Saint Margaret of Scotland

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Magaret, born circa 1046, was raised in Hungary. By her mother Agatha she was a great-niece of saint Stephen. Her father was the exiled Anglo-Saxon prince Edward of England.
When her uncle King Edward the Confessor died in 1066, she was in England. Her brother Edgar decided to make a claim to the English throne.

After the conquest of England by Normans in 1066, the widowed Queen Agatha and her children left Northumberland, and went to Scotland. There Margaret married King Malcolm III of Scotland. He was a cruel man, but she helped him to behave as a Christian.
Although he was illiterate, he would kiss the leaves of his wife's books.


She helped the Church of Scotland, rebuilt the monastery of Iona, founded Dunfermline Abbey as the new burial place for Scottish Kings and their dynasty. This new sanctuary sheltered relics of the True Cross. She encouraged pilgrimages at St. Andrew, patron of Scotland and anglicized the Scottish Court.
Above all she helped the poors and the orphans. 
She died on November 16, 1093.

She was canonized by Pope Innocent IV in 1251.