Yesterday

So I am at work and my cell phone rings. It is my wife that Father L has called from the parish and has asked that we attend a special mass at night. He was pretty adamant that even if we are late that to show up for the mass. It was a special mass but a mandatory mass in the Hungarian Catholic calendar. Yes yesterday was the feast of St. Margaret of Hungary. She has quite the story so I have found a nice synopsis online and provided the information for you. Please read through and enjoy!

St. Margaret of Hungary--1242-1271
Daughter of King Bela IV of Hungary, she was destined for religious life from her birth because of a promise her parents made to God when the Tartars were attacking Hungary. Her parents vowed to dedicate their first born to God if they were protected from the scourge of the Tartars. This did come true so, at the age of three, Margaret was sent by her parents to live in a Dominican convent. She demanded the habit at the age of four and received it. Margaret soon learned the office by heart and began acting like the older sisters in the convent. When she was 18, the king of Bohemia wanted to marry her so her father King Bela petitioned the pope and received permission to release Margaret from her vows. When Margaret heard this she responded by declaring that she was God's from birth and said "I esteem infinitely more the King of Heaven and the inconceivable happiness of possessing Jesus Christ than the crown offered me by the king of Bohemia.” She remained in the convent and, despite her noble birth, she was a humble and exemplary sister of St. Dominic. Canonized in 1943. Feast Day: January 18.

Margaret is portrayed with the crown she rejected for the cross of her vocation.

Symbols: A lily, a yoke and thorns. Innocence embracing a life of willing mortification.