Our Patron Saint Margaret, Queen of Scotland
Exemplary Wife, Queen and Mother
Born: 1047, Died 1093
 

Collect for Feast of St. Margaret (Nov. 16)

O God, you called your servant Margaret to an earthly throne that she might advance your heavenly kingdom, and gave her zeal for your Church and love for your people: Mercifully grant that we who commemorate her this day may be fruitful in good works, and attain to the glorious crown of your saints; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

When the Normans invaded England in 1066, the Anglo-Saxon royalty fled.  Margaret, a cousin of the defeated king, escaped with her mother and sister to Scotland where they found refuge in the court of the Scottish King Malcolm.  Shakespeare made familiar the names of Macbeth and Macduff, Duncan and Malcolm; but it is not always remembered that Malcolm married an English princess, Margaret, about 1070.  She soon became Scotland's most beloved and revered queen.

She was always a deeply religious person, showing great interest in the church and great compasion for the poor.  In her youth she considered a religious vocation and in her maturity she found one, as wife and mother.  Her firm and loving influence on the king, the church, her children, and the people, virtually renewed the life of the whole nation of Scotland.  Under her influence monasteries, schools, orphanages, and hospitals were founded and the quality of life greatly improved in the land.  Together, Margaret and her husband, Malcolm, rebuilt the monastery of Iona and founded Dunfermline Abbey, under the direction of Benedictine monks.  Margaret was also a conscientious wife and mother of eight children.  She saw to the spiritual welfare of her large household, providing servants with opportunity for regular worship and prayer.

One tragic aspect of Scottish life about which she could do nothing was that of the clan warfare and blood fueds.  Malcolm was treacherously slain at Alnwick in 1093 and the grief-stricken Margaret died a few days later.  Their son, David, become one of Scotland's finest kings.  Maltilda, their daughter, married the English King Henry I, and so Margaret and Malcolm are ancestors of the present royal family.

Her work among the people, and her reforms in the Church, made her Scotland's most beloved saint.  She died on November 16 and was buried at Dunfermline Abbey.  To this day she is known as the 'pearl of Scotland.'