From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   February 22nd - St. Margaret of Cortona   
      
   A penitent of the Third Order of St. Francis, born at Laviano in Tuscany in   
   1247; died at Cortona, 22 February, 1297. At the age of seven years Margaret   
   lost her mother and two years later her father married a second time.   
   Between   
   the daughter and her step-mother there seems to have been but little   
   sympathy or   
   affection, and Margaret was one of those natures who crave affection. When   
   about   
   seventeen years of age she made the acquaintance of a young cavalier, who,   
   some   
   say, was a son of Gugliemo di Pecora, lord of Valiano, with whom she one   
   night   
   fled from her father's house. Margaret in her confessions does not mention   
   her   
   lover's name. For nine years she lived with him in his castle near   
   Montepulciano, and a son was born to them. Frequently she besought her lover   
   to   
   marry her; he as often promised to do so, but never did. In her confessions   
   she   
   expressly says that she consented to her lover's importunities unwillingly.   
   Wadding and others who have described her in these early years as an   
   abandoned   
   woman, either had not rightly read her legend, or had deepened the shadows   
   of   
   her early life to make her conversion seem the more wonderful. Even during   
   this   
   period Margaret was very compassionate towards the poor and relieved their   
   wants; she was also accustomed to seek out quiet places where she would   
   dream of   
   a life given to virtue and the love of God. Once some of her neighbors bade   
   her   
   look to her soul before it was too late. She replied that they need have no   
   fear   
   of her, for that she would die a saint and that her critics would come as   
   pilgrims to her shrine.   
      
   She was at last set free from her life of sin by the tragic death of her   
   lover,   
   who was murdered whilst on a journey. Margaret's first intimation of his   
   death   
   was the return of his favourite hound without its master. The hound led her   
   to   
   his body. It was characteristic of her generosity that she blamed herself   
   for   
   his irregular life, and began to loathe her beauty which had fascinated him.   
   She   
   returned to his relatives all the jewels and property he had given her and   
   left   
   his home; and with her little son set out for her father's house. Her father   
   would have received her, but his wife refused, and Margaret and her son were   
   turned adrift. For a moment she felt tempted to trade upon her beauty; but   
   she   
   prayed earnestly and in her soul she seemed to hear a voice bidding her go   
   to   
   the Franciscan Friars at Cortona and put herself under their spiritual   
   direction. On her arrival at Cortona, two ladies, noticing her loneliness,   
   offered her assistance and took her home with them. They afterwards   
   introduced   
   her to the Franciscan Friars at the church of San Francesco in the city. For   
   three years Margaret had to struggle hard with temptations. Naturally of a   
   gay   
   spirit, she felt much drawn to the world. But temptation only convinced her   
   the   
   more of the necessity of self-discipline and an entire consecration of   
   herself   
   to religion. At times remorse for the past would have led her into   
   intemperate   
   self-mortifications, but for the wise advice of her confessors. As it was,   
   she   
   fasted rigorously, abstaining altogether from flesh-meat, and generally   
   subsisting upon bread and herbs. Her great physical vitality made such   
   penance a   
   necessity to her.   
      
   After three years of probation Margaret was admitted to the Third Order of   
   St.   
   Francis, and from this time she lived in strict poverty. Following the   
   example   
   of St. Francis, she went and begged her bread. But whilst thus living on   
   alms,   
   she gave her services freely to others; especially to the sick-poor whom she   
   nursed. It was about the time that she became a Franciscan tertiary that the   
   revelations began which form the chief feature in her story. It was in the   
   year   
   1277, as she was praying in the church of the Franciscan Friars, that she   
   seemed   
   to hear these words: "What is thy wish, poverella?" and she replied: "I   
   neither   
   seek nor wish for aught but Thee, my Lord Jesus." From this time forth she   
   lived   
   in intimate communing with Christ. At first He always addressed her as   
   "poverella", and only after a time of probation and purification did He call   
   her   
   "My child". But Margaret, though coming to lead more and more the life of a   
   recluse, was yet active in the service of others. She prevailed upon the   
   city of   
   Cortona to found a hospital for the sick-poor, and to supply nurses for the   
   hospital, she instituted a congregation of Tertiary Sisters, known as le   
   poverelle. She also established a confraternity of Our Lady of Mercy; the   
   members of which bound themselves to support the hospital, and to help the   
   needy   
   wherever found, and particularly the respectable poor. Moreover on several   
   occasions Margaret intervened in public affairs for the aim of putting an   
   end to   
   civic feuds. Twice in obedience to a Divine command, she upbraided Guglielmo   
   Ubertini Pazzi, Bishop of Arezzo, in which diocese Cortona was situated,   
   because   
   he lived more like a secular prince and soldier, than like a pastor of   
   souls.   
   This prelate was killed in battle at Bibbiena in 1289. The year previous to   
   this, Margaret for the sake of greater quiet had removed her lodging from   
   the   
   hospital she had founded to near the ruined church of St. Basil above the   
   city.   
   This church she now caused to be repaired. It was here that she spent her   
   last   
   years, and in this church she was buried. But after her death it was rebuilt   
   in   
   more magnificent style and dedicated in her own name. There her body remains   
   enshrined to this day, incorrupt, in a silver shrine over the high-altar.   
   Although honoured as a beata from the time of her death, Margaret was not   
   canonized until 16 May, 1728.   
      
   The original "Legend of St. Margaret" was written by her director and   
   friend,   
   Fra Giunta Bevegnati. It is almost entirely taken up with her revelations,   
   and   
   was mainly dictated by Margaret herself, in obedience to her directors. It   
   is   
   published by the Bollandists in "Acta SS., mense Februarii, die 22". The   
   most   
   notable edition of the "Legend" however is that published in 1793 by da   
   Pelago,   
   together with an Italian translation and twelve learned dissertations   
   dealing   
   with the life and times of the saint. In 1897 a new edition of da Pelago's   
   work,   
   but without the dissertations, was published at Siena by Crivelli. An   
   English   
   version of the greater part of the "Legend", with an introductory essay, has   
   been published by Fr. Cuthbert, O.S.F.C. (London, 1906).   
      
   This version taken from:   
   http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09653b.htm   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "I thank God that I am being allowed my share in the sufferings of his   
   martyrs.   
      
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