Margaret the Virgin
saint (275–304) usually shown with a dragon (292–307)
Feast: 20 July (1962 Missal, commemoration) · not on the current Roman calendar
Who they were
Margaret, also called Marina, came from Pisidian Antioch, daughter of a pagan priest. Her mother died soon after her birth and a devout nurse raised her; when she became a Christian and consecrated her virginity to God, her father disowned her.
The prefect Olybrius, seeing her as she watched her nurse's flocks, wanted her as concubine or wife. She refused him and refused to worship the gods; her Acts say fire and boiling water did not harm her, and she was finally beheaded, in Diocletian's persecution around 304.
The miracles
There was never a formal cause: Margaret has been honoured as a martyr since the early centuries, in East and West. The wonders in her Acts are legend, not examined miracles.
Why that counted as sanctity
Margaret kept her consecration to Christ against her father, a powerful suitor and death itself.
Connected on this site
- Obitius Saint“Obitius was devoted to Margaret the Virgin as a youth, and displayed an image of this virgin martyr and his armorial device.” — Wikipedia
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - St. Margaret
- Wikidata Q297742 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Margaret the Virgin (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.