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Margherita Colonna
Italian nun
BlessedResearchedPapal StatesFranciscans
Feast: 30 December (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Born
1255
Died
20 September 1284
verified
Beatified
—
not needed: before formal processes
Canonised
—
not yet
Who they were
Margherita Colonna, orphaned young, refused marriage to Rome's chief magistrate and withdrew near Palestrina to a life of prayer and penance; her charity to the poor was boundless.
Through her brother, a cardinal, she founded a community of Poor Clares at Palestrina. For seven years she bore a painful ulcer with generous resignation, and died in Rome on 20 September 1284.
The miracles
She is honoured as Blessed; the Catholic Encyclopedia does not describe her cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
A Roman noblewoman who gave up marriage for prayer and the poor.
Sources
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), via New Advent - Blessed Margaret Colonna
- Wikidata Q606835 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Margherita Colonna (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.