Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/34

22 22 ST. MARGARET Many arose and went to her and were edified by her repentance, and the devil nerer again Inred her into self-compla- oency. Onoe she went with a cord round her neck, in the poorest clothing, to Montepnlciano, where she had lived daring those nine years of infamous pros- perity. She begged for alms, saying, so brilliant, who scandalized you all and who wounded your souls t Take ven- geance on me." At last she determined to serve and beg for the poor. With the help of the charitable Cortonese she built a hospital of St. Mary of Mercy, called the Miseri- oordia. It is still standing. She gave up her former cell to her sister Adbiana (2) and served the destitute and the sick, begging from door to door for them until, worn out with her charitable labours and with more than twenty years of the most severe penance, she removed to a poor place in the highest part of the town near the citadel. This move was op- posed by the Franciscan monks, lest she should not be buried amongst them. Here she spent the short remainder of her life, and died Feb. 22, 1297. She was embalmed and laid in a new tomb in the Francisan church of St. Basil, where twenty years before, the crucifix had spoken to her. She was afterwards translated to the new church — the church of the monks of St. Basil, who had re- moved there ; it was erected in her name, on a neighbouring hill, by the Cortonese and the monks. In 1505 Leo X. went to visit her tomb, recommended himself to her intercession, and gave leave to exhibit her relics for public veneration and to celebrate her festival in Cortona and in her own Order. Many miracles re- warded the faith of those who sought her intercession. Urban VIII. declared her *' Blessed," and she was solemnly canonized in 1728. Her son became a Franciscan monk and a g^reat preacher. AA.SS, Jacobilli, Santi delV Umbria, Leon. Graspar Bombaci. Her Life by Marchese. Leggendario. Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art. St. Margaret ( 1 9) of Castello, April 13, + 132U, 0. S. D. Born blind in 1287 at Metola, in the duchy of Spoleto. She wore a hair shirt from the age of seven and fasted and prayed much. Her parents were greatly distressed at her blindness and took her to Castello, where they offered and commended her to a saint of the Order of St Francis, whose body was kept there with great venera- tion and wrought many miracles. As the saint did not open the eyes of the child, her parents abandoned her in the streets of Castello and went home vdth- out her. Some charitable women took pity on her and placed her in a little convent which bore the name of St. Margaret; she did not remain there long, as her sanctity and asceticism so much exceeded those of all her com- panions that they were dissatisfied with her, and spoke evil of her, and turned her out in disgrace. A certain honest man, called Venturino, took her in for the love of God; his wife Grigia re- ceived her with great kindness, and she passed the rest of her life with them. The Lord to whom the forsaken child belonged began immediately to pay for her board and lodging in miracles and the notorious sanctity of His servant. Although owing to her blindness she had never learnt to read, she used to assist and instruct the sons of Ventu- rino and Grigia in preparing their daily tasks for schooL One day she was pray- ing in her room at the top of the house when the kitchen took fire. A concourse of people rushed to the house so that half the town were assembled there^ making so much noise and confusion that Grigia did not know whether the fire or the crowd was worse. In her distress she called Margaret, who left her prayers and threw her cloak down BAJingy '* Don't be afraid, Signora Grigia, throw this over the fire and it will go out." Grigia obeyed her. The fire was extinguished quicker than if a river of water had been turned into it ; and all the people saw that the power of God was greater than the deluge. Margaret received the habit of the Order of St. Dominic, from the brothers of that body, and frequented their church, still living with Venturino and Grigia. Her favourite subjects of
 * Behold your Margaret, so pretty and