Saint Margaret of Antioch

by Maggie
(USA)

Saint Margaret of Antioch (Marina) is my confirmation saint. I really want to be like her. My second pick would have been Saint Catherine of Alexandria. Here is Saint Margaret's story:

St. Margaret belonged to Pisidian Antioch in Asia Minor, where her father was a pagan priest. Her mother died soon after her birth, Margaret was nursed by a pious woman five or six leagues from Antioch. Having embraced Christianity and consecrated her virginity to God, she was disowned by her father and adopted by her nurse.
While she was one day engaged in watching the flocks of her nurse, a lustful Roman prefect named alybrius caught sight of her, and attracted by her great beauty sought to make her his concubine or wife. When neither cajolery nor threats of punishment could succeed in moving her to yield to his desires, he had her brought before him in public trial at Antioch. Threatened with death unless she renounced the Christian faith, the holy virgin refused to adore the gods of the empire and an attempt was made to burn her, but the flames, we are told in her Acts, left her unhurt. She was then bound hand and foot and thrown into a cauldron of boiling water, but at her prayer her bonds were broken and she stood up uninjured. Finally he ordered her to be beheaded. Curiously enough this virgin has been widely venerated for many centuries as a special patron of women who are pregnant.