Today,
in the 1962 Dominican Rite Calendar, we celebrate the feast of St. Margaret of Hungary, virgin, of the Order of Preachers. Though the feast is III Class, all is taken from the Proper of the Saints, and at Lauds the Psalms of Sunday are prayed. At Lauds and Vespers a commemoration is made of St. Prisca, virgin and martyr. In addition, a second commemoration is made at Lauds of the office of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday. At Pretiosa, the obit of Barnabas of Vercelli, 15th Master General of the Order is read.
From “Short Lives of the Dominican Saints” (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, and Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1901):
Saint Margaret's grave at the Dominican Monastery, Margaret Island, Budapest |
Her parents afterwards obtained a Papal dispensation
in order to marry her to the King of Bohemia, but this only gave Margaret an
opportunity of showing that her religious life was the result of her own free
choice, for no prayers or entreaties would induce her to quit the cloister. In
order to protect herself from further annoyances of this kind, she was solemnly
veiled and consecrated to God according to the rite given in the Roman
Pontifical, in presence of the Archbishop of Strigonia and a number of other prelates.
This ceremony took place at the altar of her aunt, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary.
Blessed Margaret
looked upon herself as the vilest person in the Convent and rendered the most
menial services, not only
to her Sisters, but even to the servants. It was her delight to wash the
dishes, sweep the house, and discharge the lowliest domestic duties. She had a
tender love for the poor and wept when she had no alms to
bestow on them. But it was above all upon her sick Sisters that she poured
forth the treasures of her charity, claiming it as her right to render them all
the most loathsome and repulsive services which their condition might require.
Her life was one of
continual prayer and hard labor and she practiced the most austere penance. Her tender love for
her Divine Spouse made her hunger after a share in His sufferings and
humiliations, and she often compelled her companions to scourge her with pitiless
severity. Her habit was worn out at the knees and elbows by her continual
genuflections and prostrations. She thirsted for martyrdom, and, on hearing a
rumor that the Tartars were about to invade Hungary, she exclaimed, "I
pray God that my father's kingdom may be spared so terrible a scourge;
nevertheless, if they are to come, I trust they will come here, that we may receive
our crown at their hands." Her love for our Blessed Lady was so great,
that, at the mere sound of the name of Mary, she would fall upon her knees and bow
her head to the dust, to do honor to her whom she delighted in saluting as
"the Mother of God and my hope."
Blessed Margaret died
at the early age of twenty eight. Almost innumerable miracles have been worked through her
intercession. Petitions were repeatedly presented to the Holy See for her
beatification; and Pius VII. extended
to the Order of St. Dominic the permission to celebrate her festival, which was
already kept in many
churches.
Prayer
O God, protector and guardian of virginity, by your favor, your servant Margaret jointed the beauty of virginity to the merit of good works; we beseech you, grant that, in the spirit of saving penance, we may be able to renew integrity of mind. Through our Lord...