St. Margaret of Antioch (detail; M 070) Ceramic Tree Decoration

St. Margaret of Antioch (died c. 304) wears a spectacular dark navy-blue or black hat and a white dress with red piping. The hat has a high crown, a turned-back brim, and lappets falling behind her shoulders. The low front of her white gown is laced together over a black kirtle (or underdress) or, perhaps, more likely, a plackard (or inserted panel) and a white linen chemise with a round neckline. + St. Margaret is depicted writing marginalia in her devotional reading or commonplace book with a cross-topped pen. The cross is one of the elements that serve to identify her; another is the dragon visible in the landscape just to its left; and the third is the book itself. According to tradition, the devil in the guise of a dragon swallowed her whole. But, he got indigestion from the meal! The cross St. Margaret was wearing or carrying so irritated the dragon’s innards that he either egested her or ruptured to be rid of her. While the dragon here meets his match in St. George instead, the association of St. Margaret and dragon-slaying is made however subtly by the proximity of the vignette. Finally, the book… The book itself is important. According to Blessed James of Voragine’s Golden Legend, the most popular book after the Bible in the Middle Ages, St. Margaret prayed to God before her execution that anyone who wrote down her story, read it, heard it, or remembered it would receive the remission and forgiveness of all their sins and that women in labour who would call on her would safely deliver strong, healthy babies. By extension, it came to be believed that merely having a book with her story in one’s house would safeguard it from demonic possession. + Feast: July 20 + Image Credit (M 070): Detail of Virgo inter Virgines [in Latin; La Vierge parmi les vierges in French; The Virgin among Virgins in English], by The Master of the Legend of St. Lucy (fl. c. 1435-1506/1509), oil on oak panel, 67.3"x42.5" (171 cm x 108 cm), c. 1488, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, inv. 2576. From Wikimedia Commons {PD-Art|PD-Old-100}. The image file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighbouring rights.