There are more than a dozen saints called Margaret, of whom the most famous is St Margaret of Scotland – but our Margaret is that of Antioch, known in the Eastern Orthodox tradition as Marina.
She hails from Antioch, in Syria, and like Our Lady, she was a virgin. Tradition says that during the reign of Diocletian as Roman emperor, around the late third and early fourth centuries, Margaret was tortured and eventually became a martyr for refusing to renounce her faith and marry the prefect Olybrius. According to legend, she was visited by Satan in the form of a dragon during her persecutions; she escaped unharmed when he literally could not stomach her, and vomited her out.
Her story of faithfulness to Christ and resistance to the devil makes her a fierce example of womanhood – something of a Christian feminist icon, perhaps.
Immensely popular in the Middle Ages, Margaret has fallen out of favour in our time, due to doubts about her historical existence. In Toxteth, we are proud to call her our patron saint, however, and we celebrate her feast day every 20 July. You’ll find her in stone on our facade, in plaster beneath the arches of our nave and in paint and mosaic tiles above the high altar in the chancel, a replica of a piece by Jean Fouquet (c1460), now in the Louvre, in Paris.
Pray for us, St Margaret of Antioch.