Margaret of Cortona, Saint

MARGARET OF CORTONA, Saint. - Born in 1247 at Laviano, then in the diocese of Chiusi, died at Cortona on 22 February 1297, and therefore called of Cortona. Left

Having lost her parents, she consecrated herself to God with a vow of perpetual virginity (1524) and devoted herself entirely to the service of the poor and of the plague-stricken, assisted by the Madonna and by St. Roch, of whom she was likewise most devout. By order of the Madonna and with the cooperation of the faithful, convinced by extraordinary prodigies, she built at Cabera a church dedicated to the Annunciation in 1535, and near the church a monastery, in which she enclosed herself with other virgins.

In 1599 the "Margheritine" were transferred to Compiano and subjected to the Rule of St. Augustine. The monastery flourished until the Napoleonic storm. The memory of the Devout One remains always alive among her people. The process for her beatification was begun in the 16th century.

Having chosen as directors of her conscience the Friars Minor of the Convent of St. Francis, she was admitted, after a trial of three years, into the Franciscan Third Order. In the meantime she devoted herself to the education of her son, who later became a Friar Minor, and especially to the exercise of charity toward the sick, founding also a hospital and associating with herself certain pious women to assist them, called the Poverelle, swept away in the Napoleonic suppression. Meanwhile the Lord filled her with special graces, ecstasies, visions and revelations, which she out of obedience manifested to her confessor friar Giunta Bevegnati of the Friars Minor, who has preserved them in the Legenda beatae Margaritae. This is the principal and most reliable source for the life of the Saint. Wadding in his Annales (v. bibl.) and the liturgy have made of M. before her conversion a public woman, who later became the seraphic Magdalene. This is historically false. M. was only irregularly united with a man. Leo X in 1515 permitted the feast at Cortona and in the diocese, which Urban VIII extended in 1623 to the Franciscan Order; she was inserted in the Roman Martyrology by decree of Clement XI of 13 July 1715; she was canonized by Benedict XIII on 16 May 1728. Her body is venerated incorrupt in the church of the Friars Minor, called today that of St. M., elevated to the dignity of minor basilica in 1927. The feast is celebrated on 22 February. - See plate VI.

Riccardo Pratesi

FOLKLORE

The saint, protectress of her hospitable Cortona and of penitents, inspired a popularizing "story" in 53 stanzas of "canzone alla corsa," circulated through popular prints from the first half of the nineteenth century.

Her story has also been brought to the stage several times: a versified representation, The Conversion of St. M. of C. by Aci Drepaneo, pseudonym of the Trapani man of letters Bernardo Bonaiuto (1714-84), enjoyed very wide popularity. This sacred drama, which also contains a part in Sicilian dialect, continued to be performed for two centuries and went through many reprints.

The feast of St. M. falls on February 22. In French folklore the saint is often mistakenly confused with St. Margaret of Antioch, who is celebrated instead on July 20, and who in popular devotion seems to have supplanted the ancient goddess Lucina, inasmuch as she is invoked by women in childbirth with special prayers and forms of devotion.

Paolo Toschi