From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

December 20th - Bl. Margaret Colonna, Virgin

d. 1280
The gift of miracles, and other unusual graces are recorded of her.

MARGARET was daughter of Prince Odo Colonna, but losing both her
parents when a child she was brought up under the care of her two
brothers. She refused the marriage arranged for her, and lived a
retired life with two attendants in a villa at Palestrina, devoting
her time and her goods to the relief of the sick and poor. It was her
intention to join the Poor Clares in their house at Assisi, but
sickness prevented this, and she conceived the idea of establishing a
convent at Palestrina.

Her younger brother, James, who had been created cardinal (and so is distinguished as dignior frater from her senior frater, John, who
wrote her life), obtained the pope's permission and the community w=
as
given the rule of the Poor Clare nuns as modified by Urban IV. But it
would seem that, on account of ill-health, Bl. Margaret herself
neither governed nor was professed in this convent; for the last seven
years of her life she suffered from a malignant growth, bearing
continual pain with the greatest courage and patience. She had the
gift of miracles, and other unusual graces are recorded of her. After
her death at an early age the nuns of Palestrina removed into the City
to San Silvestro in Capite, taking the body of their foundress with
them. When this monastery was turned into a general post office seven
hundred years later the relics were translated to the nuns' new hom=
e
at St Cecilia in Trastevere. Pope Pius IX confirmed the cultus of Bl.
Margaret Colonna in 1847.

The Franciscan Chroniclers, such as Wadding and Mark of Lisbon, have
published full accounts of Bl. Margaret; the story is told in detail
in, e.g. Mazzara, Leggendario Francescano (1680), vol. ii Pt. 2, pp.
775-780. In B. Margherita Colonna (1935) Fr L. Oliger edited and
introduced an unpublished MS. of the fourteenth century, which
combines parts of vitae by John Colonna (d. c. 1292) and by a Poor
Clare of San Silvestro (fl 1290). For English readers there is an
account available in L=C3=A9on, Aur=C3=A9ole S=C3=A9raphique Eng. trans.), = vol. iv,
pp. 170-173.


Saint Quote:
The chief point is to beware not of men, but to beware of displeasing
the majesty of God.
--St. Theresa

Bible Quote:
Let not thy hand be stretched out to receive, and shut when thou shouldst g= ive.
=C2 [Sirach 4:36 ]=C2 DRB


<><><><>
There are four forms of wisdom:

=C2 First, moral judgment, or the knowledge of what should and should not
be done, combined with watchfulness of the intellect;
second, self-restraint, whereby our moral purpose is safeguarded and
kept free from all acts, thoughts and words that do not accord with God;
third, courage, or strength and endurance in sufferings, trials and
temptations encountered on the spiritual path;
fourth, justice, which consists in maintaining a proper balance
between the first three.
These four general virtues arise from the three powers of the soul in
the following manner from the intelligence, or intellect, come moral
judgment and justice, or discrimination; from the desiring power comes self-restraint; and from the power comes courage.
=C2 --St. Peter of Damaskos.


--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
* Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)