As with all ancient saints, St. Margaret of Antiochโs story is a blend of tradition, truth, legend, and mystery. While she was highly venerated in the Middle Ages and is still regularly invoked for intercession, her visibility in the Church Triumphant has waned over the years. While it is a shame when any saintโs memory is lost to the sands of time, Margaretโs being so is particularly regrettable considering her story and the courage that young people, especially young women, can take from it. In a world filled with people looking for heroes, Margaret ought to stand out and shine brighter than any pop star, athlete, or actor. Her story and witness to Christ are accessible, relatable, and transcendent. Letโs get to know this wonderful saint.
St. Margaret of Antioch
St. Margaret was born in the third century in Antioch, in modern Turkey. She was a pious, reverent Christian even though her father, Theodosius, was a prominent pagan priest. She had converted to Christianity when she was quite young, following the model of her nurse and caregiver, who took over the role of Margaretโs mother after her biological mother died. She refused to bend the knee to her father or her fatherโs paganism. She refused to offer worship to Emperor Diocletian or sacrifice to Roman gods. She endured unspeakable tortures at the hands of a sadistic Roman official, named Olybrius, who lusted after her and was denied at every turn by the young Margaret who had made a vow of perpetual virginity.
The most dramatic event in Margaretโs life came when, according to legend, she was swallowed whole by Satan, who had appeared to her in the form of a dragon. When the partially digested Margaret made the Sign of the Cross in the dragonโs belly, he burst open, leaving Margaret unharmed. Eventually, Margaret would be executed by beheading after repeatedly refusing to renounce her Christianity. Her feast day is celebrated yearly on July 20th by the Roman Catholic Church.
During the Middle Ages, St. Margaret was part of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. These saints were invoked by the faithful during times of overwhelming distress, in particular, the Black Plague. Today, there might not be bubonic plague to contend with here in the West, but there are other dangers, or dragons, if you will, lurking around corners waiting to devour the pious. While devotion to Margaret has fallen in popularity, she and her 13 companions are still very much alive and willing to come to our aid to slay the dragons in our lives through their intercession and the Sign of the Cross.
Facing Dragons
The modern world has not outgrown dragons. It has simply renamed them. Dragons exist everywhere in our society in the forms of pornography, depression stemming from social media usage, drug addiction, vanity, nihilism, hook-up culture, and spiritual ambivalence, to name a few. While these issues may not stack up to the Black Plague in the imagination of the secular world, they most certainly continue to haunt the dreams of the believer.
Perhaps the best course of action is not to look past the devotions of our Catholic forebears, but to embrace them. As modern people tend to do, we see those who existed in previous generations as intellectually unrefined and therefore unworthy of emulation. However, while we may have advanced technologically and academically, it can be argued that we have regressed spiritually. Believing that there is nothing to learn from those who came before us, beyond warnings of what we should avoid, is to sell our predecessors short and to deny ourselves the opportunity to learn timeless truths about faith and devotion. We simply cannot afford to do that, as the spiritual battles we wage today are the same ones that the Christians who first turned to Margaret for her intercession fought generations before we were born.
Pursuing Purity
Purity is an interesting term today. On one hand, it is sought after by everyone when it comes to different endeavors and applications in their lives, and how thoroughly they accomplish what is set in front of them. On the other hand, the term is castigated as oppressive when used in moral and religious senses. That particular form of purity is seen as restrictive when it comes to what someone can do or should do.
While Margaretโs vow of perpetual virginity is laudable, it is not a requirement for purity. Nor is her willingness to endure unspeakable physical pain at the hands of lust-fueled torturers. What makes Margaretโs purity stand out as so important for young men and women today is her defiance in the face of corruption. Margaretโs purity was not fragile. It was durable. Her purity and witness to Christ did not allow the world, or as it was in her case, the dragon, to swallow her without a fight. When Satan himself believed he had snuffed out Margaretโs light, she turned to the Cross and was delivered instantly from his grasp. Who better to turn to, then, when the world seems to be overwhelming and relentless in its desire to swallow us up than St. Margaret?
St. Margaret of Antioch reminds us that holiness is not weakness, passivity, acquiescence to pressure, or retreat from the world. It is the courage to remain uncorrupted when the world insists that corruption is normal. When corruption is demanded of us, we are called to be Margaret, whether we are men or women. The dragons that threaten modern people may look different than the one described in Margaretโs legend, but they are no less real in their desire to consume what is good and pure within us. In an age searching desperately for authentic heroes, Margaret stands as a witness that faith in Christ is still possible and sorely needed, even when surrounded by pressure, temptation, and fear.
Choosing Our Saintly Patrons
The Church does not lack saints capable of speaking to the modern world. Rather, we have forgotten how to listen to them. Regardless of how many generations have come and gone since Margaret bore her witness to Christ and earned her sainthood, she stands the test of time in her quiet purity and unwavering love of Our Lord. Perhaps it is time to rediscover St. Margaret and, with her, remember that no dragon is stronger than the Cross.
St. Margaret of Antioch, pray for us!
Photo by Thamara Maura on Unsplash
