St. Margaret of Castello

Saint Margaret of Castello

Virgin

Margaret was born to a noble family in Perugia, Italy, in the year of Our Lord 1287, with a severely curved spine and uneven legs. She never grew taller than four feet. Margaret’s parents were so ashamed of her that they walled her up in a room attached to their private chapel, where she could at least learn the faith, attend Holy Mass, and receive the sacraments. After over a decade, her parents took her to a shrine in Castello in hopes of a miraculous cure. When this failed to occur, they abandoned her at the shrine. Margaret was cared for by several poor families, and eventually by a convent, but her zeal conflicted with the laxity of the nuns, and she left to be cared for by the townspeople once more. In return, she watched over their children, and taught them what she had learned herself. In 1303 she was admitted to the local Third Order of Dominicans, and received the Dominican habit. Margaret died at the age of just thirty-three, and was buried in the parish church when a disabled girl was miraculously cured at her funeral, confirming her veneration by the people. Her canonization was officially recognized in the year of Our Lord 2021.

Traditional Roman Martyrology for April 13th

AT Seville, in Spain, St. Hermenegild, son of Leovigild, Arian king of the Visigoths, who was incarcerated for the confession of the Catholic faith. By order of his wicked father he was beheaded because he had refused to receive communion from an Arian bishop, on the Paschal solemnity, and thus exchanging an earthly for a heavenly kingdom, he entered the abode of the blessed, both as a king and as a martyr.

At Pergamus, in Asia, the birthday of the holy martyrs Carpus, bishop of Thyatira, Papylus, deacon, and his sister Agathonica, an excellent woman, Agathadorus, their servant, and many others, who after various torments, were, for their blessed confession, crowned with martyrdom in the persecution of Marcus Antoninus Verus and Lucius Aurelius Commodus.

In this same persecution, there suffered at Rome that remarkable man, Justin the Philosopher, who had addressed to the emperors his second Apology in defence of our religion, and upheld it by strong arguments. Being accused of professing Christianity by the intrigues of the Cynic Crescens, whose conduct and immorality he had reproved, he obtained the reward of a martyr, as a remuneration for his faithful confession.

The same day, the martyrdom of the Saints Maximus, Quinctillian, and Dadas, during the persecution of Diocletian.

At Ravenna, St. Ursus, bishop and confessor.

℣. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.

℟. Thanks be to God.