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 Veszprem. 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 and penance, 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,
Gyor, 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.
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).
A. ALDASY (Catholic Encyclopedia)
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