Margaret of Cortona
Today once was the feast of St. Margaret of Cortona.
Free-base biography - as if someone asked me about her life…
She fell in love with a handsome nobleman who had seduced her, and moved in with him, to escape a horrible home life. She enjoyed the luxuries of the upper class and became a sort of ‘fashionista’. She flaunted her irregular relationship and new found status before the entire town. She feasted and dressed luxuriously, bearing a son to her lover, scandalizing the entire populace. (Imagine Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie - or celebrities such as these - I think Margaret was like that.)
Her lover never returned from a hunting trip, however, his dog found his way back home to beckon Margaret to the site of his death; he appeared to have been murdered. Margaret was struck with horror as she gazed upon his corpse realizing her lover may have been damned. She repented of her sins and took her son away to lead a life of penance, having been rejected by her former friends, and family, with whom she initially sought refuge.
She found sanctuary with the Franciscans of Cortona, who eventually admitted her as a tertiary. Her penance was extraordinary, and Our Lord granted her many mystical graces, calling her the Magdalen of the Seraphic Order.
How’s that for a brief biography of St. Margaret? Her new feast day is actually on my birthday, May 16, but I continue to observe today’s date as well. Though we did not do the same things, our sinful lives were similar…how I hope I may imitate her penance and prayer.
February 23rd, 2007 at 5:31 am
I just knew that you were going to write about Margarita da Cortona! She had panache as a sinner — and panache as a saint!
February 23rd, 2007 at 8:27 am
There is a chapter on St. Margaret in the entertaining book Saints Behaving Badly which I just finished. It’s a quick read.