Margaret of Savoy (Blessed)

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Margaret of Savoy (* around 1382 in Pinerolo , Piedmont ; † November 23, 1464 in Alba ) was a Margravine of Montferrat and Dominican and is venerated as a blessed in the Catholic Church .

Life

Margaret of Savoy was the eldest of four daughters of Prince Amadeus of Savoy-Achaia, Lord of Piedmont, and his wife Catherine of Geneva, sister of the antipope Clement VII. In 1403 she became the third wife of the much older, from the Byzantine dynasty of Palaiologist- born Margrave Theodor II of Montferrat . The marriage remained childless. Margarete campaigned for an end to the split within the Catholic Church ( occidental schism ) that had existed since 1378 .

The margravine became even more pious under the influence of the sermons of the Catalan Dominican missionary Vincent Ferrer . After the death of her husband (1418) she left the government of Montferrat to her stepson Johann Jakob and retired to her castle in Alba in Piedmont. She turned down the marriage proposal of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan and founded a community of the Third Order of St. Dominic in 1420 at her castle with noble ladies of her retinue in order not to have to enter into such a second marriage . This she reorganized in 1445 into a monastery, became a nun of the Second Order of St. Dominic and functioned as abbess until the end of her life (1464).

On December 13, 1464, Margarete's remains were initially buried in a simple grave, but in 1481 they were transferred to a significantly more magnificent final resting place in her monastery.

In 1566 Pope Pius V permitted the celebration of Margaret's feast; Clement IX confirmed their beatification on October 8, 1669. Her feast day is celebrated in the Catholic Church on November 23rd, in the Dominican Order on November 25th.

In the fine arts, Margaret is often depicted as a nun holding three arrows - for example on a painting in the church of San Michele Maggiore in Pavia . Another motif that is often encountered is a stag depicted in the background (as she supposedly kept a tame stag in her monastery).

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ The dates of birth and death are given according to M. Lohrum, LThK, vol. 6, col. 1315; the New Catholic Encyclopedia states that Margarete was born in 1390 (with a question mark!).
  2. ↑ Margaret of Savoy in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
personal data
SURNAME Margaret of Savoy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Margravine of Montferrat, Blessed
DATE OF BIRTH around 1382
PLACE OF BIRTH Pinerolo (Piedmont)
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 1464
Place of death Alba