SHE was daughter to Bala IV., the pious king of Hungary. Her parents
consecrated her to God by a vow before her birth, and when but three
years and a half old she was placed in the monastery of Dominican nuns
at Vesprin, and at ten removed to a new nunnery of that order, founded
by her father in an isle of the Danube, near Buda, called from her the
isle of St. Margaret. She was professed at twelve.[1] In her tender age
she outstripped the most advanced in devotion, and was favored with
extraordinary communications from heaven. It was her delight to serve
everybody, and to practise every kind of humiliation: she never spoke of
herself, as if she was beneath all notice: never loved to see her royal
parents, or to speak of them, saying it was her misfortune that she was
not of poor parentage. Her mortifications were excessive. She endeavored
to conceal her sicknesses for fear of being dispensed with or shown any
indulgence in the rule. From her infancy she conceived the most ardent
devotion towards her crucified Redeemer, and kissed very often, both by
day and night, a little cross made of the wood of our Saviour's cross,
which she always carried about her. She commonly chose to pray before
the altar of the cross. Her affection for the name of Jesus made her
have it very frequently in her mouth, which she repeated with incredible
inward feeling and sweetness. Her devotion to Christ in the blessed
sacrament was most remarkable: she often wept abundantly, or appeared in
ecstasies during the mass, and much more when she herself received the
divine spouse of her soul: on the eve she took nothing but bread and
water, and watched the night in prayer. On the day itself she remained
in prayer and fasting till evening, and then took a small refection. She
showed a sensible joy in her countenance when she heard any festival of
our Lady announced, through devotion to the mother of God; she performed
on them, and during the octaves, one thousand salutations each day,
prostrating herself on the ground at each, besides saying the office of
our blessed Lady every day. If any one seemed offended at her, she fell
at their feet and begged their pardon. She was always the first in
obedience, and was afraid to be excepted if others were enjoined penance
for a breach of silence or any other fault. Her bed was a coarse skin,
laid on the bare floor, with a stone for her pillow. She was favored
with the gift of miracles and prophecy. She gave up her pure soul to
God, after a short illness, on the 18th of January, in the year 1271,
and of her age the twenty-eighth. Her body is preserved at Presbourg.
See her life by Guerinus, a Dominican, by order of his general, in 1340:
and an abridgment of the same by Ranzano. She was never canonized, but
is honored with an office in all the churches in Hungary, especially
those of the Dominicans in that kingdom, by virtue of a decree of Pope
Pius II, as Touron assures us.[2]
Footnotes:
1. Touron, Vies des Hommes Illustres de l'Ordre de St. Dominique, in
Humbert des Romains, fifth general of the Dominicans, t. 1, p. 325.
2. Touron, ib. in Innocent V. t. 1, p. 384.