Saint Margaret of Scotland Feast 16 November

Saint Margaret of Scotland Feast 16 November

Family Album.

As I celebrated the Mass of Saint Margaret this morning in the Guest-house chapel, I was aware of the history of Margaret and of the Heraldry of the European kings as all being part of a great Family Album. The Coats of Arms of so many Royal Families looking down on from the Painted Ceiling, 1607 provides a remarkable picture of how closely close knit were these families.
The coat of Arms of St. Margaret of Scotland is but one link in the ever interweaving network families.
This Wikipedia Note enumerates so many names of Margaret’s family connections across Europe.

The daughter of the English prince Edward the Exile, son of Edmund Ironside, Margaret was probably born in Hungary. The provenance of her mother Agatha is disputed. According to popular belief, Margaret was a very serious person, so much that no one ever could recall seeing her laugh or smile.
When her uncle, Edward the Confessor, the French-speaking Anglo-Saxon King of England, died in 1066, she was living in England where her brother, Edgar Ætheling, had decided to make a claim to the vacant throne. According to tradition, after the conquest of the Kingdom of England by the Normans the widowed Agatha decided to leave Northumberland with her children and return to the Continent, but a storm drove their ship to Scotland where they sought the protection of King Malcolm III. The spot where she is said to have landed is known today as St Margaret's Hope, near the village of North Queensferry. Malcolm was probably a widower, and was no doubt attracted by the prospect of marrying one of the few remaining members of the Anglo-Saxon royal family. The marriage of Malcolm and Margaret soon took place and was followed by several invasions of Northumberland by the Scottish king, probably in support of the claims of his brother-in-law Edgar.

The story of Margaret’s arrival, asylum seeking, in Scotland is the stuff of romance.
Her marriage with King Malcolm Canmore was a match of love which was as deep as it was practical. The great contrast of their characters makes one want to read one of the popular romance novels of their story rather than turn Margaret’s first biographer, Turgot, the Benedictine who wrote his Vita S. Margaritae at the command of her elder daughter. See, Jane Oliver, Sing, Morning Star (1956), a fictionalized biography that is informative, colourful, and pleasing to read. Jane Oliver herself is modest about historical novel of St Margaret. “The HISTORICAL NOVEL is a mongrel of the arts. The novelist may follow his fancy; the historian’s business is with facts. But the historical novelist is suspect on both counts. How much of his work is fancy and how much fact? . . . In regard to the present book no essential incident has been wholly invented”. As in all her series or works she says, “fiction has only been used with the utmost deference to discoverable fact”.
Among lives of the Saints on our monastery library shelves, I was surprised at the absence of books of St. Margaret. The only one seems to be a life written in 1934 by Sister Margaret Gordon SND. The preface to this book has its own interest. The Preface was written by Henry Grey Graham, a convert later Bishop, and later retired to Holy Cross Parish in Glasgow where I was somewhat in awe of him as Parish Priest.

Happily the deficiency of literature on St. Margaret is now very fully made up for by bibliography on the Internet.
See; The Life and Wisdom of Margaret of Scotland (Alba House Saints Alive Series) (Paperback)
by Lavinia Byrne (a large segment of the Turgot resource).
Queen Margaret of Scotland (Paperback), by Eileen Dunlop
The Miracles of St Æbba of Coldingham and St Margaret of Scotland, Edited by Robert Bartlett. ISBN13: 9780199259229 ISBN10: 0199259224

During the hours of the Divine Office, Vigils, Lauds and Lauds the hymn we used for St. Margaret was the one composed by the late Br. Andrew. His words are the ardent expression of his love of the Saint.

Hymn to St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland by Brother Andrew.

Sing for a mother on her blessed feast day
who in her children gave the Lord of heaven
sons to be servants, maids to do him honour,
hearts to adore him.

Pearl of great price and held by God as treasure;
driven by tempest from a distant country
here to our homeland he in mercy brought her,
children to nurture.

Wed to a warrior; tamed his savage nature;
urged him to mercy; curbed his deadly anger;
melted to pity his avenging fury:
queenly ruled o'er him.

Homeless and helpless, pilgrims poor and needy,
tenderly cared for; motherly caressed them,
cleansed their. and nourished; lovingly consoled them;
gentle her reigning.

Trinity holy, Father, Son and Spirit,
bless this our country; grant we may together,
one in our worship with our saintly mother,
praise you for ever.
Amen

Memorial
Brother ANDREW William McCahill
born 16 Nov. 1912
entered 8 Dec. 1946
professed 3 July 1949
died 9 Jan. 1987

See Stained glass window image of Saint Margaret of Scotland in the small chapel at Edinburgh Castle

Saint Margaret's coat-of-arms

The design of Saint Margaret's coat-of-arms was discovered in Scotland in a booklet published about Queen Margaret. The Crown shows Margaret’s position as Queen of Scotland, wife of King Malcolm. The fleur-de-lis as stylized Iris depicts Margaret’s heritage from the Norman Kings and the Royal Family of France. The diamond-shaped lozenge represents the armorial bearings particular to a woman (the means of defense of a woman was always depicted by this variety of escutcheon). The Lion Rampant indicates the authority of the Scottish government vested in the sovereign. The Lion as the King of Beasts’ has always been borne on shields, particularly those of royalty. The Cross and Birds were taken from the arms of Edward the Confessor, Margaret’s uncle. The Birds are known as mantles, a heraldic form representing a swallow. The Cross itself represents Christendom.