Saint Margaret of Hungary

Margaret was born in 1242, the daughter of King Béla IV of Hungary and Queen Maria Laskarina, while the royal family was in hiding from the Mongol invasion. Her parents promised to dedicate her to God if Hungary was saved, and as a small child she was placed with the Dominican nuns. Later she lived in the convent her father built on an island in the Danube at Buda.

Although she was a princess, she chose the lowliest tasks, nursed sick sisters, cared for the poor and practiced severe penance. When her father wanted to arrange a royal marriage for her, including with King Ottokar II of Bohemia, she firmly refused and made her solemn vows. She died on January 18, 1270, at only twenty-eight. Devotion to her was immediate, and she was canonized in 1943.

The island where she lived is still called Margaret Island (Margitsziget), a beloved park in Budapest, where the ruins of her convent can be seen. Hungarians honor her as a national saint, together with her aunt Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. The Roman Martyrology commemorates her on January 18.