Margaret Aethling, born of the ancient Saxon House of Wessex, was a daughter of Edward Outremere Atheling ("Edward the Exile" and Agatha, kinswoman of Gisela (wife of St. Stephen of Hungary), also a possible niece of Henry III, Emperor of Germany; she was born in Hungary in 1046. She is also the granddaughter of Edmund Ironside.
A constant tradition asserts that Margaret's father & his brother Edmund were sent to Hungary for safety during the reign of Canute, but no record of the fact has been found in that country.
The date of Margaret's birth cannot be ascertained with accuracy, but it must have been between the years 1038 (when St. Stephen died) and 1057, when her father returned to England. It appears that Margaret came with him on that occasion and, on his death and the conquest of England by the Normans, her mother Agatha decided to return to the Continent.
A storm however drove their ship to Scotland, where Malcolm III received the party under his protection, subsequently taking Margaret as a wife. This event had been delayed for a while by Margaret's desire to enter religion, but it took place sometime between 1067 and 1070.
In her position as Queen Consort, all of her great influence was thrown into the cause of religion and piety. A synod was held, and among the special reforms instituted the most important were the regulation of the Lenten fast, observance of the Easter Communion, and the removal of certain abuses concerning marriage within the prohibited degrees.
Her private life was given up to constant prayer and practices of piety. She founded several churches, including the Abbey of Dunfermline, built to enshrine her greatest treasure, a relic of the true Cross.
Her book of the Gospels, richly adorned with jewels, was one day dropped into a river and was (according to legend) miraculously recovered, is now in the Bodleian library at Oxford.
She foretold the day of her death, which took place at Edinburgh on 16 Nov 1093, her body being buried before the high altar at Dunfermline.
Margaret was canonized in 1250 by Innocent IV, and her relics were translated to a new shrine on 19 June, 1259, the base of which is still visible beyond the modern east wall of the restored Dunfermline church.
At the Reformation her head passed into the possession of Mary Queen of Scots, and later was secured by the Jesuits at Douai, where it is believed to have perished during the French Revolution. According to George Conn, "de duplici statu religionis apud Scots" (Rome, 1628), the rest of the relics, together with those of Malcolm, were acquired by Philip II of Spain and placed in two urns in the Escorial. When, however, Bishop Gillies of Edinburgh applied through Pius IX for their restoration to Scotland, they could not be found.
The chief authority for Margaret's life is the contemporary biography printed in "Acta SS.", II, June, 320. Its authorship has been ascribed to Turgot, the saint's confessor, a monk of Durham and later Archbishop of St.. Andrews, and also to Theodoric, a somewhat obscure monk; in spite of much controversy, the point remains quite unsettled. The feast of St. Margaret is now observed by the whole Church on 10 June.
Author: DJ Shave
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