February 22nd: Saint Margaret of Cortona, Penitent
Born at Laviano, Margaret was a great beauty. Her father became a widower and remarried a woman who caused the girl a great deal of suffering. She was seduced by a lord of Montepuciano, with whom she lived for nine years, and by whom she had a son who later became a friar minor. The assassination of her lover caused Margaret to reflect upon her way of life and, after three years' period of trial, she was admitted to the Franciscan third order at Cortona. She passed the last twenty-three years of her life in that town, practicing the severest penances, dying at age 50.
PRAYER: Saint Margaret, lead all who have fallen to the sin of lust back to the path of virtue. Amen.
