Commemorating the life of St Margaret Queen of Scots

On Monday, 12^th November 2022, a special morning assembly was held in St Margaret College Secondary School Verdala, Cospicua to commemorate St Margaret Queen of Scots, the College Patron Saint. This commemoration was celebrated by four Form 5 (Year 11) students together with the Religion teacher, Martin Azzopardi sdc.

During November, Christians celebrate both All Souls’ Day and All Saints’ Day. All Saints’ Day originated in the 4^th century A.D. when Christians used to celebrate the feast of all the martyrs of the Christian faith. On the 13^th May 610 A.D., Pope St Boniface IV re-buried the bones of many Christian martyrs in a famous church in Rome called the Pantheon – a previous Roman pagan temple dedicated to all the Roman gods.

Then later on in history, Pope Gregory III (731-741 A.D.) found another chapel in the Basilica of St Peter to keep the bones of the Christian Martyrs and he chose the 1^st November to be the feast of All Martyrs and also the feast of All Saints. However, it was a century after that Pope Gregory IV (827-844 A.D.) invited the whole Catholic world to celebrate All Saints’ Day on the 1^st of November.

During the school morning assembly celebration in St Margaret College, the good Christian virtues of St Margaret were highlighted and remembered. The liturgical feast of St Margaret Queen of Scots is celebrated on November 16^th. Saint Margaret was a very devout Christian queen born in Hungary and married to a Scottish King. Throughout her reign, in Scotland, she purified the Christian devotions from pagan practices and founded many Abbeys for monks to educate the people and offer a good Christian culture to her country’s people. She showed the deepest sympathy and great love towards the poor and those in need and dedicated most of her time to teaching and feeding the children of poor families.

It is good to know that in ancient times All Saints’ Day was referred to as the ‘Day of all Hallows’ (meaning ‘holy’) and on the eve of All Saints’ Day people remembered the memory of great people who died. In fact the word ‘Halloween’ refers to the night before the feast of all holies.

So let’s follow the example of St Margaret Queen of Scots, imitate her Christian virtues, and follow her good, joyful and pure deeds throughout her reign.