Saint
Saint Margaret of Cortona
- Country / origin
- Italy
- Life
- 1247–1297
- Feast
- 22 February (traditional date)
- Canonised
- 1728
Awaiting theological review
Who was this?
A farmer's daughter from Tuscany who for nine years lived, without marrying, with a nobleman of Montepulciano and had a son by him. When he was murdered she did public penance, became a Franciscan tertiary in Cortona and spent the rest of her life in prayer and in the care of the sick and the poor, for whom she founded a hospital.
Patron of
- penitents
- single mothers
- people starting over after sin
- the homeless
When to ask for intercession
- to start over after a serious fall
- conversion
- for single mothers
A short prayer
Saint Margaret of Cortona, intercede for me, that I may trust God's mercy and begin again.
Written for cento53 as a simple personal prayer of intercession — not a liturgical text.
What we know — and how
Historians debate
She is not in the General Roman Calendar; 22 February, the day she died, is the traditional date of her feast.
A saint for what you are living
- Starting again after failing
The next question