St. Margaret of Hungary

You probably know some of the Carmelite Theresas . . . St. Teresa of Avila, St. Therese, St. Teresa of the Andes, to name just a few. For Dominican saints, Catherine may be the most popular name, but Margaret is a close second!

St. Margaret of Hungary, whose feast we celebrate on January 18, was born in 1242 to royal parents, Emperor Bela IV and Mary Lascaris. Her father had vowed to dedicate his child to religious life if his kingdom was spared invasion; God granted his prayer, so when Margaret was three years old, she was presented to the Dominican nuns at Veszprem for her education. She readily took to the piety of monastic life, and dedicated herself increasingly to God as she grew up. At age twelve, she made Solemn Profession in the hands of Blessed Humbert of Romans, the fifth successor of St. Dominic as Master of the Order. Later on, she received the official ecclesiastical Veiling of Virgins, the only Dominican nun ever to do so, in order to put a final end to persistent requests for her to make a diplomatic marriage.

As a princess-nun, St. Margaret had many opportunities to live a more luxurious life in the monastery at Buda, built especially for her by her emperor-father. Inspired by her great love for Jesus Crucified, however, St. Margaret embraced a life of penance, mortification, and humility. She not only avoided flattery and comfort, but chose to do the most menial tasks in the monastery. Today it is standard to find all the nuns doing their part with the cooking and cleaning, but for a royal nun in the 1200s, sweeping the corridors or peeling vegetables was a noteworthy act of virtue. Most of all, St. Margaret loved Jesus, on the Cross and in the Holy Eucharist, and Jesus also loved and chose her. It is this love that inspired her to live a life of exceptional virtue, and it is this love that makes her a Saint today.