† இன்றைய புனிதர் †
(நவம்பர் 16)
✠ ஸ்காட்லாந்து நாட்டின் புனிதர் மார்கரெட் ✠
(St. Margaret of Scotland)
ஸ்காட்லாந்து அரசி:
(Queen of Scotland)
பிறப்பு: கி.பி. 1045
ஹங்கேரி அரசு
(Kingdom of Hungary)
இறப்பு: நவம்பர் 16, 1093
எடின்பர்க், ஸ்காட்லாந்து அரசு
(Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Kingdom of Scotland)
ஏற்கும் சமயம்:
ரோமன் கத்தோலிக்க திருச்சபை
(Roman Catholic Church)
ஆங்கிலிக்கன் சமூகம்
(Anglican Communion)
புனிதர் பட்டம்: 1250
திருத்தந்தை நான்காம் இன்னொசென்ட்
(Pope Innocent IV)
முக்கிய திருத்தலம்:
டுன்ஃபெர்ம்லின் மடம், ஃபிஃப், ஸ்காட்லாந்து
(Dunfermline Abbey, Fife, Scotland)
நினைவுத் திருவிழா: நவம்பர் 16
பாதுகாவல்:
ஸ்காட்லாந்து (Scotland), டுன்ஃபெர்ம்லின் (Dunfermline), ஃபிஃப் (Fife), ஷெட்லேண்ட் (Shetland), அரசியின் பயணப்படகு (The Queen's Ferry), ஆங்கிலோ-ஸ்காட்டிஷ் உறவுகள் (Anglo-Scottish relations)
ஸ்காட்லாந்து நாட்டின் புனிதர் மார்கரெட், “ஆங்கிலேய இளவரசர் எட்வர்ட்” (English prince Edward the Exile) மற்றும் “அகதா” (Agatha) ஆகியோரின் மகள் ஆவார். ஆங்கிலேய இளவரசியும் (English princess), ஸ்காட்டிஷ் அரசியுமான (Scottish queen) இவர், “ஸ்காட்லாந்தின் மார்கரெட்” (Margaret of Scotland) என்றும், “வெஸ்செக்ஸின்’ மார்கரெட்” (Margaret of Wessex) என்றும் அறியப்படுகிறார். சில சமயம், “ஸ்காட்லாந்தின் முத்து” (The Pearl of Scotland) என்றும் அழைக்கப்படுகிறார்.
ஹங்கேரி அரசில் பிறந்த இவரும் இவரது குடும்பத்தினரும் 1057ம் ஆண்டு, இங்கிலாந்து இராச்சியத்துக்குத் திரும்பினார்கள். மார்கரெட் 1057ம் ஆண்டிலிருந்து தன் மாமாவின் கண்காணிப்பில் இங்கிலாந்தில் வளர்ந்தார். 1066ம் ஆண்டு “நார்மன்” இங்கிலாந்தை வெற்றி கொண்டதும், (Norman conquest of England) இவரின் 20ம் வயதில் ஸ்காட்லாந்திற்கு திரும்பிச் சென்றார். அங்கே, 1070ம் ஆண்டின் இறுதியில், ஸ்காட்லாந்தின் அரசர் 3ம் மால்கோம் (King Malcolm III of Scotland) என்பவரிடம் பழகி, பின்னர் அவரையே திருமணம் செய்து, ஸ்காட்லாந்தின் அரசியானார். அவருடைய கணவர், அவரை கிறிஸ்தவ மறையை தழுவக்கூடாது என்று கட்டளையிட்டார். ஆனால் அவர் தன் கணவரின் பேச்சை மறுத்து, மேலும் தன் கிறிஸ்தவ விசுவாசத்தில் வேரூன்றி இருந்தார்.
பக்தியுள்ள பெண்ணான அரசி, ஏழை மக்களின் வாழ்வில் அதிக அக்கறை கொண்டு வாழ்ந்தார். அவர்களுக்கு பலவிதங்களில் உதவினார். ஏழைகளை தன் இதயத்தில் சுமந்து உதவினார். தான் ஓர் அரசியாக இருந்தபோதும், துறவிகளைப் போலவே, ஏழ்மையான வாழ்வை வாழ்ந்தார். தவறாமல் நோன்பிருந்து செபித்து பல நலன்களை பெற்றார். பலவிதங்களிலும் ஒறுத்தல் செய்து வாழ்ந்தார். அநேக தொண்டு பணிகளைச் செய்தார்.
இங்கிலாந்துக்கு எதிராக நடந்த ஒரு போரில் (Battle of Alnwick) கலந்துகொள்ள சென்ற இவரது கணவரான அரசர் “மூன்றாம் மால்கானு'ம்” (Malcolm III) அவரது இருபத்தியிரண்டே வயதான மூத்த மகன் “எட்வர்டும்” (Edward) 13 நவம்பர் 1093 அன்று கொல்லப்பட்டனர். ஐம்பது வயதுகூட பூர்த்தியாகாத மார்கரெட் ஏற்கனவே தொடர் நோன்பு மற்றும் ஒருத்தல்களினால் பலவீனமாக இருந்தார். தமது கணவரும் மூத்த மகனும் மரித்துப் போன செய்தியைக் செவியுற்ற அவர், மூன்றாம் நாளே (1093ம் ஆண்டு, நவம்பர் மாதம், 16ம் நாள்) மரித்தார். 1250ம் ஆண்டு, திருத்தந்தை “நான்காம் இன்னசன்ட்” (Pope Innocent IV) இவருக்கு புனிதர் பட்டம் வழங்கினார்.
† Saint of the Day †
(November 16)
✠ St. Margaret of Scotland ✠
Queen consort of Scotland:
Born: 1045 AD
Kingdom of Hungary
Died: November 16, 1093
Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Kingdom of Scotland
Venerated in:
Roman Catholic Church
Anglican Communion
Canonized: 1250 AD
Pope Innocent IV
Major shrine: Dunfermline Abbey, Fife, Scotland
Feast: November 16
Patronage:
Scotland, Dunfermline, Fife, Shetland, The Queen's Ferry, and Anglo-Scottish relations
Saint Margaret of Scotland also known as Margaret of Wessex, was an English princess and a Scottish queen. Margaret was sometimes called "The Pearl of Scotland".[1] Born in exile in the Kingdom of Hungary, she was the sister of Edgar Ætheling, the shortly reigned and uncrowned Anglo-Saxon King of England. Margaret and her family returned to the Kingdom of England in 1057 but fled to the Kingdom of Scotland following the Norman conquest of England in 1066. By the end of 1070, Margaret had married King Malcolm III of Scotland, becoming Queen of Scots.
She was a very pious Roman Catholic, and among many charitable works, she established a ferry across the Firth of Forth in Scotland for pilgrims travelling to St Andrew's in Fife, which gave the towns of South Queensferry and North Queensferry their names. Margaret was the mother of three kings of Scotland, or four, if Edmund of Scotland (who ruled with his uncle, Donald III) is counted, and of a queen consort of England. According to the Vita S. Margaritae (Scotorum) Reginae (Life of St. Margaret, Queen (of the Scots), attributed to Turgot of Durham, she died at Edinburgh Castle in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1093, merely days after receiving the news of her husband's death in battle.
In 1250, Pope Innocent IV canonized her, and her remains were reinterred in a shrine in Dunfermline Abbey in Fife, Scotland. Her relics were dispersed after the Scottish Reformation and subsequently lost. Mary, Queen of Scots, at one time owned her head, which was subsequently preserved by Jesuits in the Scottish College, Douai, France, from where it was subsequently lost during the French Revolution.
Margaret was born in 1045 and was a member of an ancient English royal family. She was a direct descendant of King Alfred and was the granddaughter of King Edmund Ironside of England through his son Edward.
Along with her family, Margaret had been exiled to the eastern continent when King Canute and his Danish army had overrun England. Beautiful and devout she was also intelligent in receiving her formal education in Hungary.
Margaret and her family returned to England towards the end of the reign of her great-uncle, Edward the Confessor, as her younger brother, Edgar the Aetheling, had a very strong claim to the English throne. The English nobility had other ideas however and elected Harold Godwin as Edward’s successor.
All of this political manoeuvring proved irrelevant when William, Duke of Normandy, otherwise known as ‘The Conqueror’ arrived with his army near Hastings in 1066, but that’s another story.
As some of the last remaining Saxon Royals in England, Margaret and her family’s position was precarious and fearing for their lives they fled northwards, in the opposite direction to the advancing Normans. They were heading back to the continent from Northumbria when their ship was blown off course and landed in Fife.
The Scottish King, Malcolm III, known as Malcolm Canmore (or Great Head) offered his protection to the royal family.
Malcolm was particularly protective of Margaret! She initially refused his proposals of marriage, preferring, according to one account, a life of piety as a virgin. Malcolm, however, was a persistent king, and the couple finally married in Dunfermline in 1069.
Their union was exceptionally happy and fruitful for both themselves and the Scottish nation. Margaret brought with her some of the finer points of current European manners, ceremony, and culture to the Scottish Court, which highly improved its civilized reputation.
Queen Margaret was renowned for her good influence on her husband and also for her devout piety and religious observance. She was a prime mover in the reform of the Church in Scotland.
Under Queen Margaret’s leadership, Church councils promoted Easter communion and, much to the joy of the working-class, abstinence from servile work on a Sunday. Margaret founded churches, monasteries and pilgrimage hostels and established the Royal Mausoleum at Dunfermline Abbey with monks from Canterbury. She was especially fond of Scottish saints and instigated the Queen’s Ferry over the Forth so that pilgrims could more easily reach the Shrine of St. Andrew.
Mass was changed from the many dialects of Gaelic spoken throughout Scotland to the unifying Latin. By adopting Latin to celebrate the Mass she believed that all Scots could worship together in unity, along with the other Christians of Western Europe. Many people believe that in doing this, it was not only Queen Margaret’s goal to unite the Scots, but also the two nations of Scotland and England in an attempt to end the bloody warfare between the two countries.
In setting the agenda for the church in Scotland Queen Margaret also ensured the dominance of the Roman Church over the native Celtic Church in the north of the country.
Margaret and Malcolm had eight children, all with English names. Alexander and David followed their father to the throne, whilst their daughter, Edith (who changed her name to Matilda upon her marriage), brought the ancient Anglo-Saxon and Scottish Royal bloodline into the veins of the Norman Invaders of England when she married and bore children to King Henry I.
Margaret was very pious and cared especially for the poor and orphans. It was this piety that caused considerable damage to her health with repeated fasting and abstinence. In 1093, as she lay on her deathbed after a long illness, she was told that her husband and eldest son had been ambushed and treacherously killed at the Battle of Alnwick in Northumbria. She died shortly after aged just forty-seven.
She was buried alongside Malcolm in Dunfermline Abbey and the reported miracles that took place in and around her tomb supported her canonization in 1250 by Pope Innocent IV.
During the Reformation St. Margaret’s head somehow passed into the possession of Mary Queen of Scots and was later secured by the Jesuits at Douai, where it is believed to have perished during the French Revolution.
The feast of St. Margaret was formerly observed by the Roman Catholic Church on 10 June but is now celebrated each year on the anniversary of her death, 16 November.
