St. Margaret of Antioch

St. Margaret of Antioch (flourished 3rd or 4th century, Antioch, Syria [now in Turkey]; Eastern feast day July 17 [Julian calendar]; Western feast day July 20) was a Christian virgin martyr and one of the 14 Holy Helpers, a group of saints jointly commemorated on August 8. During the Middle Ages she was one of the most venerated saints. Her story, generally regarded to be fictitious, is substantially that of the Eastern St. Marina of Antioch (a city of ancient Syria, now in Turkey), whose feast day is July 17, and is related to that of St. Pelagia of Antioch, who is also known as Margaret or Marina.

During the reign (284–305) of the Roman emperor Diocletian, Margaret allegedly refused marriage with the prefect Olybrius at Antioch and was consequently beheaded after undergoing many extravagant trials and tortures. Her designation as patron saint of expectant mothers (particularly those experiencing a difficult labor) and her emblem, a dragon, are based on one of her trials: Satan, disguised as a dragon, swallowed Margaret; his stomach, however, soon rejecting her, opened, and let her out unharmed.

In 1969 Margaret’s feast day in the Western church, formerly July 20, was eliminated in the revised calendar of the Roman Catholic Church because it is doubtful whether she ever existed. Nevertheless, during the medieval period she ranked among the most famous saints; her voice was among those attested to have been heard by St. Joan of Arc during her mission of expelling the English and their Burgundian allies from the Valois kingdom of France in the 15th century.