Saint Margaret of Scotland
Queen
- Feast Day
- November 16
- Life
- 1045–1093
- Canonized
- 1250
- Born
- Mecseknadasd, Hungary (in exile)
Margaret was born around 1045 in Hungary, where her father Edward the Exile, of the Anglo-Saxon royal house of Wessex, was living in refuge from the Danish conquest of England. The family returned to England in 1057, but her father died on arrival; following the Norman Conquest of 1066, Margaret, her mother, and her siblings fled north and were received at the court of King Malcolm III of Scotland, whom she married around 1070.
As Queen of Scots she set herself to the reform of both the Scottish court and the Scottish Church. She introduced to court the customs of Continental and Anglo-Saxon Christian piety: regular hours of prayer, daily Mass, fasting, and the care of the poor (she famously washed the feet of the destitute and served orphans before her own meals). Through her influence Malcolm restored ruined churches and founded new ones, including a Benedictine priory at Dunfermline that became her burial place. She convoked synods that brought the Scottish Church into closer conformity with the wider Western Church on matters of Lenten observance, Easter date, and reception of Communion. She bore eight children, three of whom became Kings of Scots; her daughter Matilda married King Henry I of England. Margaret died at Edinburgh Castle on November 16, 1093, four days after learning of the deaths of her husband and eldest son in battle. Pope Innocent IV canonized her in 1250.
Margaret is the model of the Christian wife and mother as a force for ecclesial reform: not by leaving her state in life but by sanctifying it. Her practical charity (she founded ferries across the Forth so pilgrims could reach St Andrews, the Queen's Ferry that gave the modern town its name) made holiness institutional.
Patronages
Scotland · large families · widows
Catholic Churches Named After Saint Margaret of Scotland
20 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint Margaret of Scotland's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- St Margaret Mary’s, Croydon Park — Croydon Park, SA
- St Margaret Mary, Edithburgh — Edithburgh, SA
- Haxby St Margaret Clitherow — York, ENG
- St. Margaret Parish — Grand Mira, NS
- St Margaret — Lochgilphead, SCOTLAND
- St Margaret's, Montrose — Montrose, SCOTLAND
- St Margaret's & St Serf's Catholic Church — Airdrie, SCT
- St. Margaret Mary — Canoe Narrows, SK
- St. Margaret — Tempe, AZ
- St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church — St. Margaret's, PE
- St Margaret and All Saints — Canning Town, LONDON
- St Margaret's, Comrie — Comrie, SCOTLAND
- St. Margaret Mary's (Castlemilk) — Glasgow, SCT
- St Margarets-on-Thames Catholic Church — St Margarets-on-Thames, ENG
- St. Margaret of Scotland — Buzzards Bay, MA
- St. Margaret — West Bay Road, NS
- St Margaret Clitherow - Threshfield — Threshfield, ENG
- St Margaret Mary — Coleford, ENG
- St. Margaret of Scotland Parish — St. Margaret's Village, NS
- St. Margaret of Scotland — Arisaig, NS
Sources