FEATURE
Little Maggie Alan Frost on the life of Blessed Margaret of Castello who was canonized last year
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ittle Maggie is an affectionate reference, because of her stature, to a girl born into an aristocratic family in central Italy more than seven hundred years ago. She led an inspirational life of sanctity that would lead to her being beatified as Blessed Margaret of Castello in 1607, and, finally, canonised as St Margaret on 24 April 2021. Though unknown to most Catholics for centuries, in more recent times she has become increasingly seen as a champion of the disabled and unwanted. Numerous churches have shrines to her, notably St Patrick’s in Columbus, Ohio and she is also identified as a patron by pro-life groups in the USA and elsewhere. Though a ‘new’ Saint, Margaret of Castello was born back in 1287, in Metola in Italy. She was the daughter of prominent local figures: the castle owner and Captain of the army, Lord Parisio and
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his wife Lady Emilia. They were far from pleased, however, on discovering their newborn daughter was clearly seriously disabled. The blow to the prestige of the father was such that the baby was sent to be baptised secretly, and as she had not even been given a name, ‘Margaret’ was chosen, after the servant sent with the baby for the ceremony. For the next six years Margaret lived in the vaults and recesses of the castle, attended to by servants, but hidden. Her one regular visitor was the castle priest, who instructed her. Having an excellent memory, she came to learn the Mass, prayers, the Psalms, pieces of scripture, teachings of the early Church Fathers and lives of the Saints. She had a precocious love of Christ and a deep sense of how He had been rejected by His own people. Though they rarely came to see her, she bore no grudges against her parents, even when
her father had her moved to an annex built next to an out-of-the way church, fearing she might be seen in the castle by visitors. As she grew into a teenager, through the continual friendship and guidance of her padre, who described her mind as ‘luminous’, she came to understand that it was not her body that mattered so much as her soul. Spending each day mostly in learning, prayer, and contemplation, she endured more than twelve years in her confinement. When she was in her late teens, the political situation forced her father to move his whole family to the town of Castello for safety. A monk of the town had recently died and subsequently miracles occurred associated with him. Margaret’s parents thought that given their social standing, surely a miracle would also cure Margaret. But this did not happen, and while she was in the
SPRING 2022
