Friday, November 16, 2012

St Margaret of Scotland

Today, the anniversary of her death,  is the feast of St Margaret of Scotland in the liturgical calendar of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter.  St Margaret's father was in fact of the old Anglo-Saxon royalty of England - hence her other title "St Margaret of Wessex" - and her  mother probably Hungarian.  But she married Macolm the King of Scotland.  The good old Catholic Encyclopædia has a biography here.

A collect:

O God, the Ruler of all, who didst call Thy servant Margaret to an earthly throne and gavest to her both zeal for Thy Church and love for Thy people, that she might advance Thy heavenly kingdom:  mercifully grant that we who commemorate her this day may be fruitful in good works and, with her prayers, attain to the glorious crown of Thy Saints; through Jesus Christ Thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, now and always and forever.  Amen.


(I found the picture on the Wikipedia site here. By Edward Burne-Jones it says, but it doesn't give the provenance. It would be interesting to know.  You can click on it to get a better, i.e., larger, view.)