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Margaret of Antioch
(3rd century)

Biographical

Margaret, one of the most venerated saints during the Middle Ages, and one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, is believed to have been based on the Eastern St Marina of Antioch and shares a connection with St Pelagia of Antioch, also known as Margaret or Marina. Her story, widely regarded as fictitious, tells of her defiance of a Roman prefect named Olybrius, who sought to marry her. Margaret, a Christian virgin, was disowned by her pagan father and raised by a pious nurse after her mother’s death. When Olybrius pursued her, attempting to make her his concubine, she resisted, and was brought before him in a public trial in Antioch. Refusing to renounce her faith, she underwent several tortures, including being thrown into a cauldron of boiling water, but miraculously emerged unharmed. Ultimately, she was beheaded during the reign of Emperor Diocletian (284–305). Her emblem, a dragon, references one of her trials where Satan, disguised as a dragon, swallowed her but was forced to expel her unharmed. Margaret’s feast day was originally 20 July, but in 1969, the Roman Catholic Church removed it from the calendar due to doubts about her existence. Despite this, she was among the most prominent saints in the medieval period, with her voice reportedly heard by St Joan of Arc. St Margaret’s veneration extended beyond her death, particularly as the patron saint of expectant mothers, especially those in difficult labour. The Greek Church honours her as Marine on the 13th of July. Her relics were venerated across Europe, and she is often depicted in art as a shepherdess, leading a dragon, or standing beside a cauldron, which recalls her miraculous survival of the boiling water.

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