Subj : =?UTF-8?Q?September_2nd_=E2=80=93_Bl=2E_Margaret_of_Louvain?= To : All From : rich Date : Sun Sep 01 2019 09:06:34 From: rich September 2nd =E2=80=93 Bl. Margaret of Louvain, Virgin and Martyr In the sixth book of his =E2=80=9CDialogue on Miracles=E2=80=9D, dealing wi= th Singleness of Heart, the Cistercian monk Caesarius of Heisterbach tells the story of this young girl whose cultus in the diocese of Malines was confirmed in 1905. She was born at Louvain about the year 1207 and went into domestic service with a relative named Aubert. He was an innkeeper and a good and charitable man, who would entertain pilgrims and necessitous travellers free of charge. Margaret entered whole-heartedly into these good works, but the recollected way with which she went about them and her indifference to the attentions of men got her the nickname of =E2=80=9Cthe proud Margaret=E2=80=9D. =C2 About the year 1225 Aubert and his wife determined to become religious. Having sold their business and made the necessary preparations, they were spending their last night at home when they were visited by some evil-disposed men under the pretence of saying good-bye. Margaret was sent out to get some wine for the visitors, and while she was gone they set on Aubert and his wife, murdered them, and seized their money which they had by them to take to the monasteries to which they were going. On her return with the wine the robbers carried off Margaret and at a lonely spot near the river Dyle proposed to kill her too, as a witness to their crime. One of them offered to marry her if she would keep silence, but she refused, and thereupon an extra ten marks was added to the share of one of them to make away with her. =E2=80=9CHe, taking the innocent lamb like a cruel butcher, cut h= er throat, stabbed her in the side, and threw her into the river.=E2=80=9D The body was found and, in consequence of the supernatural light and angelic voices that were reported to accompany it, was taken by the clergy to St Peter's collegiate church at Louvain and buried in a special chapel in their churchyard. Miracles were vouchsafed at this tomb and there Bl. Margaret has been venerated from that day to this. Concerning this story the novice in the Dialogue asks =E2=80=9CWhat would y= ou say was the cause of martyrdom in the case of this girl?=E2=80=9D To which = his preceptor replies =E2=80=9CSimplicity and an innocent life, as I have alrea= dy said. There are different kinds of martyrdom, namely, innocence, as in Abel; uprightness, as in the prophets and St John Baptist; love of the law, as in the Machabees confession of the faith, as in the apostles. For all these different causes Christ the Lamb is said to have been =E2=80=98slain from the beginning of the world'.=E2=80=9D All Chris= tian virtues, being protestations of our faith and proofs of our fidelity to God, are a true motive of martyrdom. The Bollandists, in the Acta Sanctorum, September, vol. i, find nothing to add to the account given by Caesarius, but they supply evidence regarding the later cultus, and translate from the Flemish a relation of a number of miracles wrought at the shrine. Several booklets of a popular kind have been printed about Bd Margaret in modern times; the most note worthy, by M. G. Ollivier, originally appeared as an article in the Revue Thomiste, vol. iv (1896), pp. 592-618. The Dialogue of Caesarius was published in English in 1929. Saint Quote: The poor and the sick are our owners and they represent the very person of Jesus Christ. -- Saint Luigi Scrosoppi of Udine Bible Quote: Religion pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to keep oneself unspotted from this world.=C2 (James 1:27) <><><><> On The Foundation of Humility=C2 [III] No one can review his past life without finding therein motives enough and to spare for humbling himself before Almighty God. "We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly, we have revolted; to us belongeth shame and confusion of face" (Dan. ix. 5, 7). If ever we are inclined to think much of ourselves, we have only to look back on our past years; on the deliberate sins against charity, against truthfulness, against purity; on the pride, the selfishness, the self-will, the neglect of God that have stained our lives. Besides the actual sins, how many infidelities to grace! God has been so liberal with His graces, and I have been so negligent in availing myself of them. How many I might have earned if I had been faithful and had not wilfully turned aside from what God asked of me to follow my own will and pleasure. What cause for humiliation of myself! If others who have perhaps lived and died in sin had had my graces, would they not have made a far better use of them than I have? To me, O God, shame and confusion of face! I must throw myself on Thy mercy and humbly beg forgiveness. When, moreover, I look at what I now am, I find fresh cause for humbling myself. I might have been a saint if I had been more faithful, and now I am one of the vilest of sinners. My soul in the sight of God is disfigured by sin, as a body is by the ulcers and sores that spoil its natural beauty and comeliness. I abound with faults innumerable; I am unworthy to appear in the presence of God. "O hide Thy face from my sins, blot out all my iniquities!" --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4) .