MARGHERITA, saint. — Highly venerated in antiquity and the Middle Ages as one of the holy auxiliaries (v.) and particularly on behalf of women in childbirth. She is commemorated by the Greeks on 17 July under the name Marina, and by the Latins on the 20th, under the name M. and as a martyr of Antioch. The information concerning her life and martyrdom is uncertain and obscure; probably during the persecution of Diocletian.
The Passio, highly fabulous, is connected with a series of legendary writings whose principal character is a martyr Pelagia of Antioch. — Vedi tav. V. BIBLICA.: Acta SS. Iulii, V, Parigi 1868, pp. 24–45; Synaxarium Constantinopolitanum, p. 825; H. Delchaye, Les légendes hagiographiques, 3rd ed., Bruxelles 1937, pp. 186–94; Martyr, Romanum, p. 297. Agostino Amore