----- Original Message -----
From: J. Michael Walker <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 6:19 PM
Subject: Re: Interim Saints - July 20th
> >It is possible that in one of the persecutions of the Church there
> >wuffered (sorry, suffered) a virgin martyr at Antioch, named Margaret
> >or Marina, but we have no authentic account of her passion [or indeed
> >her name or date].
> >
>
>
>
> And any warrant of her wuffering is wholly, and woefully, wanting as well,
I
> ween?
>
> jmichael
>
this is the St Margaret who ended up emerging safely from a dragon and hence
is supplicated to by pregnant women? Perhaps if there was 'wuffering' it
wasn't a dragon at all but an early Jabberwocky before it learned to
snuffle..
Before I get accused of whimsy - I was transcribing a french version (not
quite the one described below) , but haven't gotten past Oliberius asking
her what her upbringing is...
please don't spoil it for me!
[A version of ] the legend of St.Margaret of Antioch in octosyllabic verse,
beginning ''Apres la saicte passion / Ihesuchrist a lascention ...'', and
ending, ''... tout droit en paradis, amen''.
The poem tells of St.Margaret's loss of her mother Sarazine and the
abandonment by her father Theodocius at an early age. It recounts how she
was guarding her sheep one day when Olybrius, Roman prefect of Antioch, came
riding past and fell in love with her. When she refused his advances, he had
her thrown in prison, where she was swallowed by a dragon but escaped
safely. Olybrius eventually had her beheaded for refusing to sacrifice to
idols. At the end of the poem her father comes to collect her body which is
then reassembled and buried by angels. The saint now performs similar
miracles, the poem ends, for all who pray and believe her.
The text was often included in Books of Hours from the thirteenth century
onwards, but it also circulated as a separate text (cf. Histoire litteraire
de la France, XXXIII, 1906, p.363). The safe escape of
St.Margaret from the dragon's belly was an obvious symbol of childbirth and
so manuscripts of the text were made for use by women about to give birth.
I got this text from a Christies catalogue.
regards
john a w lock
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