ICONOGRAPHIE CHRÉTIENNE: Sainte MARGUERITE de HONGRIE, princesse et vierge moniale dominicaine

Sainte Marguerite de Hongrie

Princesse hongroise, moniale dominicaine (+ 1270)

Fille du roi Béla IV de Hongrie et d'une princesse byzantine, elle entra d'abord au monastère de Veszprem puis chez les Dominicaines près de Budapest. Elle y prit le voile à l'âge de 19 ans et se distingua bientôt par l'intensité de sa vie spirituelle. Elle vivait le plus pauvrement possible et donnait aux pauvres tout l'argent que lui donnait son frère, le roi Étienne V. A l'intérieur du monastère, elle cherchait les tâches les plus rudes et les plus humbles. Éprise d'ascèse, elle affligeait son corps de toutes les façons, non par fidélité à la règle dominicaine qui n'en demandait pas tant, mais de sa propre initiative. Pour mieux s'associer à la Passion du Christ, elle se flagellait souvent, portait à même la peau des cordes qui lui provoquaient des plaies. En retour, elle fut couronnée de dons mystiques assez étonnants.

Elle a été canonisée par Pie XII le 19 novembre 1943.

Près de Bude en Hongrie, l’an 1270, sainte Marguerite, vierge, fille du roi Béla IV, elle fut vouée à Dieu par ses parents pour la libération de la patrie du pouvoir des Tartares et donnée enfant aux moniales de l’Ordre des Prêcheurs. Elle fit profession à douze ans et se livra si complètement au Seigneur qu’elle s’appliqua sans hésitation à ressembler au Christ crucifié.

Martyrologe romain

SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/455/Sainte-Marguerite-de-Hongrie.html

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Juan de Borgoña (1470–1534), Margarita de Hungría ; La Magdalena, San Pedro de Verona, Santa Catalina de Siena y la beata Margarita de Hungría, circa 1515, 156 x 107, mixed technique on panel, Museo del Prado. La obra representa, en primer plano, a Santa María Magdalena arrodillada. Y detrás de ella aparecen, de izquierda a derecha, San Pedro Mártir de Verona, Santa Catalina de Siena y la beata Margarita de Hungría, que fue canonizada en 1943.

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Sainte Marguerite de Hongrie

Allocution de Sa Sainteté Pie XII

À l'occasion de la canonisation de sainte Marguerite (19 novembre 1943), le Pape avait préparé une allocution qu'il ne put prononcer en raison des événements. Elle fut publiée, à la demande de Hongrois exilés, avant l'Assomption 1944 et la fête de saint Étienne, premier roi de la nation magyare.

Comment Notre cœur n'exulterait-il pas, ému d'une joie intime, et très vive, à vous voir aujourd'hui rassemblés autour de Nous, chers Fils et Filles de la noble nation de Hongrie, dont la présence ravive en notre âme et représente les plus doux et chers souvenirs ? Souvenirs ineffaçables de ces grandes assises eucharistiques, au cours desquelles il Nous fut donné de représenter comme Légat Notre prédécesseur Pie XI, de glorieuse mémoire. Nous revoyons l'élan fervent de piété et de foi qui montait impétueusement de vos âmes et des immenses cortèges de votre peuple rassemblé de toutes les parties du royaume.

Nous rappelant et comme pour y faire écho, le vœu exprimé par la nation hongroise, dans ces journées inoubliables, - journées qui semblent être d'hier malgré le gouffre tragique qui nous en sépare. Nous manifestions alors le souhait que la bienheureuse Marguerite, rejeton de souche royale, compagne souriante et sœur de la sainte pauvreté, violette d'humilité oublieuse d'elle-même, âme eucharistique privilégiée et d'une profonde limpidité, lampe ardente devant le saint Tabernacle, dont la douce flamme scintille vivement encore aujourd'hui, même après le long cours de sept siècles, pût bientôt s'élever pour prendre rang dans la splendeur de la gloire des saints, comme une brillante étoile dans le ciel de la Hongrie. Quand elle pénètre dans les secrets conseils de Dieu, qui régit son Église, toute pensée est aveugle ; comment aurions-Nous pu alors supposer que la divine Providence se servirait de Notre ministère pour répondre à votre désir et accomplir ce vœu d'enchâsser cette nouvelle gemme dans le diadème déjà si brillant et si riche du Royaume de Marie ?

C'est une admirable histoire que celle de votre patrie ; histoire dans laquelle s'entrelacent luttes et épreuves qui illustrent sa sainte mission au service de Dieu, de l'Église et de la chrétienté ; histoire où alternent des renouveaux et des recommencements héroïques ; histoire dans les fastes de laquelle brillent ces phares lumineux que sont les saints de la dynastie des Arpad, parmi lesquels Étienne resplendit, figure géante de souverain, de législateur, de pacificateur, de promoteur de la foi et de l'Église, véritable homo apostolicus, dont la sainte main droite est au milieu de vous, symbole vénéré des grands gestes qu'il a accomplis et sauvegarde assurée de protection dans les dangers extrêmes.

Forment une couronne autour d'Étienne son fils, saint Émeric, lis virginal épanoui aux pieds de la Vierge Immaculée ; sainte Élisabeth d'Écosse, sa nièce, dont l'angélique vertu versa dans le cœur de son époux et de sa nouvelle patrie la douce pureté de l'Évangile ; saint Ladislas, idéal du chevalier du moyen âge, intrépide et bon, non moins aimé qu'admiré de ses sujets ; les deux neveux de Bela III, la bienheureuse Agnès de Prague, que sainte Claire appelait “ sa moitié ”, et Élisabeth de Thuringe, la “ chère et douce sainte ” ; enfin, ses arrière-neveux, les trois sœurs, la bienheureuse Cunégonde ou Kinga de Pologne, la bienheureuse Yolande de Pologne Kalisch, et cette Marguerite que nous contemplons aujourd'hui dans la plénitude de son triomphe. La génération suivante voit resplendir l'autre Élisabeth, rose de grâce et ange de paix du Portugal. Quelle nombreuse phalange et quelle variété d'âmes généreuses et saintes !

Ne semble-t-il pas que Dieu, dans cette famille où la sainteté est apparue si resplendissante et multiple, répandue dans un même sang, comme autant de rayons d'un même arc-en-ciel, ait voulu faire briller, pour les révéler à nos yeux, les innombrables degrés de la sainteté dont l'unique soleil est la sainteté du Christ ?

Sainteté du chef dans la constitution politique et sociale de la patrie chrétienne ; sainteté du guerrier sans faiblesse et sans haine, sainteté de l'épouse, de la mère, de la veuve ; sainteté dans la vie familiale et dans la vie du cloître ; sainteté fleurie dans les massifs du sol natal et portant ses fruits dans de lointains jardins pour le salut, la pacification et la prospérité d'autres nations.

L'originalité d'une grande sainte

De toutes ces figures héroïques de saints et de saintes, celle de Marguerite, la plus cachée et mise à part du monde, est peut-être la plus surprenante ; à certains elle ne serait pas loin d'apparaître comme la plus déconcertante. Dans les autres saints et saintes, il n'est pas difficile de découvrir des modèles qui s'appliquent à toutes les conditions de la vie : Marguerite, par contre, de premier abord, semblerait inimitable par qui que ce soit.

Marguerite a une singularité de vie et de piété, qui se rencontre rarement en d'autres saints. Mais tout saint est original, écrivait déjà dans la Pratica di amar Gesu Cristo le grand évêque et docteur saint Alphonse de Liguori, qui connaissait les multiples voies de la sainteté, par lesquelles le Saint-Esprit guide les âmes par ses ineffables inspirations vers le but suprême, en dehors de la vie commune, même si c'est celle du cloître, en dehors des mœurs et des pratiques civiles du monde, en les menant dans la solitude de l'esprit pour parler à leur cœur le langage de la mortification et de la pauvreté, si humiliant qu'il paraît étranger à toute vertu. Dans cette solitude, sous l'influence de la grâce, les singularités, qui stupéfient et étonnent celui qui les note, allant presque jusqu'à s'en offenser et les mépriser, ne sortent pas de l'influence de la charité du Christ dont elles s'inspirent et vers laquelle elles tendent, car c'est dans la charité du Christ, qui anime les saints et tout ce qu'ils font pour la victoire sur eux-mêmes, que consiste la véritable sainteté. La mortification, la piété et la dévotion des saints ont mille habiletés et manières que le monde ne peut comprendre et qui souvent, même dans la vie proprement dévote et mortifiée, ne suit pas la voie commune des vertus.

Le mépris des grandeurs humaines et des commodités de la vie matérielle de Marguerite, fille de roi, n'est-il pas une grande leçon pour les âmes moins élevées que la sienne ? Et qui oserait affirmer que le monde n'avait pas alors besoin, qu'il n'a pas, même aujourd'hui, besoin d'une telle leçon qui le fasse rougir et avoir honte du culte immodéré de la chair, du désir ardent des plaisirs, de l'immodestie du vêtement, de la recherche de la considération et des louanges ?

Il est vrai que, même dans la condition la plus humble, c'est un devoir de prendre un soin convenable de sa propre vie, de sa santé, de la dignité de son corps, et d'un certain décorum qui évite toute répugnance, et que tout cela depuis sa première enfance, par un esprit extraordinaire, cette vierge de sang royal, l'a fait passer après son ardeur de mortification et d'humilité. Marguerite, partant, est plutôt une leçon que Dieu nous offre à méditer qu'un exemple à suivre et imiter.

Il est hors de doute que la sainte n'aurait pu se livrer à de tels excès de mortification et de pénitence sans outrepasser les limites communes de la prudence et de la tempérance ; ses supérieurs eux-mêmes n'auraient pu ni oser de leur propre gré vouloir approuver ou conseiller une pareille méthode si différente de l'ordinaire, de se sacrifier pour Dieu dans la piété et la dévotion ; mais devant l'impulsion de la charité divine, qui veut porter un grand coup à la délicatesse mondaine, la prudence et la sagesse communes ne doivent-elles pas s'incliner ?

La sainte Église de Dieu, répéterons-nous avec l'auteur de la “ Vie de saint Charles Borromée ”, ornée d'une admirable variété de vertus, en ce siècle très relâché, avait peut-être besoin d'un tel exemple de sobriété et de mortification corporelle, et beaucoup d'entre nous nous avions besoin de ce stimulant contre tant de mollesse qui rend incapable de contempler les choses célestes. (Cf. Benoît XIV)

Son humilité et sa charité

Mais plus que ses extraordinaires pénitences et macérations, l'humilité et la charité de Marguerite dans l'accomplissement des observances quotidiennes semble avoir été ce qui a remué le plus profondément l'âme des témoins de sa vie.

Depuis sa plus tendre enfance elle n'aspirait à rien tant que de se conformer exactement aux pratiques et aux coutumes des religieuses du monastère en ce qui lui était permis, évitant toute dispense, et aimant les humiliations ; mais elle savait mettre tant de grâce en suppliant la supérieure et les autres religieuses, qu'on lui accorda beaucoup de choses. Or qui ne voit que cette constance jusqu'à la mort et cette fidélité à la règle démontrent le sérieux et la sainteté de son désir d'adolescente ? Toujours la première à se rendre aux obédiences et aux offices que lui assignait la prieure, sans vouloir jouir de privilèges d'exemption, elle était, quand venait son tour de semaine, la plus prompte et la plus assidue aux travaux matériels, humbles et grossiers, au service de la cuisine, à la propreté de la maison, au lavage de la vaisselle, qu'on la voyait faire avec ses mains souvent gercées et saignantes dans les rigueurs de l'hiver. Son intention n'était pas seulement de satisfaire par ce travail son avidité de mortification, mais elle cherchait à faire en sorte que personne ne pût se souvenir de sa naissance illustre, même en ce monastère fondé par son père. C'est pourquoi elle souffrait, parfois jusqu'à en pleurer, si d'autres paraissaient de quelque manière insinuer qu'elle était fille de roi. Pensant au Fils de Dieu qui naquit pauvre et voulut s'appeler Fils de l'homme, Marguerite aurait désirée être née pauvre fille du peuple et comme telle être naturellement traitée parmi ses très nobles consœurs. Une telle humilité, elle l'avait apprise de Jésus-Christ humble de cœur, comme elle avait appris de lui cette douceur qui dans son abaissement ne se séparait jamais de la gentillesse, de la bonté et de la charité qu'elle prodiguait autour d'elle. Aussi s'il lui arrivait de recevoir de ses parents quelque don, aimant comme elle le faisait le détachement et la pauvreté, elle le portait aussitôt à la prieure ou à la provinciale pour l'usage de la communauté ou pour le soulagement des pauvres honteux, tandis que les joyaux et les riches étoffes allaient orner les églises dans le besoin. Elle paraissait avoir hérité un si vif amour pour les pauvres de sa sainte tante Élisabeth ; leur vue l'incitait toujours à une tendre compassion et à courir vers la prieure pour lui demander quelque habit ou ne fut-ce qu'un peu d'aide pour subvenir à leurs besoins ; puis à ses consœurs qui ne possédaient rien elle demandait l'aumône de leurs prières. Généreuse à l'égard des malheureux en dehors du monastère, sa charité triomphait et excellait entre les murs du cloître, car c'est dans l'ordre de la charité même et d'une vertu solide et sans illusions de prodiguer ses soins charitables d'abord et avant tout au sein de la communauté. Oh ! comme elle se montrait sensible à l'égard de ses consœurs ! S'il survenait quelque contrariété ou dissentiment entre deux religieuses, vous l'eussiez vue soucieuse de conseiller la paix ; si quelqu'une laissait voir un visage moins souriant que d'ordinaire, elle s'empressait de lui demander pardon, craignant de l'avoir offensée peut-être inconsciemment ; les malheurs des autres la faisaient souffrir jusqu'aux larmes, comme s'il se fût agi des siens propres. Quant aux malades, les soins et l'assistance qu'elle leur prodiguait étaient presque maternels et ne connaissaient pas de bornes ; les infirmités qui provoquaient naturellement le plus de dégoût, loin de l'amoindrir, accroissaient son empressement et sa vigilante attention ; comprenant toutefois la répugnance des autres Sœurs, avec bonne grâce et délicatesse elle savait les éloigner pour assurer elle seule tous les services et tous les soins nécessaires ; à cet effet, Dieu lui donnait des forces qu'on pourrait estimer miraculeuses, qui, de toute façon, paraissent bien supérieures à celles de son sexe, spécialement quand on considère l'état d'épuisement physique qu'auraient dû lui causer ses macérations continuelles. L'insupportable odeur fétide ne l'empêcha jamais de porter les malades au bain, de les reconduire et de les remettre comme il faut dans leur lit, d'accomplir pour elles tous les services non seulement d'une infirmière assidue, mais de la plus humble servante. S'il arrivait jamais qu'elle entendît, de jour ou de nuit, quelqu'une se plaindre ou gémir, aussitôt elle accourait près d'elle, lui demandait tendrement ce qu'elle désirait, et sans retard, même pieds nus, descendait à la cuisine préparer et porter ce qui pouvait procurer un peu de soulagement ou de plaisir à celles qui en avaient besoin.

Mais si sa charité s'étendait si généreusement au prochain et embrassait ses consœurs, elle s'élevait comme une flamme d'amour intense et fervent vers le ciel et vers Jésus, centre de toutes ses aspirations. Aux différentes propositions de très nobles noces que lui fit son père, elle opposa toujours le refus le plus énergique, décidée comme elle l'était d'être irrévocablement toute à Dieu. Ces veilles et ces prières qu'elle obtenait, par ses supplications émouvantes au nom de Jésus, de prolonger devant le saint tabernacle, et dans le secret de son cœur ces larmes et ce long jeûne de trois jours qu'elle passait à se remémorer et à méditer la Passion du Rédempteur, ce vif désir tant de fois exprimé de participer aux souffrances des martyrs pour donner à Dieu le témoignage le plus fort et le plus sincère de son amour, voilà la vraie source de toutes les vertus que nous admirons en elle, vertus non moins délicatement humaines que hautement surnaturelles.

Et voilà encore la secrète origine de ces austérités extraordinaires qui, bien qu'elles arrivent à surprendre notre âme et à déconcerter presque, au premier abord, notre pensée, provenaient pourtant de la pierre de touche qui est l'inspiration divine, ineffable en son conseil ; c'est dans cette harmonie de la grâce, dont la volonté humaine ne pourrait jamais concevoir le mystère, que se cachent les effets admirables de la sainteté et que l'âme s'élève en des ascensions toujours plus hautes et plus divines. Toutefois nous nous étonnons devant les grandes macérations de Marguerite ; mais confessons que même aux yeux de Dieu qui a tout créé et soutient tout depuis les vers de la terre jusqu'au soleil et au concert des astres du firmament, rien n'est vil quand cela devient un moyen de sanctification de l'âme et d'élévation à ce monde de l'esprit, qui surpasse toute la nature et nous unit à Dieu dans le chemin qui mène à la vie de l'immortalité bienheureuse.

Le Seigneur ne tarda pas à appeler la très religieuse fille du roi de Hongrie à la récompense éternelle en l'enlevant du milieu des tempêtes qui avaient troublé ce royaume et ajouté à ses peines corporelles celles de voir la discorde et la guerre entre son père et son fils aîné pour la désignation du successeur au trône ; conflit dont les effets se ressentirent aussi dans le monastère où elle vivait et en interrompirent la paix intime.

Sa paisible fin prématurée

En effet, ses forces et sa vigueur allaient déclinant ; elle sentait en elle, avec ses vingt-huit ans, que s'approchait le crépuscule de sa vie. En 1269, étant à l'infirmerie, près du cadavre de Sœur Beata, en présence de deux autres religieuses, Marguerite avait dit : Je serai la première qui mourra après elle. C'était la voix de l'appel de Dieu qui, devant sa consœur défunte, parlait à Marguerite par le moyen du dépérissement extrême de son corps, dépérissement qui pourtant n'affaiblissait pas en elle cette ferveur spirituelle dont elle avait été animée jusqu'alors.

Le jour de l'Épiphanie de l'année suivante, elle fut prise d'une fièvre si forte que, dans la vision de sa mort prochaine, elle exprima le désir d'être ensevelie au pied de l'autel de la Sainte-Croix, tellement elle était avide de se conformer à Jésus-Christ jusqu'à la mort, ou bien dans cet endroit de l'église où elle faisait ses longues oraisons particulières ; ajoutant, comme pour pousser à satisfaire sa demande : Ne craignez pas de mauvaise odeur ; de mon corps ne sortira pas de mauvaise odeur. Elle languissait sur sa pauvre couche, absorbée dans l'amour de Dieu, comme une rose dont la corolle se fane aux chauds rayons du soleil. La mort ne la troublait pas. Comment eût-elle pu la craindre, elle qui tant de fois l'avait défiée par ses longs jeûnes et par ses veilles extraordinaires, non moins que par ses cilices et ses disciplines, désormais inutiles pour elle puisqu'elle allait mourir et dont elle remit à la prieure la clé de la cassette où ils étaient enfermés ? Mourir, pour elle, c'était se dissoudre pour être avec le Christ son Époux ; c'est pourquoi, pour mieux se purifier, elle se confessa deux fois au prieur provincial des Dominicains, demanda et reçut le Saint Viatique et l'Extrême-Onction avec les sentiments de la piété et de la dévotion les plus vives, toute proche comme elle l'était du grand voyage vers le ciel, en secouant tout reste de l'humaine poussière ramassée ici-bas.

Elle expira le 18 janvier, dans cette paix et cette sérénité, qui rendent précieuse la mort des saints devant le Seigneur. Monte bien haut, ô vierge royale, toi qui, depuis ton enfance, aspiras vers la cour du ciel. Que le saint patriarche Dominique descende à ta rencontre avec une phalange d'anges et t'accompagne jusqu'au trône du Roi de gloire, pour y recevoir la couronne de lis et de roses, avec laquelle tu suivras, au milieu du chœur des vierges, les triomphes de la Reine du ciel.

Cependant, ici-bas, Dieu faisait réapparaître la beauté des traits sur le visage de Marguerite. Ce phénomène ne fut pas, tout d'abord, remarqué par les Sœurs ; elles s'en aperçurent trois jours après, quand l'évêque d'Esztergom, admirant la splendeur du visage de la défunte, leur dit qu'elles ne devaient pas pleurer sa mort, mais plutôt s'en réjouir, parce qu'elle semblait déjà manifester le commencement de sa résurrection.

Tous ceux qui s'approchèrent du corps inanimé ne sentirent aucune odeur désagréable, mais beaucoup perçurent un suave parfum, comme celui de roses, et c'est ce même parfum que sentirent sortir de son tombeau ceux qui, quelques mois plus tard, vinrent pour le recouvrir d'une pierre de marbre.

Ce parfum de roses, qu'aucune main dévote ne déposa sur le corps et sur la tombe de Marguerite, n'était pas autre chose que le parfum de sa sainteté ; parfum de sainteté qui, après près de sept siècles, arrive à nous, depuis le grand siècle médiéval qui vit la fondation de votre Ordre insigne, chers fils et filles du glorieux patriarche Dominique, et fut fameux par vos saints et vos grands recteurs et maîtres, et devait vous donner plus tard l'héroïque vierge Catherine de Sienne. Sans être enlevée à sa noble patrie, la Hongrie, Marguerite est donc vôtre et de votre Institut religieux, dont les aspirations apostoliques embrassèrent les pays de l'Europe tout entière, sous la poussée d'un zèle ardent, et même la terre que baignent le Danube et le Temesz.

Elle est vôtre, parce qu'elle appartient à votre Ordre, au sein duquel s'écoula toute sa vie, depuis son enfance jusqu'à sa bienheureuse mort ; elle est vôtre par sa dévotion tendrement filiale envers Marie ; vôtre par sa profession religieuse, pour laquelle elle manifestait, même dans les circonstances les plus délicates, un inébranlable attachement ; vôtre d'une manière toute particulière par son esprit, cette vierge qui, de la retraite de son couvent, fut, au cours de sa courte existence, une prédication continuelle. Et quelle prédication plus éloquente, plus opportune, et plus nécessaire, à faire entendre au monde frivole, avide de plaisirs, orgueilleux, hostile à toute mortification, que l'exemple de cette vie d'humilité et de pauvreté, d'abnégation et de charité ? Puisse-t-elle, du haut du ciel, dans sa gloire immortelle, ne cesser de présenter à Dieu sa prière ardente et puissante, de manière à attirer les grâces les plus précieuses sur sa patrie bien-aimée, sur son saint Ordre qui est aussi le vôtre, sur le monde entier, qui a plus que jamais besoin de lever son regard au-dessus de ce qui passe et trouble sa concorde et sa paix, pour trouver et obtenir de Dieu le remède à ses maux.

Avec ce vœu, nous vous donnons à tous avec effusion de cœur Notre paternelle Bénédiction apostolique.

SOURCE : http://missel.free.fr/Sanctoral/01/18.php

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Vetrata nella basilica di Santo Stefano a Budapest

Sainte Marguerite de Hongrie

Nom: MARGUERITE DE HONGRIE

Prénom: Marguerite

Nom de religion: Marguerite

Pays: Hongrie

Naissance: 1242

Mort: 18.01.1270 au Monastère

Etat: Vierge - Dominicaine

Note: Fille du roi Béla IV de Hongrie, religieuse dominicaine en 1261, célèbre par son amour de la pauvreté et par sa vie mystique. - Culte déjà développé dès le XVe siècle. Canonisation: équipollente par Pie XII.

Béatification:

Canonisation: 19.11.1943 à Rome par Pie XII

Fête: 18 janvier

Réf. dans l’Osservatore Romano:

Réf. dans la Documentation Catholique: 1957 col.1093-1100

Notice

Marguerite de Hongrie naît vers 1242 dans la famille royale hongroise des Arpads, tandis que sévissait en Europe l'invasion des Tartares. Pour en obtenir la libération dans leur pays, son père, le roi Béla IV, et sa mère la consacrent à Dieu dès sa naissance. Elle est élevée au monastère des dominicaines de Veszprim sur une île du Danube, appelée maintenant île Sainte Marguerite, près de Budapest. D'une piété très précoce, elle fait ses vœux solennels dès l'âge de douze ans et doit refuser énergiquement une demande de mariage. Elle mène une vie de moniale très mortifiée et très humble tout en étant favorisée de charismes. La guerre éclatant à la suite d'une dissension dans sa famille au sujet de la succession au trône, elle redouble ses pénitences et n'hésite pas à adresser de vifs reproches aux grands et à son père lui-même qui se met à la persécuter; mais après quatre années de conflit, la paix est conclue dans l'île de son propre monastère. Elle doit encore refuser une troisième demande de mariage, celle-ci présentée par son père pour des raisons politiques. Enfin le 18 janvier 1270, elle remet son âme entre les mains de son Epoux céleste, à peine âgée de trente ans. Pie XII, en 1943, a confirmé son culte ininterrompu par une canonisation équipollente.

SOURCE : http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/hagiographie/fiches/f0050.htm

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Princesa Santa Margarita de Hungría

Saint Margaret of Hungary in miniature - Coats of arms of the Árpád family - Lilies in art

La Bienheureuse Marguerite de Hongrie, vierge.

La naissance de Marguerite fut des plus illustres, puisqu’elle avait pour père Béla IV, roi de Hongrie.

Ses parents qui l’avaient consacrée au Seigneur par un vœu dès avant sa naissance, l’envoyèrent, à l’âge de 3 ans ½, dans le Couvent des Dominicaines de Vesprin. Le roi, ayant ensuite fondé un Monastère du même Ordre dans une île du Danube, Marguerite y fut transférée ; elle y fit Profession 2 ans après, c’est-à-dire à l’âge de 12 ans.

La ferveur suppléa en elle le nombre des années et lui mérita ces communications intimes de L’Esprit-Saint, qui ne sont que pour les âmes parfaites.

Elle faisait ses délices de l’abjection la plus entière. On l’eut sensiblement mortifiée en l’entretenant de sa naissance ; elle eut mieux aimé devoir le jour à des pauvres qu’à des rois. Il est étonnant de voir jusqu’à quel point elle portait l’amour de la Pénitence.

Elle couchait sur le plancher de sa chambre, qu’elle ne couvrait que d’une peau fort rude, et elle n’avait qu’une pierre pour chevet.

Quand elle voyait punir une de ses Sœurs pour quelque transgression de la Règle, elle portait une sainte envie au bonheur qu’elles avaient de pouvoir pratiquer la mortification.

Si Dieu l’affligeait de maladie, elle cachait son état avec le plus grand soin, pour ne pas être obligée d’user des adoucissements permis aux malades.

Sa douceur était admirable ; et pour peu qu’une de ses Sœurs parût avoir contre elle le moindre sujet de mécontentement, elle allait se jeter à ses pieds pour lui demander Pardon.

Marguerite eut dès son enfance, une dévotion pour Jésus crucifié. Elle portait continuellement sur elle une petite Croix faite du bois de celle du Sauveur, et l’appliquait souvent sur sa bouche, la nuit comme le jour.

On remarquait qu’à l’église, elle priait par préférence devant l’autel de la Croix. On lui entendait prononcer très fréquemment le Nom Sacré de Jésus, de la manière la plus affectueuse.

Les larmes abondantes qui coulaient de ses yeux pendant la Célébration des Divins Mystères, et à l’approche de la sainte Communion, annonçaient assez ce qui se passait dans son cœur. La veille du jour qu’elle devait s’unir à Jésus-Christ par la réception de sa Chair Adorable, elle ne prenait pour toute nourriture que du pain et de l’eau ; elle passait aussi la nuit en Prières.

Le jour de la Communion, elle priait à jeun jusqu’au soir, et elle ne mangeait qu’autant il était absolument nécessaire pour soutenir le corps.

Son Amour pour Jésus-Christ la portait encore à honorer spécialement celle de qui, il a voulu naître dans le temps.

De là cette joie qui éclatait sur son visage quand on annonçait les Fêtes de la Mère de Dieu. Elle les Célébrait avec une piété et une ferveur dont il y a peu d’exemples.

Une âme aussi sainte que celle de Marguerite ne pouvait avoir d’attachements aux choses terrestres.

Morte au monde et à elle-même, elle ne soupirait qu’après le moment qui la réunirait à son Divin Époux.

Ses désirs furent enfin accomplis ; elle tomba malade et mourût à l’âge de 28 ans, le 18 Janvier 1271.

Son corps est dans la ville de Presbourg.

SOURCE : http://reflexionchretienne.e-monsite.com/pages/vie-des-saints/janvier/sainte-marguerite-de-hongrie-princesse-hongroise-moniale-dominicaine-1270-fete-le-18-janvier.html

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Bust of Elisabeth of Hungary by László Marton (Hévíz) - Saint Margaret of Hungary

Saint Margaret of Hungary

Also known as

Margherita

Marguerite

Memorial

18 January

Profile

Daughter of King Bela IV of Hungary and Marie Laskaris; grand-daughter of the Byzantine emperor. When Hungary was freed from the Tatars, her parents had pledged their next child to God. To keep this promise, Margaret was placed in a Dominican convent at Veszprem, Hungary at age 3; Blessed Helen of Hungary served as her novice mistress. She transferred at age ten to the convent of the Blessed Virgin founded by her parents on the Hasen Insel near Buda, where she lived the rest of her life. At one point her father arranged a marriage for her to King Ottokar II of Bohemia, but she adamently refused. She took vows at age 18. Known for severe self-imposed penances, and for kindness to those of lower social station. The investigation for her canonization lists 27 miracles including healings and a case of awakening from death.

Born

1242

Died

18 January 1271 at Budapest, Hungary

relics given to the Poor Clares at Pozsony (modern Bratislava, Slovak Republic) when the Dominican Order in the area was dissolved

most of her relics were destroyed in 1789, but some are still preserved at Gran, Gyor, Pannonhalma, Hungary

Beatified

28 July 1789 by Pope Pius VI

Canonized

19 November 1943 by Pope Pius XII

Patronage

against flood

Representation

Dominican holding a lily and a book

princess with a lily

Dominican in prayer with a globe of fire over her head

Additional Information

Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate

Catholic Encyclopedia

Dominicana

Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler

Saints and Saintly Dominicans, by Blessed Hyacinthe-Marie Cormier, O.P.

Saints of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein

books

Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints

other sites in english

Saints Stories for All Ages

images

video

sitios en español

Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición

sites en français

fonti in italiano

Dicastero delle Cause dei Santi

Santi e Beati

Wikipedia

websites in nederlandse

Heiligen 3s

spletne strani v slovenšcini

Svetniki

MLA Citation

“Saint Margaret of Hungary“. CatholicSaints.Info. 17 May 2024. Web. 2 May 2025. <https://catholicsaints.info/saint-margaret-of-hungary/>

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-margaret-of-hungary/

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Imás kártya

Margaret of Hungary, OP V Queen (AC)

Born in Turoc Castle, 1242; died in Budapest on January 18, 1270; beatified in 1789; canonized in 1943; feast day was January 18. Margaret, the daughter of King Bela IV, champion of Christendom, and Queen Mary Lascaris of Hungary, was offered to God before her birth, in petition that the country would be delivered from the terrible scourge of the Tartars. The prayer having been answered, the king and queen made good their promise by placing the rich and beautiful three-year-old in the Dominican convent at Vesprim. Here, in company with other children of nobility, she was trained in the arts thought fitting for royalty.

Margaret was not content with simply living in the house of God; she demanded the religious habit--and received it--at the age of four. Furthermore, she took upon herself the austerities practiced by the other sisters--fasting, hairshirts, the discipline (scourge), and night vigils. She soon learned the Divine Office by heart and chanted it happily to herself as she went about her play. She chose the least attractive duties of the nuns for herself. She would starve herself to keep her spirit humble. No one but Margaret seemed to take seriously the idea that she would one day make profession and remain as a sister, for it would be of great advantage to her father if she were to make a wise marriage.

This question arose seriously when Margaret was 12. She responded in surprise. She said that she had been dedicated to God, even before her birth, and that she intended to remain faithful to that promise. Some years later her father built for her a convent on the island in the Danube between Buda and Pest. To settle the matter of her vocation, here she pronounced her vows to the master general of the order, Blessed Humbert of the Romans, in 1255, and took the veil in 1261.

Again, when Margaret was 18, her father made an attempt to sway her from her purpose, because King Ottokar of Bohemia, hearing of her beauty, had come seeking her hand. He even obtained a dispensation from the pope and approached Margaret with the permission. Margaret replied as she had previously, "I esteem infinitely more the King of Heaven and the inconceivable happiness of possessing Jesus Christ than the crown offered me by the King of Bohemia." Having established that she was not interested in any throne but a heavenly one, she proceeded with great joy to live an even more fervent religious life than she had before.

Margaret's royal parentage was, of course, a matter of discussion in the convent. But the princess managed to turn such conversation away from herself to the holy lives of the saints who were related to her by blood--King Saint Stephen, Saint Hedwig, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, and several others. She did not glory in her wealth or parentage, but strove to imitate the saints in their holiness. She took her turn in the kitchen and laundry, seeking by choice much heavy work that her rank might have excused her from doing. She was especially welcome in the infirmary, which proves that she was not a sad-faced saint, and she made it her special duty to care for those who were too disagreeable for anyone else to tend.

Margaret's austerities seem excessive to us of a weaker age. The mysteries of the Passion were very real to her and gave reason for her long fasts, severe scourgings, and other mortifications detailed in the depositions of witnesses taken seven years after her death (of which records are still in existence). Throughout Lent she scarcely ate or slept. She not only imitated the poverty- striken in their manual labor and hunger, but also in their lack of cleanliness--a form of penance at that time. Some of her acts of self-immolation have been described as "horrifying" and verging on fanaticism, and there seems to have been an element of willfulness in her mortifications.

She had a tender devotion to Our Lady, and on the eve of her feasts, Margaret said a thousand Hail Mary's. Unable to make the long pilgrimage to the Holy Land, to Rome, or to any of the other famous shrines of Christendom, the saint developed a plan by which she could go in spirit: she counted up the miles that lay between herself and the desired shrine, and then said an Ave Maria for every mile there and back. On Good Friday she was so overcome at the thoughts of Our Lord's Passion that she wept all day. She was frequently in ecstasy, and very embarrassed if anyone found her so and remarked on her holiness.

A number of miracles were performed during Margaret's lifetime and many more after her death because Margaret had an implicit faith in the power and efficacy of prayer. The princess nun was only 28 when she died. Most of the particulars of her life are recorded in existing depositions of witnesses taken in 1277. Her friends and acquaintances petitioned for her to be acclaimed a saint almost immediately after her death. Among them was her own servant, Agnes, who rightly observed that this daughter of a monarch showed far more humility than any of the monastery's maids. Although their testimony expressed Margaret's overpowering desire to allow nothing to stand between her and God, the process of canonization was not complete until 1943. The island where her convent stood, called first the "Blessed Virgin's Isle," was called "Isle of Margaret" after the saint (Attwater, Attwater2, Benedictines, Bentley, Coulson, Dorcy, Farmer).

In art Saint Margaret is a crowned Dominican nun with the stigmata. Sometimes she is shown (1) as a crowned Dominican with a processional cross; (2) as a crowned Dominican with a nun at her feet; or (3) with the stigmata, cross, lily, and book; the crown at her feet. She can be distinguished from the Dominican Saint Catherine of Siena by her crown, which is never absent. Saint Catherine may have three crowns, but never just one. Venerated in Budapest (Roeder).

She is invoked against floods, in memory of a miracle she performed in stopping a flood on the Danube (Dorcy).

SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0126.shtml

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Frescos of the Roman Catholic church in Tósokberénd, Ajka, Veszprém, Hungary, painted by Franz Xaver Bucher around 1810

St. Margaret of Hungary

Daughter of King Bela I of Hungary and his wife Marie Laskaris, born 1242; died 18 Jan., 1271. According to a vow which her parents made when Hungary was liberated from the Tatars that their next child should be dedicated to religion, Margaret, in 1245 entered the Dominican Convent of Veszprém. Invested with the habit at the age of four, she was transferred in her tenth year to the Convent of the Blessed Virgin founded by her parents on the Hasen Insel near Buda, the Margareten Insel near Budapest today, and where the ruins of the convent are still to be seen. Here Margaret passed all her life, which was consecrated to contemplation andpenance, and was venerated as a saint during her lifetime. She strenuously opposed the plans of her father, who for political reasons wished to marry her to King Ottokar II of Bohemia. Margaret appears to have taken solemn vows when she was eighteen. All narratives call special attention to Margaret's sanctity and her spirit of earthly renunciation. Her whole life was one unbroken chain of devotional exercises and penance. She chastised herself unceasingly from childhood, wore hair garments, and an iron girdle round her waist, as well as shoes spiked with nails; she was frequently scourged, and performed the most menial work in the convent.

Shortly after her death, steps were taken for her canonization, and in 1271-1276 investigations referring to this were taken up; in 1275-1276 the process was introduced, but not completed. Not till 1640 was the process again taken up, and again it was not concluded. Attempts which were made in 1770 by Count Ignatz Batthyanyi were also fruitless; so that the canonization never took place, although Margaret was venerated as a saint shortly after her death; and Pius VI consented on 28 July, 1789, to her veneration as a saint. Pius VII raised her feast day to a festum duplex. The minutes of the proceedings of 1271-1272 record seventy-four miracles; and among those giving testimony were twenty-seven in whose favour the miracles had been wrought. These cases refer to the cure of illnesses, and one case of awakening from death. Margaret's remains were given to the Poor Clares when the Dominican Order was dissolved; they were first kept in Pozsony and later in Buda. After the order had been suppressed by Joseph II, in 1782, the relics were destroyed in 1789; but some portions are still preserved in Gran, Györ, Pannonhalma. The feast day of the saint is 18 January. In art she is depicted with a lily and holding a book in her hand.

Sources

NEMETHY-FRAKNOI, Arpadhazi b. Margit tortenetehez (Budapest, 1885), being contributions on the history of Blessed Margaret of the House of Arpaden; DEMKO, Arpadhazi b. Margit elete (Budapest, 1895), a life of the saint. Further bibliographical particulars in Arpad and the Arpaden, edited by CSANKI (Budapest, 1908), 387-388; minutes of the proceedings of 1271-72, published in Monumenta Romana Episcopotus Vesprimiensis, I (Budapest, 1896).

Aldásy, Antal. "Bl. Margaret of Hungary." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910.26 Apr. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09654a.htm>.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.

SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09654a.htm

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Interior of the Roman Catholic church in Izsák, Hungary - Interior of Saint Michael church in Izsák

Paintings of Saint Margaret of Hungary in Hungary
Izsák, római katolikus templom belső tere 2023

Saint Margaret of Hungary

Feast day: January 19th

Profile

Margaret, the daughter of King Bela IV, champion of Christendom, and Queen Mary Lascaris of Hungary, was offered to God before her birth, in petition that the country would be delivered from the terrible scourge of the Tartars. The prayer having been answered, the king and queen made good their promise by placing the rich and beautiful three-year-old in the Dominican convent at Vesprim. Here, in company with other children of nobility, she was trained in the arts thought fitting for royalty.

Born: 1242

Died: January 18, 1271 at Budapest, Hungary; remains given to the Poor Clares at Pozsony when the Dominican Order was dissolved; most relics were destroyed in 1789, but portions still preserved at Gran, Gyor, Pannonhalma

Beatified: July 28, 1789

Canonized: 1943 by Pope Pius XII

Representation: In art Saint Margaret is a crowned Dominican nun with the stigmata. Sometimes she is shown (1) as a crowned Dominican with a processional cross; (2) as a crowned Dominican with a nun at her feet; or (3) with the stigmata, cross, lily, and book; the crown at her feet. She can be distinguished from the Dominican Saint Catherine of Siena by her crown, which is never absent. Saint Catherine may have three crowns, but never just one. Venerated in Budapest (Roeder).

Prayers/Commemorations

First Vespers:

Ant. Blessed Margaret emulating the purity of the angels, dedicated herself as the bride of Him who is the spouse of perpetual virginity and the Son of the perpetual Virgin.

V. Pray for us, Blessed Margaret.

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ

Lauds:

Ant. O Most holy spouse of Christ, adorn with the diadem of virgins, honored with the grace of healing, endowed with the heavenly gift of reading hearts, consumed with the fire of divine love!

V. Virgins shall be lead to the King after her.

R. Her companions shall be presented to thee.

Second Vespers:

Ant. O Blessed Margaret, who here on earth didst give to all the afflicted the solace of charity, help us from heaven in our miseries and obtain for us life with the saints in heaven.

V. Pray for us, Blessed Margaret.

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Prayer:

Let us pray: O God, the lover and guardian of chastity, by whose gifts Thy handmaid Margaret united the beauty of virginity and the merit of good works, grant we pray, that through the spirit of salutary penance we may be able to recover integrity of soul. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

SOURCE : http://www.willingshepherds.org/MArgaret%20Hungary.html

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Saint Dominic side-altar of the Dominican church in Vasvár, Vas, Hungary

Vasvár, domonkos templom belső tere 2025

January 28

B. Margaret, Princess of Hungary, Virgin

SHE was daughter to Bala IV. the pious king of Hungary. Her parents consecrated her to God by a vow before her birth, and when but three years and a half old she was placed in the monastery of Dominican nuns at Vesprin, and at ten removed to a new nunnery of that order, founded by her father in an isle of the Danube near Buda, called from her the isle of St. Margaret. She was professed at twelve. 1 In her tender age she outstripped the most advanced in devotion, and was favoured with extraordinary communications from heaven. It was her delight to serve every body, and to practise every kind of humiliation: she never spoke of herself, as if she was beneath all notice: never loved to see her royal parents, or to speak of them, saying it was her misfortune that she was not of poor parentage. Her mortifications were excessive. She endeavoured to conceal her sickness for fear of being dispensed with or shown any indulgence in the rule. From her infancy she conceived the most ardent devotion towards her crucified Redeemer, and kissed very often, both by day and night, a little cross made of the wood of our Saviour’s cross, which she always carried about her. She commonly chose to pray before the altar of the cross. Her affection for the name of Jesus made her have it very frequently in her mouth, which she repeated with incredible inward feeling and sweetness. Her devotion to Christ in the blessed sacrament was most remarkable: she often wept abundantly, or appeared in ecstasies during the mass, and much more when she herself received the divine spouse of her soul: on the eve she took nothing but bread and water, and watched the night in prayer. On the day itself she remained in prayer and fasting till evening, and then took a small refection. She showed a sensible joy in her countenance when she heard any festival of our Lady announced, through devotion to the mother of God; she performed on them, and during the octaves, one thousand salutations each day, prostrating herself on the ground at each, besides saying the office of our blessed Lady every day. If any one seemed offended at her, she fell at their feet, and begged their pardon. She was always the first in obedience, and was afraid to be excepted if others were enjoined penance for a breach of silence or any other fault. Her bed was a coarse skin, laid on the bare floor, with a stone for her pillow. She was favoured with the gift of miracles and prophecy. She gave up her pure soul to God, after a short illness, on the 18th of January, in the year 1271, and of her age the twenty-eighth. Her body is preserved at Presbourg. See her life by Guerinus, a Dominician, by order of his general, in 1340: and an abridgment of the same by Ranzano. She was never canonized, but is honoured with an office in all the churches in Hungary, especially those of the Dominicans in that kingdom, by virtue of a decree of Pope Pius II. as Touron assures us. 2

Note 1. Touron, Vies des Hommes Illustres de l’Ordre de St. Dominique, in Humbert des Romains, fifth general of the Dominicans, t. 1. p. 325. [back]

Note 2. Touron. ib. in Innocent V. t. 1. p. 384. [back]

Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume I: January. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.

SOURCE : https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/lives-of-the-saints/volume-i-january/b-margaret-princess-of-hungary-virgin

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Interior of the Roman Catholic parish church in Kőbánya, Budapest, Hungary

Budapest, kőbányai római katolikus templom belső tere 2023

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Interior of the Roman Catholic parish church in Kőbánya, Budapest, Hungary

Budapest, kőbányai római katolikus templom belső tere 2023

ST MARGARET OF HUNGARY,

VIRGIN (A.D. 1270)

Very great interest attaches to the life of St Margaret of Hungary, because by rare good fortune we possess in her case a complete copy of the depositions of the witnesses who gave evidence in the process of beatification begun less than seven years after her death. No doubt the fact that she was the daughter of Bela IV, King of Hungary, a champion of Christendom at a time when central Europe was menaced with utter destruction by the inroads of the Tatars, has emphasized the details of her extraordinary life of self-crucifixion. The Dominican Order, too, which was much befriended by Bela and his consort Queen Mary Lascaris, was necessarily interested in the cause of one of its earliest and most eminent daughters. But no one can read the astounding record of Margaret's asceticism and charity as recounted by some fifty witnesses who were her everyday companions without realizing that even if she had been the child of a beggar, such courage as hers --one is almost tempted to call it the fanaticism of her warfare against the world and the flesh -- could not but have a spiritualizing influence upon all who came in contact with her. Bela IV has been styled "the last man of genius whom the Arpads produced", but there were qualities in his daughter which, if determination counts for anything in human affairs, showed that the stock was not yet effete.

Margaret had been born at an hour when the fortunes of Hungary were at a low ebb, and we are told that her parents had promised to dedicate the babe entirely to God if victory should wait upon their arms. The boon was in substance granted, and the child at age of three was committed to the charge of the community of Dominican nuns at Veszprem. Somewhat later, Bela and his queen built a convent for their daughter on an island in the Danube near Buda, and there, when she was twelve years old, she made her profession in the hands of Bd Humbert of Romans. Horrifying as are the details of the young sister's thirst for penance and of her determination to conquer all natural repugnances, they are supported by such a mass of concurrent testimony that it is impossible to question the truth of what we read. That she was exceptionally favoured in the matter of good looks seems to be proved by the determination of Ottokar, King of Bohemia, to seek her hand even after he had seen her in her religious dress. No doubt a dispensation could easily have been obtained for such a marriage, and Bela for political reasons was inclined to favour it. But Margaret declared that she would cut off her nose and lips rather than consent to leave the cloister, and no one who reads the account which her sisters gave of her resolution in other matters can doubt that she would have been as good as her word.

Although the majority of the inmates of this Danubian convent were the daughters of noble families, Princess Margaret seems to have been conscious of a tendency to treat her with special consideration. Her protest took the form of an almost extravagant choice of all that was menial, repulsive, exhausting and insanitary. Her charity and tenderness in rendering the most nauseating services to the sick were marvelous, but many of the details are such as cannot be set out before the fastidious modern reader. She had an intense sympathy for the squalid lives of the poor, but she carried it so far that, like another St Benedict Joseph Labre, she chose to imitate them in her personal habits, and her fellow nuns confessed that there were times when they shrank from coming into too intimate contact with the noble princess, their sister in religion. One gets the impression that Margaret's love of God and desire of self-immolation were associated with a certain element of wilfulness. She would have been better, or at least she would assuredly have lived longer, if she had had a strong-minded superior or confessor to take her resolutely in hand; but it was perhaps inevitable that the daughter of the royal founders to whom the convent owed everything should almost always have been able to get her own way.

On the other hand, there are many delightful human touches in the account her sisters gave of her. The sacristan tells how Margaret would stroke her hand and coax her to leave the door of the choir open after Compline, that she might spend the night before the Blessed Sacrament when she ought to have been sleeping. She was confident in the power of prayer to effect what she desired, and she carried this almost to the point of a certain imperiousness in the requests she made to the Almighty. Several of the nuns recall an incident which happened at Veszprem when she was only ten years old. Two Dominican friars came there on a short visit, and Margaret begged them to prolong their stay. They replied that it was necessary that they should return at once; to which she responded, "I shall ask God that it may rain so hard that you cannot get away". Although they protested that no amount of rain would detain them, she went to the chapel, and such a downpour occurred that they were unable, after all, to leave Veszprem as they had intended. This recalls the well-known story of St Scholastica and St Benedict, and there is in any case no need to invoke a supernatural intervention; but there are so many such incidents vouched for by the sisters in their evidence on oath that it is difficult to stretch coincidence so far as to explain them all. Though we hear of ecstasies and of a great number of miracles, there is a certain moderation in the depositions which inspires confidence in the good faith of the witnesses. An incident which is mentioned by nearly all is the saving, at St Margaret's prayer, of a maid-servant who had fallen down a well. Amongst the other depositions we have that of the maid, Agnes, herself. Asked in general what she knew of Margaret, she was content to say that "she was good and holy and edifying in her conduct, and showed greater humility than we serving-maids". As to the accident we learn from her that the evening was so dark that "if anyone had slapped her face she could not have seen who did it", and that the orifice of the well was quite open and without a rail, and that after falling she sank to the bottom three times, but at last managed to clutch the wall of the well until they lowered a rope and pulled her out.

There can be little room for doubt that Margaret shortened her life by her austerities. At the end of every Lent she was in a pitiable state from fasting, deprivation of sleep and neglect of her person. [1] She put the crown on her indiscretions on Maundy Thursday by washing the feet (this probably she claimed as a sort of privilege which belonged to her as the daughter of the royal founders) not only of all the choir nuns, seventy in number, but of all the servants as well. She wiped their feet, the nuns tell us, with the veil which she wore on her head. In spite of this fatigue and of the fact that at this season she took neither food nor sleep, she complained to some of the sisters in her confidence that "Good Friday was the shortest day of the year". She had no time for all the prayers she wanted to say and for all the acts of penance she wanted to perform. St Margaret seems to have died on January 18, 1270, at the age of twenty-eight; the process of beatification referred to above was never finished, but the cultus was approved in 1789 and she was canonized in 1943.

See the Acta Sanctorum for January 28; but more especially G. Fraknoi, Monumenta Romana Episcopatus Vesprimiensis, vol. i, pp. 163-383, where the depositions of the witnesses are printed in full. Cf. also M. C. de Ganay, Les Bienheureuses Dominicaines, pp. 69-89; and Margaret, Princess of Hungary (1945), by "S. M. C."

[1] This neglect of cleanliness was traditionally part of the penitential discipline, and was symbolized by the ashes received on Ash Wednesday. The old English name for Maundy Thursday was "Sheer Thursday", when the penitents obtained absolution, trimmed their hair and beards, and washed in preparation for Easter. It was also sometimes called capitilavium (head-washing).

SOURCE : http://www.katolikus.hu/hun-saints/margaret.html

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Vitraliu din Biserica Minoriţilor (Catedrala Schimbarea la Faţă) din Cluj, reprezentand-o pe sfanta Margareta a Ungariei.

Dominicana – Blessed Margaret of Hungary, Virgin

In the year 1242, Hungary was governed by a devout king, Bela IV. His territories were overrun by hordes of Tartars, whose sacrileges and cruelties filled the entire kingdom with scenes of bloodshed and violence. In their distress, Bela and his Queen vowed to dedicate their first daughter to the service of God, if He would grant them victory over their enemies. Then, full of trust in the Divine goodness, Bela led his little army against the Tartars, who were utterly defeated and driven from the country. Margaret’s birth occurred shortly afterwards, and in consequence of her parents’ vow she was taken to the Dominican Convent of Vesprim, when only three years old. Even at that tender age she showed extraordinary signs of devotion. In less than six months she knew the Office of our Lady by heart, merely from hearing the Sisters recite It. She was clothed in the religious habit on her fourth birthday, on which occasion she was shown a crucifix and she asked for some explanation of the sacred symbol. On hearing that it represented Jesus Christ, who shed His blood for us even to the last drop, she immediately covered it with kisses, exclaiming, “Lord, I give and abandon myself to Thee forever.” Her parents built a magnificent monastery for her in an island of the Danube, about a mile from Buda, and thither she removed with several other Sisters when she had attained the age of ten. When she was twelve years old, she made her solemn profession in the hands of Blessed Humbert, the General of the Order. Her parents afterwards obtained a Papal dispensation in order to marry Her to the King of Bohemia, but this only gave Margaret an opportunity of showing that her religious life was the result of her own free choice, for no prayers or entreaties would Induce her to Quit the cloister. In order to protect herself from further annoyances of this kind, she was solemnly veiled aad consecrated to God according to the rite given In the Roman Pontifical, in presence of the Archbishop of Strigonia and a number of other prelates. This ceremony took place at the altar of her aunt, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary.

Blessed Margaret looked upon herself as the vilest person in the Convent and rendered the most menial services, not only to her Sisters, but even to the servants. It was her delight to wash the dishes, sweep the house, and discharge the lowest domestic duties. She had a tender love for the poor and wept when she had no alms to bestow an them. But it was above all upon her sick Sisters that she poured forth the treasure of her charity, claiming it £s her right to render them all tne most loathsome and impulsive services which their condition might require.

Her life was one of continual prayer and hard labor and she practiced the most austere penance. Her tender love for the Divine Spouse made her hunger after a share iu His suffering” and humiliations, and she often compelled her companions to scourge her with pitiless severity. Her habit was worn out at the knees and elbows by her genuflexions and prostrations. She thirsted for martyrdom; and, on hearing a rumor that the Tartars were about to invade Hungary, she exclaimed: “I pray God that my father’s kingdom may be spared so terrible a scourge; nevertheless, if they are to come, I trust that they will come here, that we may receive our crown at their hands.” Her love for our Blessed Lady was so great, that, at the mere sound of the name Mary, she would fall upon her knees and bow her head to the dust. to do honor to her whom she delighted in saluting as “The Mother of God and my hope.”

Blessed Margaret died at the age of twenty-eight. Almost innumerable miracles have ben worked through her intercession. Petitions were repeatedly presented to the Holy See for her beatification, and Plus VII. extended to the Order of Saint Dominic the permission to celebrate her festival, which was already kept In many churches.

– text taken from the January 1903 issue of Dominicana magazine, author not listed

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/dominicana-blessed-margaret-of-hungary-virgin/

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Interior of the Roman Catholic church in Tevel, Tolna, Hungary

Tevel, római katolikus templom belső tere 2024

Saints and Saintly Dominicans – 26 January

Blessed Margaret of Hungary, Virgin, O.P.

When but a child in her mother’s arms, Blessed Margaret was offered by her father, King Bela, to God as a tender victim for the driving out of the Tartar hordes, who were laying waste the whole kingdom. Penetrated with this spirit of self-sacrifice to which she seemed to be destined, she embraced with generous love all the austerities of the cloister. She made her profession at the age of twelve in the hands of Blessed Humbert, who had been elected Master General of the Order at the Chapter of Buda and who had fallen ill in Hungary. Her great compunction of heart led her to add to the Divine Office at one time a whole Psalter, at another a thousand ejaculatory prayers along with a thousand inclinations in honor of God the Father, or of the Holy Ghost, or of Our Lady. One of her favorite practices of piety was to hold the Communion cloth for the Sisters. Her love of God overflowed in works of charity to her Sisters and she devoted herself especially to those afflicted with any contagious disease. Seeing her one day praying and doing penance for the troubles of the Church, some one said to her: “Why distress yourself so? In what does it concern you?” “What!” she replied, “is not the Church the mother of every Christian?” She died at the age of twenty-eight (1270). She is especially invoked against malarial fevers her monastery having been built on an island exposed to this scourge.

Prayer

O Blessed Margaret, obtain light for earthly princes to understand that, in maintaining religion, they further their own interests and that of their people.

Practice

Say the “Miserere” to atone for the faults of your country and to obtain its salvation.

– taken from the book Saints and Saintly Dominicans, by Blessed Hyacinthe-Marie Cormier, O.P.

SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saints-and-saintly-dominicans-26-january/

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Stained glass, Saint Margaret, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church (Knoxville, Tennessee)

January 18: St. Margaret of Hungary, V., O.P., III Class

Today, in the 1962 Dominican Rite Calendar, we celebrate the feast of St. Margaret of Hungary, virgin, of the Order of Preachers. The feast is III Class, and the office is prayed according to the rubrics. Most of the office is proper, and is taken from the Proper of the Saints, and at Lauds the Psalms of Sunday are prayed. At Lauds and Vespers a commemoration is made of St. Prisca, virgin and martyr. At Pretiosa, the obit of Barnabas of Vercelli, 15th Master General of the Order is read.

This is one of my favorite feasts on the Dominican calendar. This saintly heir to the Hungarian throne is one of the numerous saints who adorn the liturgical calendar who sprang from royal blood. We live in a time of political confusion and darkness. We also live in an era in which there is great misunderstanding, akin to myth or even superstition, regarding the historical monarchical form of government which is part of the glorious heritage of Christendom. Saints like St. Margaret of Hungary, along with countless other examples of royalty being raised to the altars of the Church, attest to the fact that not all kings and queens were tyrants or scoundrels. Indeed, the propers for today's feast are replete with examples of her sanctity from the accounts of her life, and attest to the level of sanctity that she achieved through her glorious union with Almighty God.

From “Short Lives of the Dominican Saints” (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, and Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1901):

In the year 1242, Hungary was governed by a devout Jan. 26 king, Bela IV. His territories were overrun by hordes of Tartars, whose sacrileges and cruelties filled the entire kingdom with scenes of bloodshed and violence. In their distress, Bela and his Queen vowed to dedicate their first daughter to the service of God, if He would grant them victory over their enemies. Then, full of trust in the Divine goodness, Bela led his little army against the Tartars, who were utterly defeated and driven from the country. Margaret's birth occurred shortly afterwards, and in consequence of her parents' vow she was taken to the Dominican Convent of Vesprim when only three years old. Even at that tender age she showed extraordinary signs of devotion. In less than six months she knew the Office of Our Lady by heart, merely from hearing the Sisters recite it. She was clothed in the religious habit on her fourth birthday, on which occasion she was shown a crucifix, and she asked for some explanation of the sacred symbol. On hearing that it represented Jesus Christ, who shed His blood for us even to the last drop, she immediately covered it with kisses, exclaiming, "Lord, I give and abandon myself to Thee forever." Her parents built a magnificent monastery for her in an island of the Danube, about a mile from Buda, and hither she removed with several other Sisters when she had attained the age of ten. When she was twelve years old, she made her solemn profession in the hands of Blessed Humbert, the General of the Order.

Her parents afterwards obtained a Papal dispensation in order to marry her to the King of Bohemia, but this only gave Margaret an opportunity of showing that her religious life was the result of her own free choice, for no prayers or entreaties would induce her to quit the cloister. In order to protect herself from further annoyances of this kind, she was solemnly veiled and consecrated to God according to the rite given in the Roman Pontifical, in presence of the Archbishop of Strigonia and a number of other prelates. This ceremony took place at the altar of her aunt, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary.

Blessed Margaret looked upon herself as the vilest person in the Convent and rendered the most menial services, not only to her Sisters, but even to the servants. It was her delight to wash the dishes, sweep the house, and discharge the lowliest domestic duties. She had a tender love for the poor and wept when she had no alms to bestow on them. But it was above all upon her sick Sisters that she poured forth the treasures of her charity, claiming it as her right to render them all the most loathsome and repulsive services which their condition might require.

Her life was one of continual prayer and hard labor and she practiced the most austere penance. Her tender love for her Divine Spouse made her hunger after a share in His sufferings and humiliations, and she often compelled her companions to scourge her with pitiless severity. Her habit was worn out at the knees and elbows by her continual genuflections and prostrations. She thirsted for martyrdom, and, on hearing a rumor that the Tartars were about to invade Hungary, she exclaimed, "I pray God that my father's kingdom may be spared so terrible a scourge; nevertheless, if they are to come, I trust they will come here, that we may receive our crown at their hands." Her love for our Blessed Lady was so great, that, at the mere sound of the name of Mary, she would fall upon her knees and bow her head to the dust, to do honor to her whom she delighted in saluting as "the Mother of God and my hope."

Blessed Margaret died at the early age of twenty eight. Almost innumerable miracles have been worked through her intercession. Petitions were repeatedly presented to the Holy See for her beatification; and Pius VII. extended to the Order of St. Dominic the permission to celebrate her festival, which was already kept in many churches.

Prayer

O God, protector and guardian of virginity, by your favor, your servant Margaret jointed the beauty of virginity to the merit of good works; we beseech you, grant that, in the spirit of saving penance, we may be able to renew integrity of mind. Through our Lord...

SOURCE : https://breviariumsop.blogspot.com/2018/01/january-18-st-margaret-of-hungary-v-op.html

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Árpád-házi Szent Margit. Fülkeszobor a peregi Szent Mihály-templom homlokzatán

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria Principessa e religiosa

18 gennaio

Buda (Ungheria), 1242 - Isola Margherita (Budapest), 18 Gennaio 1270

Nacque nel 1242 da Bela IV re d'Ungheria e dalla regina Maria di origine bizantina, probabilmente nel castello di Turòc. Nel 1252 fu condotta al monastero delle Domenicane di Santa Maria nell'Isola delle Lepri sul Danubio presso Buda, fondato da suo padre. Qui fa la sua professione religiosa nel 1254 e prende il velo nel 1261. Margherita si faceva leggere le Sacre Scritture e si affidava alla guida spirituale del suo confessore, il domenicano Marcello, già Provinciale d'Ungheria. È stata una delle più grandi mistiche medievali d'Ungheria. Grazie alla sua ascesi ebbe il dono delle visioni. Morì il 18 gennaio 1270 nel suo convento dell'Isola delle Lepri, presso Budapest. La sua tomba divenne presto meta di pellegrinaggi. Il processo canonico per dichiararla santa è incominciato nel 1271, sotto Gregorio X. La canonizzazione è avvenuta nel 1943, con Pio XII. Un iter complessivo di 672 anni.(Avv.)

Etimologia: Margherita = perla, dal greco e latino

Martirologio Romano: Presso Buda in Ungheria, santa Margherita, vergine: figlia del re Bela IV, promessa in voto a Dio dai suoi genitori per la liberazione della patria dai Tartari e affidata in tenera età alle monache dell’Ordine dei Predicatori, ancora dodicenne si consacrò così totalmente a Dio nella professione religiosa, da desiderare ardentemente di assimilarsi a Cristo crocifisso.

Nacque nel 1242 da Bela IV re d’Ungheria e dalla regina Maria di origine bizantina, probabilmente nel castello di Turòc. Nel 1252 fu condotta al monastero delle Domenicane di s. Maria nell’Isola delle Lepri sul Danubio presso Buda, fondato da suo padre.

Qui fa la sua professione religiosa nel 1254 e prende il velo nel 1261. Pregava continuamente sempre con le stesse preghiere, riservando particolare devozione alla Passione di Cristo e all’Eucaristia. Non aveva una grande cultura appena un po’ sopra il livello del saper leggere e scrivere. Margherita si faceva leggere le Sacre Scritture e si affidava alla guida spirituale del suo confessore, il domenicano Marcello, già Provinciale d’Ungheria.

Aveva uno smisurato amore per la povertà, il quale unito alla sua vita ascetica la portò ad elevarsi in un grado di vicinanza a Dio da meritare il dono delle visioni. E’ stata una delle più grandi mistiche medioevali d’Ungheria. Morì il 18 gennaio 1270 nel suo convento dell’Isola delle Lepri, presso Budapest, la sua tomba divenne meta di pellegrinaggi, mentre avveniva uno dei miracoli attribuitegli, i presenti erano più di tremila.

Un anno dopo la sua morte, il fratello Stefano V re d’Ungheria chiese al papa Gregorio X un’inchiesta sulla santità della sorella, cosa che avvenne, ma i testi di questo primo processo non sono conservati.

Un secondo processo fu indetto da papa Innocenzo V nel 1276 ma anche questi atti sono scomparsi, ne rimase una copia nel convento domenicano in Ungheria. Nel frattempo in patria, Margherita era già venerata come una santa. Nel ‘600 si ritornò a sollecitare Roma per la dichiarazione ufficiale ma bisogna arrivare al 1729 dopo una ricognizione delle reliquie che esce fuori insieme ad esse la copia conservata dalle suore del 1276, fonte principale per la vita della santa, essendo irreperibili tutti i documenti ufficiali precedenti.

Nel frattempo le reliquie erano state trasferite a causa dell’invasione turca, dal convento di Isola delle Lepri a quello delle Clarisse di Presburgo nel 1618.

Pur tardando il riconoscimento ufficiale, il culto per s. Margherita fu esteso all’Ordine Domenicano e alla Diocesi di Transilvania nel 1804. Durante l’800 la festa si estese a tutte le Diocesi ungheresi, poi dietro le richieste di alcuni cardinali e dell’Ordine Domenicano fu concessa la canonizzazione equipollente da papa Pio XII nel 1943.

La sua immagine è frequentissima nell’iconografia italiana e ungherese.

Autore: Antonio Borrelli

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Basilica of San Domenico (Siena) - Stained-glass windows : Bonaventura on stained-glass windows - Agnes of Assisi ; Saint Margaret of Hungary on stained-glass windows ; Saint Louis of Toulouse

Il processo canonico per dichiararla santa è incominciato nel 1271, sotto Gregorio X. La canonizzazione è avvenuta nel 1943, con Pio XII. Un iter complessivo di 672 anni. Lei è figlia di re Béla IV d’Ungheria. E prima che venga al mondo, sul suo Paese piomba l’invasione mongola comandata da Batu, nipote di Gengis Khan: dopo aver devastato e saccheggiato i territori russi, ucraini e polacchi, dilaga in Ungheria, e in una battaglia campale disperde le truppe comandate da Béla IV, con ungari, croati, tedeschi e templari francesi. La famiglia reale d’Ungheria si rifugia in Dalmazia.

La regina sta per partorire, e già si decide che, se nascerà una bambina, l’accoglierà un convento. È un voto, per la salvezza dell’Ungheria. Così, sui tre-quattro anni, eccola già accolta nel convento domenicano di Santa Caterina, a Veszprém; e intanto nasce per lei un’altra casa di suore presso Buda, su un’isoletta del Danubio che si chiamerà poi Isola Margherita.

Niente vocazione, dunque: hanno fatto tutto i genitori. I quali poi, nel 1260, vogliono farla maritare al re Ottocaro II di Boemia, col quale l’Ungheria ha fatto pace dopo una guerra sfortunata. Lei, al momento, ha diciotto anni, e dice di no. Ottocaro sposerà una sua sorella. Poi Margherita fa di più: se finora era nel convento una sorta di illustre ospite, ora si fa domenicana. La vocazione è arrivata adesso, come lei dice al suo confessore, il domenicano frate Marcello. Dopo di lei arrivano in convento altre figlie dell’aristocrazia ungherese. Forse anche loro“chiamate”. Oppure forse spinte dall’ambizione di andare a star bene accanto alla figlia del re, mettendo insieme una piccola corte.

Non così la pensa Margherita. Certo, tiene presenti anche le vicende di fuori. Anzi, nel 1265 si impegna per mettere fine a una guerra di famiglia. Suo fratello Stefano V (tre anni più di lei) si è ribellato al padre Béla IV, che pure lo aveva associato al trono; e gli fa addiritturala guerra. Margherita a questo punto interviene e riconcilia padre e fratello. Ma come religiosa non si fa sconti: lì non è più la figlia del re. I suoi connotati di religiosa si trovano nelle deposizioni di un centinaio di testimoni, che nel 1276 (sei anni dopo la morte) depongono davanti a due delegati pontifici giunti da Roma per indagare sulla sua fama di santità. E qui troviamo una donna che vive la Regola, e vi aggiunge pure del suo, dedicandosi a una continua opera di imitazione di Gesù nella sofferenza fisica e nell’umiliazione. Si fa leggere molto spesso il racconto della Passione, e lo ascolta in piedi. Si priva di cibo e di riposo per il desiderio di vicinanza al Signore sofferente. Cerca persino di cancellare dal viso ogni traccia di bellezza. E dal suo convento sul Danubio si ritrova in sintonia con lo spirito dei movimenti di disciplinati e penitenti, che si diffondono in Europa.

Dopo la morte, ecco le voci dei miracoli presso la sua tomba, nel coro del convento (abbandonato e poi distrutto nel XVII secolo). Comincia l’inchiesta per la canonizzazione, e sarà molto lunga, ma il suo nome gira per l’Europa. Nel 1425, in Francia, Giovanna d’Arco si sente chiamata, da “voci” misteriose, a rafforzare la propria fede e a liberare la Francia. Al processo che finirà col supplizio, Giovanna darà alle “voci” un nome: «Michele arcangelo, Caterina da Siena e Margherita d’Ungheria».

Autore: Domenico Agasso

SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/38200

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Santa Margarita de Hungría (Diego de Robles, circa XVI), refectorio del Convento de Santo Domingo, Quito.

DISCORSO DI SUA SANTITÀ PIO PP. XII

AI FEDELI UNGHERESI, SULLE VIRTÙ
DI SANTA MARGHERITA D'UNGHERIA*

Castel Gandolfo - Sabato, 10 agosto 1957

[Il discorso che segue venne redatto dal Pontefice nell'autunno del 1943, all'indomani della canonizzazione della Beata Margherita d'Ungheria (cfr. Lettera Decretale Maxima inter munera). Era indirizzato ai fedeli ungheresi che in quella circostanza avevano organizzato un pellegrinaggio nazionale a Roma, impedito poi dai tragici avvenimenti di quei mesi. Il Discorso, a distanza di quattordici anni, fu pubblicato dall'Osservatore Romano]

Come non esulterebbe, commosso d'intimo e vivissimo gaudio, il Nostro cuore, nel vedervi oggi adunati intorno a Noi, diletti figli e figlie della nobile Nazione Ungherese, la cui presenza nell'animo Nostro ravviva e ripresenta i più dolci e cari ricordi? Ricordi incancellabili di quelle grandi assise eucaristiche, in cui Ci fu dato di rappresentare come Legato il Nostro Predecessore Pio XI di gloriosa memoria. Noi rivediamo l'impeto fervoroso di pietà e di fede, che erompeva dalle anime vostre e dagli immensi cortei del vostro popolo convenuto da tutte le parti del Regno.

Richiamandoci e quasi facendo eco al voto espresso dalla Nazione Ungherese, in quelle indimenticabili giornate, — giornate che sembrano di ieri, nonostante il tragico abisso che da esse ci separa, — Noi manifestammo allora l'augurio che « la Beata Margherita, rampollo di ceppo reale, compagna sorridente e sorella della santa povertà, violetta d'umiltà dimentica di sè stessa, anima eucaristica privilegiata e di una limpida profondità, lampada ardente dinanzi al S. Tabernacolo, la cui dolce fiamma scintilla viva ancor oggi pur dopo il lungo corso di sette secoli, potesse presto annoverarsi e assurgere allo splendore della gloria dei santi, quale fulgida stella nel cielo d'Ungheria ». A penetrare negli ascosi consigli di Dio, reggitore della sua Chiesa, è cieco ogni pensiero: come allora avremmo potuto supporre che la divina Provvidenza si sarebbe valsa del Nostro ministero per corrispondere al vostro desiderio e adempiere quel voto di incastonare questa nuova gemma al diadema già così scintillante e ricco del Regno di Maria?

Mirabile storia è quella della vostra Patria; storia in cui s'intrecciano lotte e prove, che illustrano la sua santa missione a servigio di Dio, della Chiesa e della Cristianità; storia in cui si alternano rinnovamenti e ricominciamenti eroici; storia, i cui fasti splendono di quei fari luminosi che sono i Santi della dinastia degli Árpád, tra i quali sfolgora Stefano, figura gigante di sovrano, di legislatore, di pacificatore, di promotore della fede e della Chiesa, vero homo apostolicus, la cui santa destra è in mezzo a voi, simbolo venerato delle grandi gesta da lui compiute e sicuro palladio di protezione negli estremi pericoli.

A Stefano fanno corona il suo figlio S. Emerico, giglio verginale dischiuso ai piedi della Vergine Immacolata; S. Margherita di Scozia, la cui angelica virtù infuse nel cuore del suo sposo e della sua novella patria la dolce purezza del Vangelo; S. Ladislao, ideale del cavaliere medioevale, intrepido e buono, non meno amato che ammirato dai suoi sudditi; le due nipoti di Béla III, la B. Agnese di Praga, che S. Chiara chiamava « la metà de sè stessa », ed Elisabetta di Turingia, la « cara e dolce santa »; infine le sue pronipoti, le tre sorelle, la B. Cunegonda o Kinga di Polonia, la B. Jolenta di Kalisz in Polonia, e questa Margherita, che contempliamo oggi nella pienezza del suo trionfo. La generazione, che seguì, vide risplendere l'altra S. Elisabetta, rosa di grazia e angelo di pace del Portogallo.

Quale numerosa schiera e quale varietà di anime generose e sante! Non sembra forse che Iddio in questa famiglia, dove così fulgida e molteplice è apparsa la santità, discesa in un medesimo sangue, come in altrettanti raggi di un medesimo arcobaleno, abbia voluto far scintillare, per rivelarle ai nostri occhi, le innumerevoli gradazioni della santità, di cui l'unico sole è la santità di Cristo?

Santità del capo nella costituzione politica e sociale della patria cristiana; santità del guerriero senza debolezza e senza odio; santità della sposa, della madre, della vedova; santità nella vita familiare e nella vita nel chiostro; santità fiorita nelle aiuole del suolo nativo e fruttificante in giardini lontani per la salvezza, la pacificazione e la prosperità di altre nazioni.

Di tutte queste eroiche figure di Santi e Sante, quella di Margherita, la più nascosta e segregata dal mondo, è forse la più sorprendente; ad alcuni non sarebbe lungi dall'apparire la più sconcertante. Negli altri Santi e Sante non è difficile di scorgere modelli che si confanno a tutte le condizioni della vita: Margherita invece, a primo aspetto, sembrerebbe inimitabile da chicchessia.

Margherita ha singolarità di vita e di pietà, che raramente s'incontrano in altri Santi. Ma ogni santo è singolare, scrisse già nella « Pratica di amar Gesù Cristo » (commentando un passo di S. Bernardo — cfr. S. Alf. de Liguori, Opere ascetiche, vol. I, pag. 87, e Appendice n. 51 pag. 453-455) il gran Vescovo e Dottore S. Alfonso de Liguori, il quale della santità conosceva le molteplici vie, per le quali lo Spirito Santo con le sue ineffabili ispirazioni guida le anime all'alta mèta, fuori della vita comune, anche se claustrale, fuori del costume e delle pratiche civili del mondo, conducendole nella solitudine dello spirito per parlare al loro cuore un linguaggio della mortificazione e della povertà così umiliante che pare estraneo ad ogni virtù. In tale solitudine, sotto l'influsso della grazia, le singolarità, le quali stupiscono e stordiscono chi le nota e quasi se ne offende e le disprezza, non escono dall'influsso della carità di Cristo, alla quale s'ispirano e tendono, perchè nella carità di Cristo, che anima i Santi e tutto quanto fanno per la vittoria di sè stessi, consiste la vera santità. La mortificazione e la pietà e devozione dei Santi hanno mille arti e forme, che il mondo non può comprendere, e spesso neanche chi nella propria vita devota e mortificata batte la via comune delle virtù.

Non è forse il disprezzo delle grandezze umane e delle comodità materiali di Margherita, figlia di re, una grande lezione per anime meno elevate della sua? E chi ardirebbe affermare che il mondo non aveva allora bisogno, che non ha anche oggidì bisogno di una tale lezione, che lo faccia arrossire e vergognare del culto immoderato della carne, della brama dei piaceri, della immodestia nell'abbigliamento, della ricerca della stima e delle lodi?

È vero che, anche nella condizione più umile, è un dovere di prendere conveniente cura della propria vita, della sanità, della dignità del proprio corpo, e di un certo decoro che schivi ogni ripugnanza, e che tutto ciò fin dalla prima infanzia, per uno spirito straordinario, questa vergine di sangue reale pospose al suo ardore di mortificazione e di umiltà. Margherita pertanto è piuttosto una lezione che Dio ci presenta da meditare che non un esempio da seguire e imitare.

È fuori di dubbio che la Santa non avrebbe potuto darsi spontaneamente a tali eccessi di mortificazione e di penitenza senza oltrepassare i limiti comuni della prudenza e della temperanza; nè i suoi Superiori avrebbero potuto e ardito di loro spontaneo volere consigliare od approvare un tale metodo così diverso dall'ordinario, di sacrificarsi per Dio nella pietà e devozione; ma dinanzi all'impulso della carità divina, che vuol dare un gran colpo alla delicatezza mondana, la prudenza e saggezza comune non debbono forse inchinarsi?

« La Santa Chiesa di Dio — ripeteremo con l'Autore della Vita di S. Carlo Borromeo — adorna di mirabile varietà di virtù, in questo rilassatissimo secolo, aveva forse bisogno di un tale esempio di sobrietà e di mortificazione del corpo, e molti di noi avevamo necessità di questo stimolo contro tanta mollezza, che rende incapaci di contemplare le cose celesti » (cfr. Ben. XIV, De Serv. Dei Beatific. et Beat. Canoniz., l. III c. XXIX n. 9).

Ma più che le straordinarie penitenze e macerazioni, l'umiltà e la carità di Margherita nel compimento delle osservanze quotidiane sembra che commovessero profondamente l'animo dei testimoni della sua vita.

Fin da bambina, a nulla tanto aspira quanto a conformarsi esattamente alle pratiche ed ai costumi delle religiose del monastero in ciò che le era permesso, schiva da ogni dispensa, e amica delle umiliazioni; ma sapeva mettere tanta grazia in supplicare la Superiora e le altre religiose, che molte cose le furono concesse. Ora chi non vede che tale costanza fino alla morte e questa fedeltà alla regola mostrano la serietà e santità del suo desiderio di fanciulla? Sempre prima a recarsi alle obbedienze ed agli uffici assegnati dalla Priora, non volendo godere privilegi di esenzione, ella era, al venire della sua settimana di turno, la più pronta e assidua ai lavori materiali, umili e grossolani, al servizio della cucina, alla pulizia della casa, alla lavatura delle stoviglie, che la si vedeva fare con le sue mani spesso screpolate e sanguinanti nel rigor dell'inverno. Con tale lavoro non intendeva soltanto di soddisfare la sua avidità di mortificazione, ma mirava a far sì che nulla valesse a ricordare la sua nascita illustre, pur in quel monastero fondato dal padre suo. Onde soffriva, talvolta fino a piangerne, se mai altri in qualche modo paresse accennare ch'ella era figlia di re. Pensando al Figlio di Dio, che nacque povero, visse povero e volle chiamarsi Figlio dell'uomo, Margherita avrebbe desiderato di esser nata povera figlia del popolo e come tale di venir naturalmente trattata in mezzo alle sue molte nobili consorelle. Tanta umiltà l'aveva appresa da Gesù Cristo umile di cuore, come da Lui aveva imparato quella mitezza, che nell'abbassarsi non mai si scompagnava dalla gentilezza, dalla benignità e dalla carità, che profondeva intorno a sè; quindi avveniva che, se riceveva dai suoi congiunti qualche dono, amante com'era di ogni distacco e della povertà, lo portava subito alla Priora o al Provinciale per l'uso della comunità o per il sollievo dei miseri vergognosi; mentre le ricche stoffe e i gioielli andavano ad adornare le Chiese bisognose. Un così vivo amore per i poveri pareva l'avesse ereditato dalla sua santa zia Elisabetta; la loro vista sempre la moveva a tenera compassione e a correre dalla Priora per chiederle qualche vestito o come che fosse un po' di aiuto per sovvenirli; alle consorelle poi, che nulla possedevano, domandava l'elemosina delle preghiere. Generosa verso i miseri fuori del monastero, la sua carità trionfava ed eccelleva entro le mura claustrali, perché è nell'ordine della carità stessa e di una virtù solida e senza illusioni il prodigare le cure caritatevoli innanzi tutto nell'interno della comunità. Oh quanto sentiva nell'animo suo verso le consorelle! Se sopravveniva qualche contrasto o dissenso fra due religiose, l'avreste veduta sollecita consigliera di pace; se alcuna le mostrava un volto meno sorridente che d'ordinario, si affrettava a implorarne perdono, temendo di averla forse inconsapevolmente offesa; le sventure delle altre l'addoloravano fino alle lacrime, come se fossero state sue proprie. Ma verso le inferme la sua cura e la sua assistenza era più che materna e non conosceva alcun limite: le infermità che più provocavano un naturale disgusto, non che scemare, accrescevano la sua premura e la sua vigile attenzione; comprendendo però la ripugnanza delle altre consorelle, con garbo e delicatezza sapeva farle allontanare, per assumere essa sola tutti i servizi ed ogni cura bisognevole; al che Iddio le dava forze che si potrebbero stimare miracolose, che ad ogni modo sembrano ben superiori a quelle del suo sesso, specialmente quando si consideri lo stato di esaurimento fisico che avrebbero dovuto cagionarle le sue continue macerazioni. L'insopportabile fetore non fu mai che la rattenesse dal portare le malate nel bagno, dal ricondurle e accomodarle nel letto, dal compire per loro tutti gli uffici non soltanto di una assidua infermiera, ma della più umile serva. Se mai avveniva che sentisse di giorno o di notte qualcuna lamentarsi o gemere, subito correva da lei, domandava con tenerezza ciò che desiderasse, e senza indugio eccola a piedi nudi scendere in cucina e preparare e portare quel che poteva procacciare un poco di sollievo o di piacere a colei che ne aveva di bisogno.

Ma se la carità di lei tanto generosamente si estendeva al prossimo e abbracciava le sue consorelle, si elevava come fiamma di intenso e fervido amore verso il cielo e verso Gesù, centro di tutte le sue aspirazioni. Alle varie proposte di nobilissime nozze fattele dal padre suo, sempre oppose il più energico rifiuto, deliberata com'era di essere irrevocabilmente tutta di Dio. Quelle veglie e quelle preghiere, che con suppliche commoventi nel nome di Gesù otteneva di prolungare davanti al S. Tabernacolo e nel proprio segreto, quelle lacrime e quel lungo digiuno di tre giorni a ricordo e meditazione della Passione del Redentore, quel vivo desiderio tante volte espresso di partecipare alle sofferenze dei martiri per dare a Dio l'attestato più forte e sincero del suo amore, ecco la vera sorgente di tutte le virtù che noi ammiriamo in lei, virtù non meno delicatamente umane che altamente soprannaturali.

Ed ecco ancora la nascosta origine di quelle austerità straordinarie, le quali, se pure giungono a sorprendere l'animo nostro e fin quasi a sconcertare, a primo aspetto, il nostro pensiero, provengono però dalla pietra di paragone che è l'ispirazione divina, ineffabile nel suo consiglio; è in quella armonia della grazia, di cui la volontà umana non potrebbe mai concepire il mistero, che nasconde i mirabili effetti della santità ed innalza lo spirito con ascensioni sempre più alte e divine. Stupiamo pure innanzi alle grandi macerazioni di Margherita; ma confessiamo anche che agli occhi di Dio, il quale tutto ha creato e sostiene dai vermi della terra al sole e al concerto degli astri del firmamento, nulla è vile, quando diventi mezzo di santificazione dell'anima e di innalzamento a quel mondo dello spirito, che supera tutta la natura e ci congiunge a Dio nel cammino verso la vita della immortalità beata.

Al premio immortale non tardò il Signore a chiamare la religiosissima figlia del Re d'Ungheria, togliendola di mezzo alle tempeste che avevano turbato quel Regno e aggiunto alle pene corporali di lei anche l'afflizione di vedere la discordia e la guerra fra il padre suo e il figlio maggiore per la designazione del successore al trono; conflitto, i cui effetti si risentirono anche nel monastero ove ella viveva e ne interruppero l'intima pace.

Infatti le sue forze e il suo vigore andavano scemando; ella sentiva in sè, nei suoi ventotto anni, che si approssimava il crepuscolo del viver suo. Nel 1269, stando nell'infermeria attorno al cadavere di Suor Beata, presenti due altre Religiose, Margherita aveva detto : « Io sarò la prima che morrò dopo di lei ». Era la voce della chiamata di Dio, che dinanzi alla consorella defunta parlava a Margherita per mezzo del deperimento estremo del suo corpo, deperimento che però non affievoliva in lei quel fervore spirituale, da cui era stata fino allora animata.

Il dì dell'Epifania nel seguente anno fu colta da febbre così forte che, nella visione della morte vicina, espresse il desiderio di venir sepolta ai piedi dell'altare della S. Croce, avidissima com'era stata di conformarsi a Gesù Crocifisso fino alla morte, ovvero in quel luogo della chiesa, dove faceva le sue lunghe orazioni private; aggiungendo, quasi a stimolo affinchè fosse appagata la sua brama: « Non temete di male odore; male odore non uscirà dal mio corpo ». Languiva nel suo letticciuolo, assorta nell'amore di Dio, come rosa, la cui corolla si appassisce ai caldi raggi del sole divino. Non la conturbava la morte : come poteva temerla, se tante volte l'aveva sfidata coi suoi lunghi digiuni e con le sue straordinarie veglie, non meno che coi suoi cilici e flagelli, dei quali, ormai inutili a lei, avanti di morire, consegnava la chiave della cassetta, ove erano racchiusi, alla Priora? Il morire era per lei quel dissolversi per essere con Cristo suo sposo; perciò, a meglio purificarsi, due volte si confessò al Priore Provinciale dei Domenicani, e chiese e ricevette il santo Viatico e l'Estrema Unzione coi sentimenti della più viva pietà e devozione, vicina com'era al gran viaggio verso il cielo, deponendo ogni reliquia dell'umana polvere contratta quaggiù.

Spirava la sera del 18 gennaio con quella pace e serenità, che fa preziosa la morte dei Santi al cospetto del Signore. Ascendi in alto, o vergine regale, fin dalla puerizia aspirante alla corte del cielo. Discenda ad incontrarti il santo Patriarca Domenico con una schiera di angeli, e ti accompagni al trono del Re di gloria per ricevere quella corona di gigli e di rose, cinta della quale col coro delle vergini seguirai i trionfi della Regina del cielo.

Intanto quaggiù Iddio faceva ricomparire la bellezza dei tratti sul volto di Margherita. Tale fatto non fu dapprima notato dalle Suore: se ne accorsero tre giorni dopo, quando l'Arcivescovo di Strigonia, ammirando lo splendore del viso della defunta, disse loro che non dovevano piangere la morte di lei, bensì rallegrarsene, perché sembrava già dimostrare l'inizio della sua risurrezione.

Quanti ne avvicinarono il corpo esanime, non avvertirono alcun odore sgradevole, ma parecchi percepirono un soave profumo come di rose; e questo profumo sentirono uscire dal suo sepolcro anche coloro che dopo alcuni mesi vennero a ricoprirlo con una lapide marmorea.

Quel profumo di rose, non poste da nessuna mano devota sul corpo e sulla tomba di Margherita, altro non era se non il profumo della santità di lei; profumo di santità che attraverso il corso di quasi sette secoli, arriva a noi, movendo da quel gran secolo medioevale che diede la culla al vostro inclito Ordine, diletti figli e figlie del glorioso Patriarca Domenico, e fu famoso per i vostri Santi e sommi Dottori e Maestri, mentre doveva poi darvi l'eroica vergine, Caterina da Siena. Margherita, senza esser tolta alla nobile sua patria, l'Ungheria, è dunque anche vostra e del vostro Istituto religioso, le cui aspirazioni apostoliche si rivolsero, tra i paesi di tutta Europa, con ardente fervore di zelo, anche alla terra, che bagnano il Danubio ed il Tibisco.

È vostra, perché appartenne al vostro Ordine, nel cui seno si svolse tutta la sua vita dall'infanzia fino alla sua beata morte; è vostra per la sua devozione teneramente filiale verso Maria; vostra per la sua professione religiosa, alla quale manifestava, anche nelle congiunture più delicate, un incrollabile attaccamento; vostra in particolar modo per il suo spirito è questa vergine che, dal ritiro del suo chiostro, fu nel corso della sua breve vita una continua predicazione. E quale predicazione più eloquente, opportuna e necessaria da fare intendere al mondo frivolo, avido di piaceri, orgoglioso, ostile ad ogni mortificazione, che l'esempio di questa vita crocifissa ed orante, vita di umiltà e di povertà, di abnegazione e di carità? Che dall'alto del cielo, nella sua gloria immortale, ella non cessi di porgere a Dio la sua preghiera ardente e potente, sicchè attiri le grazie più preziose sulla sua amata patria, sul suo e vostro santo Ordine, su tutto il mondo, il quale ha più che mai bisogno di levare lo sguardo al di sopra di ciò che passa e ne turba la concordia e la pace, per trovare ed ottenere da Dio il rimedio ai suoi mali.

Con tale augurio vi impartiamo a tutti con effusione di cuore la Nostra paterna Apostolica Benedizione.

*Discorsi e Radiomessaggi di Sua Santità Pio XII, XIX,

Diciannovesimo anno di Pontificato, 2 marzo 1957-1° marzo 1958, pp. 333-341

Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana

SOURCE : https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/it/speeches/1957/documents/hf_p-xii_spe_19570810_santa-margherita-ungheria.html

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Mozaikový obraz patrónky kostola nad hlavným vchodom od akademického maliara Ernesta Zmetáka

Margit van Hongarije, Boedapest; prinses & kloosterlinge; † 1270.

Feest † 18 & 28 januari.

Zij werd geboren op 7 januari 1242 als dochter van de heilige koning Béla (eigenlijk Adalbertus) IV van Hongarije († 1270; feest ); zij was een zus van Sint Kinga (of Kunigonda) van Polen († 1292; feest 24 juli) en van de zalige Jolanda van Polen († 1298; feest 11 juni) en een nicht van Sint Elisabeth van Hongarije († 1231; feest 17 november). Zij werd aan de Heer toegewijd krachtens een belofte van haar ouders. Zo werd ze al op 3-jarige leeftijd in het dominicanessenklooster Veszprém geplaatst dat indertijd onder leiding stond van de zalige Helena van Hongarije († 1270; feest 9 november).

Nadien stichtte haar vader een ander dominicanessenklooster op het Hazeneiland (nu: Margaretha-eiland, Margitsziget) in de Donau te Boedapest. Op haar tiende trad zij hier in, waarna zij reeds na twee jaar haar geloften aflegde. Zij leidde een voorbeeldig leven van boete en gebed en stichtte haar medezusters door haar goedheid, gehoorzaamheid en bescheidenheid. Ze stierf reeds op 28-jarige leeftijd.
Zij werd zalig verklaard in 1276 en in 1943 door paus Pius XII († 1958) heilig verklaard.

Patronaten

Op het naar haar genoemde eiland in de Donau wordt haar voorspraak ingeroepen tegen overstromingen.

Afgebeeld

Ze wordt afgebeeld als prinses met leliestaf (symbool van zuiverheid); in gebed, met een vurige aardbol of kogelvormige vlammen boven het hoofd (zo zouden haar medezusters haar tijdens haar nachtelijke gebed herhaaldelijk hebben gezien).

Bronnen

[000»Emmerich; Bau.1925; Bly.1986p:18(afb?); Bri.1953; Cal.0000; Lin.1999; Rge.1989; Rgf.1991; RR1.1640»01.28; S&S.1998; Dries van den Akker s.j./2010.02.26]

SOURCE : https://heiligen-3s.nl/heiligen/01/18/01-18-1270-margit.php

Santa Margherita d'Ungheria

Manuel Navarro (–1850), Santa Margarita, princesa de Hungría, Engraving. Drawing: Joaquín Calvo (fl. 1829) - http://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000140529

Band XIV. (1998) Spalten 1238-1240 Autor: Ekkart Sauser

MARGARITA VON UNGARN, hl. Dominikanerin, * 1242 in Klissa, + 18.1. 1270 in Budapest, Fest: 18.1. - König Bela IV. und seine Gemahlin Maria Lascaris wurden in der Festung Dalmata belagert, als die Tartaren in Ungarn und Pannonien eindrangen und das Land zu verwüsten drohten. In ihrer Not flehten König Bela und die Königin Maria zu Gott und legten ein Gelübde ab: Sie wollten das Kind, das sie erwarteten, Gott weihen, damit Ungarn und Pannonien vor weiteren Zerstörungen verschont bliebe. Nach der Geburt ihrer Tochter nannten sie diese Margarita. Sie erfüllten ihr Versprechen - im Alter von vier Jahren wurde M. den Dominikanerinnen von Veszprem zur Erziehung anvertraut. Mit 12 Jahren trat M. in ein neues Kloster ein, das ihr Vater, Bela, auf einer Donauinsel bei Buda hatte errichten lassen. Dort legte sie in die Hände des Ordensmeisters Humbert von Romans die Profeß ab. Als Ordensfrau war sie sehr eifrig und weihte sich ganz Christus, dem Gekreuzigten. Pius XII. sagte in seinem Brief zu ihrer Heiligsprechung: »Sie wurde von Herzen eine Jüngerin des Kreuzes und vergaß ihr königliches Elternhaus. Trotz ihres kindlichen Alters pflegte sie eine tiefe Liebe zu Christus und der jungfräulichen Gottesmutter, sie zeigte hochherzige Tugend und Reinheit des Geistes.« Schliesslich erhielt sie mit größter Freude vom Erzbischof von Gran die Jungfrauenweihe, um die sie inständig gebeten hatte. Ihren weiteren Weg beschrieb Pius XII. anlässlich ihrer Heiligsprechung mit den Worten: »Auf diese Weise dem Bräutigam der Jungfrauen geweiht, versuchte sie unermüdlich durch Verachtung der Welt und ihrer selbst und durch Züchtigung ihres Leibes dem König der Märtyrer gleich zu werden. Stets ganz einfach gekleidet, fand sie Gefallen daran, niedrige Arbeiten zu tun, das Haus zu kehren, Schmutz zu beseitigen, Essen vorzubereiten und oft mit schweren Lasten beladen zu werden. Den kranken Mitschwestern, ja sogar den Mägden, bei denen die übrigen sich manchmal mit Krankheiten anzustecken fürchteten, diente sie mit solcher Liebe und einer solchen Hingabe, dass sie alle schweren und niedrigen Dienste sich selbst vorbehielt. In harten Bußen und Fastenübungen sowie ständig im Gebet wollte sie die Greueltaten der Kriege in ihrer Heimat sühnen. M. erfüllte eine große Liebe zur Eucharistie, daher Pius XII.: »Sie betete immer wieder vor dem im Tabernakel verborgenen Christus oder vor dem Kreuz, wo sie ihr Herz ausschüttete. Sie beschränkte ihre Tätigkeit nicht nur auf glühende Gebete zu Gott und harte Buße, sondern war auch von apostolischem Eifer entflammt und mit großer Tapferkeit ausgezeichnet. »Schließlich beendet Pius XII. sein Schreiben mit den Worten: »Er gab ihr Anteil an seinem Leiden wie auch an seiner Tröstung und seiner Macht zu Lebzeiten wie nach dem Tode.« Ihre Heiligsprechung erfolgte durch Pius XII. am 19. November 1943, am Feste der hl. Elisabeth von Thüringen, wohl deshalb, weil M. selbst eine Nichte der hl. Landgräfin aus Thüringen gewesen ist. In der Kunst wird sie dargestellt als Nonne mit Lilie, manchmal mit Krone zu ihren Füßen, weil sie dreimal die Heirat mit Königen verschmäht hatte. Ihr Mantel ist auf Gemälden oft mit Sternen bedeckt.

Lit.: O. Lechner-U.Schütz, Mit den Heiligen durch das Jahr, Freiburg-Basel-Wien 19882, 25; - V. Schauber, Pattloch Namenstagskalender, Augsburg 1994, 18; - Proprium des Predigerordens, III; - Feier des Stundengebetes, Proprium der Heiligen, Köln 1991, 171; - LThK Bd. VII, 22-23 (K. Juhúsz).

Ekkart Sauser

Scheda bio-bibliografica (BBKL), su bautz.de (archiviato dall'url originale il 24 giugno 2009).

SOURCE : https://web.archive.org/web/20090624231916/http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/m/margarete_v_u.shtml

Patrick Henriet, « Viktória Hedvig Deák, La légende de sainte Marguerite de Hongrie et l’hagiographie dominicaine », Revue de l’histoire des religions [En ligne], 1 | 2016, mis en ligne le 05 avril 2016, consulté le 02 mai 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/rhr/8515 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/rhr.8515 - https://journals.openedition.org/rhr/8515

vendredi 18 janvier 2013

Sainte MARGUERITE de HONGRIE, princesse et vierge moniale dominicaine