Inbox Inspiration: November 13, 2019: Saint Margaret of Scotland

Saint Margaret of Scotland

Dear Friends,
Saint Margaret’s father Edward was an English prince in the eleventh century.
Because of political unrest, he and his family were exiled from England and eventually found their way to Hungary.
It was there that Margaret was born in the year 1045.
In 1057 the family was able to return to England where her father soon died.
Margaret, her sisters, her brother and her mother eventually had to flee from England after the Norman conquest of 1066.
They settled in Scotland and there Margaret married King Malcolm III.
The couple had eight children.
Margaret was a devoted Catholic and positively influenced her husband and three of her sons who also became kings.
She worked to restore the worship and practices of the Church of Scotland to those of Rome, in which she had been formed while growing up in Hungary.
She was known for spending time every day in private prayer and spiritual reading.
Margaret is especially remembered for her charitable works, serving in a hands-on way the poor and orphans.
She died on November 16, 1093 at the age of forty-eight, just days after her husband and eldest son were killed in a battle against the English.
Margaret’s life is an inspiration to wives, mothers and all women.
She was canonized a saint in 1250 and is the Patron Saint of Scotland.
Her feast day is November 16 in the Catholic calendar.

“There are two ways to be charitable: the ‘clean way’ and the ‘messy way.’ The ‘clean way’ is to give money or clothing to organizations that serve the poor. The ‘messy way’ is dirtying your own hands in personal service to the poor. Margaret’s outstanding virtue was her love for the poor. Although very generous with material gifts, Margaret also visited the sick and nursed them with her own hands. She and her husband served orphans and the poor on their knees during Advent and Lent. Like Christ, she was charitable the ‘messy way.’”
From Franciscan Media.

“All you holy men and women, Saints of God, pray for us.” 
Father Michael Schleupner