Margaret the Virgin
Margaret of Antioch (Saint Marina the Great Martyr) | |
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Saint Marina the Great Martyr. An icon written by Lazaros depicting her beating a demon with a hammer (1857) | |
| Virgin-Martyr and Vanquisher of Demons | |
| Born | c. 289 Antioch of Pisidia (modern-day Yalvaç, Isparta, Turkey) |
| Died | c. 304 (age 15) |
| Feast | 20 July (Roman Catholic Church, Most of Anglicanism,Western Rite Orthodoxy)
17 July (Byzantine Christianity) |
| Attributes | slaying a dragon (Western depictions) hammer, defeated demon (Eastern Orthodox depictions) |
| Patronage | pregnant women, nurses, peasants, exiles, the falsely accused, the dying, kidney disease, Lowestoft, Queens' College, Cambridge, Sannat and Cospicua |
Margaret, known as Margaret of Antioch in the West, and as Saint Marina the Great Martyr (Ancient Greek: Ἁγία Μαρίνα) in the East, is celebrated as a saint on 20 July in Western Christianity, on 30th of July (Julian calendar) by the Eastern Orthodox Church, and on Epip 23 and Hathor 23 in the Coptic Orthodox Church. The teenage Margaret is said to have been tortured and beheaded when she refused to renounce Christianity and give her virginity to a Roman official in the 4th century. She was reputed to have promised very powerful indulgences to those who wrote or read her life or invoked her intercessions; these no doubt helped the spread of her following. Margaret is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers in Roman Catholic tradition.