Subj : February 22nd - St. Margaret of Cortona
To   : All
From : rich
Date : Wed Feb 21 2018 09:09:49

From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

February 22nd - St. Margaret of Cortona
(1247-1297)

Margaret was a native of Laviano, in the present province of Tuscany,
Italy. Her father was a farmer. Her mother died when she was seven.
The stepmother she acquired when she was nine was a harsh guardian of
this lively and affectionate stepdaughter.

As a pretty and unloved teenager, Margaret fell easy prey to a
well-to-do young nobleman named Arsenio. Apparently promising an
eventual marriage, he sweet-talked her into eloping to his castle.
Margaret bore him a son, but he brushed off her requests that they
marry. The people of his city, Montepulciano, shook their heads over
the affair, and put the worst interpretation upon it. Margaret
accepted and enjoyed the splendors of her position, but from time to
time she grieved over the sinful irregularity of her life.

Then one day in 1274, after the couple had been living together for
nine years, Arsenio rode out to inspect his properties. He never
returned; but his dog did. The dog led Margaret to a spot in the
woods, where he dug up for her the body of the nobleman. Arsenio had
been assassinated, and his body thrown into a hole and covered with
leaves.

This frightful experience shocked Margaret into an irreversible
conversion. She gave to Arsenio's family all his property, and taki=
ng
her son went back to her father to beg his forgiveness. When the
father refused, on the advice of his 2nd wife, Margaret, distraught
and fearing her own weakness, fled to Cortona to ask the help of the
Franciscan friars. Two good women of that city took in her and her son
and introduced them to the Franciscans.

Under the guidance of the friars, especially Fra Giunta Bevegnati,
Margaret began a period of life as a penitent that was to last
twenty-nine years. The first part of her road back was the most
difficult, for although she was not exactly the abandoned sinner that
she now called herself, she still had much to learn about control of
her impulses. Subsequently, she devoted herself to the care of the
poor. She brought about the foundation of a hospital at Cortona, and
formed a congregation of Franciscan tertiaries to serve as nurses. She
likewise set up a Confraternity of Our Lady of Mercy, to enlist
financial support for the hospital. Her son eventually became a
Franciscan priest.

Despite many trials, Margaret, from the time she joined the third
order of St. Francis, advanced mightily in spirituality. God often
spoke with her. Their conversations were not for her benefit alone,
but for others. On more than one occasion she was told to intervene
with the bellicose Bishop William of Arezzo so that he might come to
terms with his opponents. Eventually Jesus gave her a mission. As a
penitent, she was to call others to repentance. Margaret set about
this apostolate with zeal, and had great success in making peace
between antagonists, reconciling sinners, and bringing the lax back to
the sacraments. Moral miracles were accompanied by physical miracles.
By the time of her death, hardened sinners from not only Italy but
France and Spain were seeking her help.

On the day of her death, Margaret was acclaimed as a saint, and the
people of Cortona began to build a church in her honor. For her
shrine, Giovanni Pisano, the noted sculptor, carved a statue of the
saint and the dog that had led her to her lover's grave =E2=80=93 t=
he
shattering discovery that had changed her life.

In our own day, all too many men and women are living and begetting as
husband and wife without commitment to marriage. Like Arsenio and
Margaret, their sense of sin and mutual respect has become strangely
dulled.

May God send to such as these a messenger like the faithful dog. They
were called to better things!


Saint Quote:
He who is humble easily obeys everyone, fears to offend anyone, is at
peace with everyone, is kind with all.
--St. Thomas of Villanova

Bible Quote:
Now about the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple, and
taught. And the Jews wondered, saying: How doth this man know letters,
having never learned? 16 Jesus answered them, and said: My doctrine is
not mine, but his that sent me.  (John 7:14-16) DRB


<><><><>
To Thee all Angels cry aloud

 "He seeks not how each instant flies,
  One moment is Eternity;
  His spirit with the Angels cries
  To Thee, to Thee, continually.

  "What if, Isaiah-like, he know
  His heart be weak, his lips unclean,
  His nature vile, his office low,
  His dwelling and his people mean?

  "To such the Angels spake of old--
  To such of yore, the glory came;
  These altar fires can ne'er grow cold:
  Then be it his, that cleansing flame."
--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)

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