1908), 387-388; minutes of the proceedings of
1271-72, published in MonumerUa Romana Episeopaiua t^M-
yrimienain, I (Budapest, 1896). -
A. AldXst.
Marp^aret of Lorraine, Blessed, Duchess d'Alen- 9on, religious of the order of Poor Clares^ bom in 1463 at the castle of Vauddmont (Lorraine); died at Argentan (Brittany) 2 November, 1521. The daughter of Fern de Vaud^mont and of Yolande d'Anjou, little Mar- garet became an orphan at an early age and was brought up at Aix-en-Proven^e, by King Ren6 of Anjou, her grandfather. The latter dying in 1480 she was sent back to Lorraine to her brother, Ren6 II, who gave her in marriage at Paris, in 1488, to the Duke d'Alen9on. Left a widow in 1492 she busied herself in the administration of her duchy and the education of her children. When she was relieved of the duties imposed on her by her position she de- cided to renounce the world and retired to Mortagne, to a monastery of religious women who followed the rule of Saint Elizabeth. Later having brought with her to Argentan some of these nuns she founded there another monastery which she placed, with the authorization of the pope, under the rule of Saint Clare, modified by the Minor Observants. She her-
self took the relifflous habit in this house and made her
vows on 11 October, 1520, but on 2 November, 1521.
after having lived for a year in the most humble and
austere manner, she died a most holy death in her
modest cell at the age of sixty-two. Her body, pre-
served in the monastery of the Poor Clares, was trans-
ferred when that monastery was suppressed to the
church of St. (3ermain d'Argentan, but in 1793 it was
profaned and thrown into the common burying-
place.
The memory of Margaret of Lorraine is preserved in the Martjrrologium Frandscanum" and in the " Martvrologium gallicanum". After an invitation made by the Bishop of S^z, Jacques Calamus de Pont- carr^, Louis XIII begged Pope Urban VIII to order a canonical inquiry into the virtues and the miracles of the pious Duchess d'Alen^on; unfortunately in the political agitations of the time the realization of this
Slan was lost sight of. At the initiative of the present ►ishop of S6ez an effort is being made to obtain recog- nition at the Court of Rome of her cultus. The pro- cess is well on its way.
Hameau, Laviede Maryueriie de Lorraine j ducheeae d^AUnctm (Paris, 1628); Lambel, Marguerite de Lorraine, ducheaee d'Alen^ pon (lille, 1862); Laurent, Hiatoire de Marguerite de Lorraine^ ducheaee tTAlenQon, fondatrice ei religieuae du monaaUre de Ste. Claire d' Argentan (Paris, 1854); Serrb, Vie de la B. Marguerite de Lorraine, ducheaae d'Alenpon (Paris, 1652).
Li:oN Clugnbt.
Margaret of Savoy, Blessed, Marchioness of Mont- ferrat, bom at Pignerol in 1382; died at Alba, 23 No- vember, 1464. She was the only daughter of Louis of Savoy, Prince of Achaia, and of Bonne, dau^ter of Amadeus VI, Count of Savov, and was given m mar- riage in 1403 to Theodore, Marquis of Montferrat, a descendant of the Greek emperors, the Palseologi, and widower of Jeanne, daughter of the duke of Bar and of Lorraine. Her piety, already great, increased after she had heard the preaching of St. Vincent Ferrer, who spent several months in Montferrat. Therefore, when she was left a widow in 1418, she decided to aban- don the world. Leaving the direction of the affairs of the marcjuisate to Jean-Jacques, the son of her hus- band by his first marriage, she retired to Alba where she joined the Third Order of St. Dominic. A little later, Philip Maria, duke of Milan, asked her hand in marriage and begged the pope to relieve her of her vow. But Margaret opposed a formal refusal to this request and thorougiily resolved to give herself en- tirely to God: with several young women of rank, she foimded a monastery and placed it under the rule of the order of St. Dominic. Redoubling her mortifica- tions she made rapid progress in the way of perfection and died in a saintly manner. On 13 DeoemDer, 1464, her remains were placed in a simple tomb; in 1481 they were transferred to a different and much more beautiful sepulchre built in her monastery at the ex- pense of William, Marquis of Montferrat.
Allaria, Storia deUa B. Margherita di Savota,TnareKe»a di Montferrato (Alba, 1877); Baresiano, Viia deUa B. MargherUa di Savoia, domenicana, prineipeaaa di Piemonte (Turin, 1638)^ Barisano, Viia delta B. Margherita di Savoia, Mareheaa da Montferrato (Turin, 1602; ibid., 1892); Cabbara, Vita civile e religioaa delta B. Margherita di SavoiOf marcheaa at Montferrato
S'urin, 1833); 0>drbtto, Vita e miracoloai portenti della B, argherita di Savoia (Turin; 1653): Rschac, Lee eaintee de Vordre de SL Dominique (Pans, 1635) : Rstnaud. Vie dela B, Marguerite de Savoie de Vordre de St. Dominique (Paris, 1674); Sbmbria, Vita della B. Margherita di Savoia (Turin, 1833).
L±os Clugnbt.
Margaret of Scotland, Saint, b. about 1045, d. 16 Nov., 1093, was a daughter of Edward "Outremere", or "the Exile *', by Agatha, kinswoman of Gisela, the wife of St. Stephen of Hungary. She was the grand- daughter of Edmund Ironside. A constant tradition asserts that Margaret's father and his brother Edmund were sent to Hungary for safety during the reign of Canute, but no record of the fact has been foimd m that country. The date of Margaret's birth cannot ba
