Saint Margaret of Cortona

Margaret returned to her father’s home seeking his forgiveness for her perverse actions. Her father wished to take her back, but her stepmother refused to have such a public sinner under the same roof. Margaret was so full of shame, but she prayed. An inner voice directed her to go to Cortona and confide the care of her soul to the Franciscans. She found her way to the Franciscans who became her fathers in Christ and gave her son an education. She struggled against temptation, but she never gave in.

Eventually, Margaret’s piece of mind returned. She began to experience the love of Jesus and to believe that her sins had been

forgiven. She started out nursing women, but later gave this up in order to devote herself more fully to prayer and caring for the sick and poor in her own small cottage. She lived off the charity of others, gave her food to the poor, and ate only scraps. One of her messages from God was "I have made you a mirror for sinners. You are a ladder for sinners. My daughter, I have set you as a light in the darkness, as a new star that I give to the world, to guide back again those who have lost the way. You are the way of the despairing, the voice of mercy."

By the end of her life, she slept very little only on the ground and ate bread and raw vegetables. She died at the age of fifty, and it is recorded that at the time of her death she saw the many souls that she assisted out of Purgatory form a procession and escort her to Heaven.

In 1289, nasty rumors and gossip went around about Margaret’s relationship with the friars. One friar was transferred because of this, but the vicious rumors were eventually proven false. It became more apparent of Margaret’s holiness because of her peaceful reaction to the gossip.

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