Biography of Saint Margareta of Cortona

 

Biography of Saint Margareta of Cortona (Catholicscope)

Catholicscope - Saint Margareta was born in Laviano near Cortona, Province of Tuscany, Italy in 1247. His mother died when he was seven years old. Two years later the father remarried a woman who had a bad temper.

Margareta didn't get the attention and affection from her stepmother. This little girl grew up with an unstable mental condition.

Stepping on adolescence, Margareta's lifestyle became more chaotic. He hang out and have fun with the responsibility of young men who are bad morals. Even at the age of 16, she followed a nobleman to Montepulsiano. She lives with the young man as a concubine in a castle and has a child.


One day, Margareta was waiting for the young man's return from the assignment. But the young man did not go home. Until Margareta was shocked by the young dog's beloved who barked while pulling Margareta's clothes.

She followed the dog to a place where his idol chuckled with blood and lifeless. The young man was killed. Since then, Margareta was expelled from the castle.
When she went to the house of his father and stepmother, she was not accepted. Then Margareta went to the monastery of the Sisters of Saint Francis and was received there. At the monastery, Margareta began to realize her wrongdoing and bad behavior.

Margareta repented and went to her hometown, Laviano to pray and confess her sins. She was also called to be a Franciscan nun. She fasted all day, ate and drank as little as he could, and became a true vegetarian until the end of his life.

After three years of conversion, in 1277, 30-year-old Margareta was officially accepted as a member of the Franciscan Third Order. Se lived life in prayer and charitable works.

She lives in a spirit of poverty as the example of the Franciscan saint of the founder of the Franciscan Order. Every day, she went around begging from house to house to get daily food and help sick and abandoned people. Many received it well and many blasphemed and berated. She accepted everything.

Margareta gave herself to serve those who were poor, sick, and neglected. Until she established a hospital for the poor. Margareta's son became a priest of the Order of Saint Francis.

Santa Margareta of Cortona died on February 22, 1297. Her body remained intact, then it was buried inside the reliquarium in a Franciscan church, which now bears her name, in the city of Cortona.

Santa Margareta of Cortona received beatification in 1515 by Pope Leo X and canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in 1728. The celebration for Santa Margareta of Cortona was celebrated by the Church every February 22.