St. Margaret of Antioch defeated the devil by the power of the Cross. She is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and is invoked to aid pregnant women.
BIRTH AND BAPTISM
St. Margaret was born to a pagan priest in Antioch, the largest city in the Mideast and third largest in the Roman Empire. Her mother died shortly after her birth. Her father sent her to a nurse a few leagues from the city, who happened to be a Christian. Margaret was baptized and accepted and learned the Christian Faith from her most tender age. When she returned to her father's home, he was duly impressed with her virtue but was perplexed by her refusal to join his pagan rituals. Upon inquiring why she would not offer incense to the gods, he became furious that she had become a baptized Catholic. He disowned her. She was in turn raised by the nurse who tended sheep and she became a shepherdess herself. (She is often shown in Christian iconography with a shepherd's staff.)
PRESERVING VIRGINITY
One day the Roman prefect, named Olybrius, spied her in the fields as she cared for her sheep. He became infatuated by her beauty and lusted after her. He attempted to woo her, making her his wife, or more likely his concubine; but she adamantly refused all his advances, for she had consecrated herself a virgin to Jesus Christ. Seeing his coy ruses and silver tongued entreaties rejected, Olybrius threatened her and became violent. He called upon his solders and they dragged her to a public trial before the magistrates in Antioch, accusing Margaret of being a Christian.
This was the time of the great Imperial persecutions against the Christians. The court threatened her with death unless she sacrificed to the empire's gods, but she refused. The prefect advised her to abandon the worship of a crucified God. Margaret asked, "How do you know that we worship a crucified God?" He replied, "From the books of the Christians." She retorted, "Why did you not read further one? The books of the Christians would have told you that the Crucified rose on the third day, and that He ascended into Heaven. Is it love of truth to believe in the abasement of Christ and to reject His glorification when bother are related in the self-same book?"
CRUSHING THE DEVIL - IPSA CONTERET
At this reproof, the prefect became very angry and ordered the tender virgin to be cruelly scourged, placed on the rack, and torn with iron combs. Then she was cast into prison. Alone Margaret fervently thanked God for the victory she had achieved and implored His help for the combat yet in store for her. Suddenly, she was attacked by the devil in the physical form of a dragon type beast, who tempted her and attempted to frighten her into abandoning her faith. He threatened to swallow her. Margaret relied on the holy Sign of the Cross and in this conquered over the demon who fled in fear. Her cell was then suffused with heavenly light. Her heart was filled with divine consolation. At the same time, her wounds were all healed and not a scar remained.
MIRACULOUS DEATH
The next day, the prefect was utterly surprised to see Margaret completely healed. He attributed it to the workings of the pagan gods and exhorted Margaret to thank them. Yet she testified that Christ alone had healed her and that she despised the heathen idols, which in truth were demons. The court had lighted torches burn her sides and then had her cast into icy water to intensify the pain as she drowned. But she miraculously survived. They then ordered her bound hand and foot and cast into a cauldron of boiling oil. At that moment there was a violent earthquake. The cauldron split, her bonds fell off, and she emerged unscathed without a mark. Tradition tells us that then the skies opened above her and she received a heavenly crown. Five thousand onlookers converted to the Catholic Faith upon seeing this great miracle. Olybrius then had her beheaded. Her final request, as she breathed her last, was that pregnant women who prayed to her might be granted both an easy birth and a healthy child.
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VENERATION
Margaret was widely venerated and the Byzantines referred to her as 'the Great Martyr.' Her relics were spread to many parts of Europe. She became the patroness of women who are pregnant, and women as they labor in childbirth. In Christian art she is most often depicted with a chained dragon at her feet and a crown on her temple. She may also be seen holding a sword, a sheepherder staff or the palm of virginity. In some images she is also depicted conquering the dragon (stepping on him, similar to Gn 3:15 and the Immaculate Conception) or sallying forth from the mouth of the dragon with cross in hand. Throughout Christendom she was one of the most beloved saints and was honored as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. Her feast day is July 20th.
Before the disastrous schism of Henry VIII, her feast in England was a double of the second class. On this day women were obliged to refrain from servile work in gratitude to the protection offered by St. Margaret at childbirth. St. Gertrude the Great (+1301) and St. France of Rome (+1440) both witnessed great celebrations in Heaven to honor St. Margaret on her feast day. In 1969, following the creation of the new liturgical calendar, her feast was suppressed.