MARGHERITA, Saint. — Long venerated in antiquity and the Middle Ages as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers (v.) and especially by women in childbirth. The Greeks commemorate her on July 17 under the name Marina, while the Latins celebrate her on July 20 as MARGHERITA, as a martyr of Antioch. The details of her life and martyrdom are uncertain and obscure; the persecution under Diocletian was probably the one considered in her case.
The *Passio*, which is highly legendary, is linked to a series of apocryphal writings featuring a martyr named Pelagia of Antioch. — See plate V. BIBLICA.: Acta SS. Iulii, V. Paris 1868, pp. 24-45; Synaxarium Constantinopolitanum, p. 825; H. Delehaye, *Les légendes hagiographiques*, 3rd ed., Brussels 1937, pp. 186-94; Martyrologium Romanum, p. 297.