Queen Margaret of Scotland – Part 2
Introduction:
There have so many incredible women who have served in God’s kingdom. For the last few months on this blog we have been focusing on women who have served in the church because most church history books leave out women’s stories. The mistaken impression is given that women did nothing of importance since time began. I hope to change that impression on this blog site.
We have steadily moved from the stories of women in the Bible to our recent series on women in the Medieval Era. So far, we have looked at the stories of women from the earliest Middle Ages such as Genovefa, Brigid of Ireland and Radegund (5th and 6th centuries). Then we moved on to the 7th and 8th centuries with stories of abbesses and queens such as Gertrude, Frideswide, and Lioba. For the last few weeks we recounted the stories of 9th and 10th century women such as Dhuoda (writer and Theologian), and Irene, Euphrosyne, and Theodora who were Byzantine empresses. Then we presented the story of the amazingly gifted Hrotsvitha, a poet and a playwright whose works are still influential today. Then we related the story of a strong, passionate, and gifted queen and empress – Adelheid. Last week we began a story about Queen Margaret of Scotland. This godly woman has not been given enough credit for her part in making a better life for the people in Scotland that has lasted until today.
Margaret of Scotland (1045 – 1093) continued…….
In Part 1, we learned that Margaret was born in Hungary while her family was in exile there. Her father Edward was the rightful English king who had been ousted by the Danes. The English royal family went to Hungary and remained there until the Danish rulers had died and left the throne of England empty. Margaret’s family returned to England, but her father died, and her brother was not able to fight off ambitious English barons. The family fled again when the new king saw them as a threat to his throne. Margaret’s family thought they would go back to Hungary, but their ship was blown off course and they ended up in Scotland. King Malcolm III fell in love with Margaret and married her.
God made Margaret the queen of Scotland at a time when the church and the country needed reforming. Margaret took the lead in this task courageously and with great strength and determination. It is amazing what she, a woman, was able to accomplish. Fortunately for themselves and their posterity, the people respected Margaret and were willing to follow her lead.
When Margaret first arrived in Scotland, she had wished to spend her life in the church. Eventually she gave into Malcolm’s 
many proposals and married instead. Her royal marriage allowed her to serve God for the church by building new churches and refurbishing old ones. Margaret began immediately by erecting a church on the site of her wedding in Dunfermline. Dedicated to the Holy Trinity, she named it Christ Church. She endowed it with enough money to maintain liturgical services and community services to the poor.
Not content with just building the outer forms of religion, Margaret turned her attention to the inner Christian life. The Scots had a rich religious past which was basically Celtic. Margaret had no wish to disrupt the traditions of the people which had been in place for hundreds of years. Instead she diplomatically introduced changes that would that she felt were necessary to move the church forward.
The Celtic religion has many strengths. Of prime importance is the fact that Celtic practices form a total way of life. A big part of life is family and community. Large family groups were clans that were ruled over by one of their own chiefs. When monasticism came to Ireland and spread to Scotland, the lifestyle fit right in with the people. The leaders could now be abbots and monks. But these monks were not like the ones we think of today. Irish monks married and had children and lived and prayed alongside everyone else. They did not separate the sacred from the secular.
This totally integrated lifestyle has remained part of the Celtic biblical worldview. All of life, including everyday things such as the weather, nature, science, and art were part of God’s plan. The Celts sought God in all things in all times and in all places. This is different from the secularization that we experience today. Margaret had no desire to change this very thing that she too practiced – God in every thought.
This Celtic prayer illustrates why Margaret sought to maintain the religious customs of the Scots:
The arms of God be around my shoulders,
The touch of the Holy Spirit upon my head,
The sign of Christ’s cross upon my forehead,
The sound of the Holy Spirit in my ears,
The fragrance of the Holy Spirit in my nostrils,
The vision of heaven’s company on my lips,
The work of God’s church in my hands,
The service of God and the neighbour in my feet,
A home for God in my heart,
And to God, the Father of all, my entire being, Amen.
The Celts saw that all learning should pertain to God. They believed in teaching all to read and write. The tradition went back as least as far as St. Patrick.[1] Most of the intellectuals or professional people belonged to a Christian religious house such as a university or monastery. While life for Europeans was entering a “dark age” on the continent, in Ireland the 5th through 10th centuries were like an age of enlightenment. People flocked to Ireland to study in their universities. Irish men and women established monasteries and sent missionaries throughout Europe. The Irish had quietly located every book they could get their hands on and began copying them. If not for these Irish monks, the world would have been a very different place – a world without books.[2]
Irish monks traveled to Scotland bringing the love of God and his word with them. This is the heritage that Margaret would be a part of. It was out of respect for the Scots that Margaret brought about reform with a gentle hand. The five areas where she sought change do not seem significant to us today, but in her day when religion encompassed the whole of life any change would need to be made carefully. The calendar of the church was the calendar of the people’s daily lives. She sought to bring the customs in Scotland in line with the customs of the rest of the western world.
For example, we take it for granted that Lent is forty days. In Scotland, it was thirty-six. It was important to Margaret to feel that the worldwide church was worshipping together.
Her next reform involved communion. The Celts did not take communion because they felt unworthy. Margaret encouraged them to celebrate communion especially at Easter. This led to a third reform – the Scottish liturgy. A fourth reform involved the Sabbath. What day was the Sabbath – Saturday or Sunday? Margaret made the provision for the Sabbath to be on Sunday, the first day of the week. The fifth reform had to do with marriage. The Scots had been following the practice where a man had to marry his deceased brother’s wife. Margaret declared this to be unlawful.
In all of these reforms, Margaret turned first to the Bible to give support for her changes. Because she could demonstrate from the Holy Scriptures and church traditions the rationale for her reforms, the people accepted them.
While spending most of her time working with God’s church, Margaret managed to bear and raise eight children. She saw the family as a place where children could grow and learn to serve God. She had six sons and two daughters. The sons would provide an unbroken line of seven kings who would provide over two hundred years of peace for Scotland. Alexander and David followed their father to the throne. Her daughter Edith, who changed her name to Matilda, married King Henry I of England. Her daughter Mary married Eustace the Count of Boulogne.
Margaret was very pious and cared especially for the poor and orphans. It was this piety that caused considerable damage to her health with the repeated fasting and abstinence. In November 1093, as she lay on her deathbed after a long illness, she was told that her husband and eldest son, Edward had been ambushed and treacherously killed at the Battle of Alnwick in Northumbia. Malcolm, though somewhat softened under Margaret’s influence, had continued his warring ways. Another son, Edgar gave Margaret the bad news as she lay dying. She sought consolation with God, praying, “Grant me freedom.”
Margaret died shortly after that, aged just forty-seven. She was buried alongside Malcolm in Dunfermline Abbey and the reported miracles that took place in and around her tomb supported her canonization on the nineteenth of June 1250 by Pope Innocent IV. The feast of St. Margaret was formerly observed by the Roman Catholic Church on 10 June but is now celebrated each year on the anniversary of her death, 16 November 1093.
This Celtic blessing summarizes Margaret’s life:
On your heads and your houses the blessing of God
In your coming and going the peace of God
In your life and believing the love of God
At your end a new beginning
The arms of God to welcome you and being you home.
Margaret was truly a remarkable woman who did not give up under any circumstances to serve the Lord. In all her life she exemplified a pious queen, mother, and saint.
St. Margaret Queen of Scotland Catholic Church has a beautiful, informative, and inspirational interactive photographic display of Margaret’s life on their website. Their church was founded by Hungarian immigrants who had emigrated to Louisiana in the late 19th century. I encourage you to visit their site. The display is fabulous and tells the story of Saint Margaret with pictures. Here is the link:
https://stmargaretstthomas.com
[1] See post on Brigid of Kildare, August 20, 2019.
[2] For more information on the Irish see: Thomas Cahill. How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1995).
