January 18

Saint Margaret of Hungary

Roman Martyrology

A king’s daughter who chose the humblest work in her convent

Margaret was born in 1242, a daughter of King Béla IV of Hungary, just as the country was recovering from a Mongol invasion. According to tradition, her parents had vowed that if Hungary survived, they would give to God the child they were expecting. As a small girl she was placed with Dominican nuns, first at Veszprém and later in a convent her parents built on an island in the Danube, in what is now Budapest.

Margaret took her vows seriously. When her father pressed her to marry for political reasons (King Ottokar II of Bohemia was among the suitors), she refused. In the convent she chose the dirtiest and humblest jobs: scrubbing, washing, nursing sick sisters. She fasted and kept long night vigils, so harshly that it likely weakened her health. She died there on 18 January 1270, aged 27.

The island now bears her name, Margaret Island. The Catholic Church declared her a saint in 1943, remembering a princess who chose to serve.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Philippians 2:5–7 · BSB

A prayer

Faithful God, you led Margaret to set aside the honours of a royal court and to find joy in serving her sisters in the lowliest tasks. Free us from the wish to be important, and give us hearts ready to serve others gladly, as Jesus came not to be served but to serve. Amen.