Biography of st margaret

Saint Margaret of Scotland lived from to 16 November She was probably born in what is now Hungary, and her grandfather on her mother's side was thought to have been Yaroslav I the Wise, Prince of Novgorod and Kiev. The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our Historical Timeline. Margaret's great-uncle was King Edward the Confessor of England.

When King Harold was killed by the Normans at the Battle of Hastings in , Margaret's brother Edgar Atheling was regarded by the English as rightful heir to the throne. This was not accepted by William of Normandy, and together with their mother, Edgar and Margaret sailed from Northumberland to exile on the continent. A storm took them instead to Scotland, where they were given refuge by Malcolm III, who probably already knew them well from his own years of refuge in England, when Macbeth was on the Scottish throne.

St margaret of scotland feast day

Malcolm III was a widower with three children from his first marriage when he and Margaret married in Margaret's impact was dramatic. She favoured the Roman Catholic church to the Celtic Church and brought Benedictine monks to establish an abbey at Dunfermline. To allow her to feel more at home, Malcolm decreed that the language used at court should be Saxon rather than Gaelic.

Margaret also had built what is today called St Margaret's Chapel, in the highest part of Edinburgh Castle; she arranged for the rebuilding of the monastery of Iona; and she provided a free ferry across the Forth at Queensferry for pilgrims en route to the major religious centres at Dunfermline and St Andrews.