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- Born about 1045, Princess Margaret was a daughter of Edward "Outremere", or "the Exile", and Agatha, kinswoman of Gisela, the wife of St. Stephen of Hungary . She was the granddaughter of Edmund Ironside.
The chief authority for Margaret's life is the contemporary biography printed in Roman " Acta SS .", II, June, 320. Its authorship has been ascribed to Turgot, the Saint's confessor, a monk of Durham and later Archbishop of St. Andrews, as well as to Theodoric, a somewhat obscure monk
The Norman conquest forced the Anglo Margaret and her family to flee to Scotland in 1070 where shortly thereafter she married the King, Malcom II (Canmore). As Queen and co-Regent, Margaret bore eight children (two daughters and six sons). She was known to have been a particularly involved and good mother - a departure from the contemporary practice of leaving the rearing of children to servants and tutors. Margaret's daughter Matilda married Henry I of England , making her an ancestress of the present British royal house.
Queen Margaret was renown for her moderating and good influence on her husband and for her devout piety and religious observance. As Queen, Margaret used her influence to bring Scotland into the more modern practices, disciplines of European Christianity and is celebrated as a clerical reformer. Though strong-willed, Margaret used reason and encouragement to influence change, not her authority as co-Regent and Queen. Under Queen Margaret's leadership the Rite of the Celebration of the Mass was brought under standardized norms, the vernacular of the Mass was changed from the many dialects of Gaelic spoken throughout Scotland to the unifying Latin, the Scots began to receive Communion regularly, and the observance of Lent was improved.
Although her influence in causing the clergy to adopt Latin to celebrate the Mass was intended as a tool by which all Scots could worship in unity, along with the other Christians of Western Europe, Queen Margaret's introduction of Anglo-Norman manners and values into Celtic Scotland laid the cultural groundwork for the future induction of her land and people into a greater England and Britain. While many hagiographers view Queen Margaret's goals as not simply uniting the Scots, but Scotland and England together as a way of ending bloody warfare amongst the clannish highlanders, Scotland returned to a period of isolation immediately following her death.
In 1093, King Malcom was murdered through treachery near Alnwick and was buried at Dunfermline Abbey, which had been founded by in 1072 Margaret. She foretold the day of her death, joining her husband's eternal rest on 16 November 1093, her body being buried before the high altar at Dunfermline.
In 1250, Queen Margaret was canonized by Innocent IV, and her relics were translated on 19 June, 1259, to a new shrine, the base of which is still visible beyond the modern east wall of her restored chapel. At the Reformation her head passed into the possession of Mary Queen of Scots, and later was secured by the Jesuits at Douai , where it is believed to have perished during the French Revolution. According to George Conn, " De duplici statu religionis apud Scots " (Rome, 1628), the rest of the relics, together with those of Malcolm, were acquired by Philip II of Spain, and placed in two urns in the Escorial. When, however, Bishop Gillies of Edinburgh applied through Pius IX for their restoration to Scotland , they could not be found.
St. Margaret is remembered for her fervent faith, practiced piety and religious observance and continues to be celebrated as Scotland's most beloved saint. St. Margaret was loved by the poor, especially orphans to whom she was particularly attached in personal care and through the unceasing distribution of alms. She was the foundress of many churches, convents and monasteries, including the Abbey of Dunfermline, built to enshrine her greatest treasure, a relic of the true Cross. Her book of the Gospels, richly adorned with jewels, which one day dropped into a river and was according to legend miraculously recovered, is now in the Bodleian library at Oxford . St. Margaret's son King David of Scotland is also celebrated by the people of Scotland as a Saint.
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1045 - 1093 (48 years)
