Blessed Margaret of Castello - Patron of the Unwanted

Blessed Margaret of Castello

Patron of the unwanted

A baby is born

          There is a hush in the town and on the mountain top, in anticipation of the new little lord, as if time is standing still waiting for the signal to rejoice!  Lady Emilia went into labor.  The candle bearers were ready to brighten the castle, symbolizing the light that had come into their lives.  The serfs stood ready to ring the bells!  The baby was born, but no lights, no bells tolled, only deadly silence.  A baby girl was born; that was one blow.  The infant was rejected immediately by her parents; she was not only a girl, she was deformed!  She was not a pretty baby; if her parents were to believed, she was ugly.  She would never reach full height, they determined as she already showed signs of being (as her parents later told her) a midget!  Her right leg was shorter than the other, and so they knew she would be lame, as well.  Believing God had punished them, one week later, they discovered they had not seen the total chastisement; the child was blind!  What a disgrace, they thought! 

          The word went out that the baby was very sick and was not expected to live!  As it was impossible to keep them from becoming aware what had transpired, the serfs and soldiers in the fortress were told that this was not something to be broadcast.  As Parisio was known for the merciless cruelties inflicted on those who disobeyed him or got in his way, it was fairly fait-accompli[4] that no one would know of the little girl who had come into this cruel world, and cruel it would turn out to be, making this reaction and subsequent action a kind one in comparison.

          The local parish priest, Father Cappellano insisted the baby be baptized!  And as was the custom of that time was that the baby be baptized in the cathedral, he faced very stubborn opposition; Parisio flatly refused.  But when his wife reasoned with him, he reluctantly agreed - on one condition, Lady Emilia's maid would bring the baby girl and have her baptized.  The heartless twosome (parents) even refused to name the child; they left it up to the maid, with only one admonition, she was not to bear the name Emilia!

          The maid took the baby to the cathedral in Mercatello  When the priest asked the name of the infant, the maid cried out, Margaret, meaning pearl.  Although her outer visage was not what the world would call beautiful and extraordinary, her soul would prove precious and priceless, truly a pearl.  The maid returned.  All the serfs hoped the parents' hearts would soften, after all she was their child!  But that was not to be the case.  Not even when the priest who was teaching the child told them how extraordinarily bright she was, his best student, did that melt their hearts of stone.

          She was a friendly, loving child, in spite of her parents' obvious disdain of her, knowing all the citizens of Metola by name, whether child, man or woman; and this considering she was blind was quite a feat!  Everyone in Metola began to love her and looked forward to her visiting them, which she did by herself.  She knew how to get to everyone's home; there was only one place she was forbidden to visit and that was the rooms of the palace which her parents occupied. 

          She was the little pixie of the fort.  But at age six that was to come to an end.  Visitors came to the palace to visit her parents.  It seems the nurse absentmindedly forgot to tell little Margaret to stay in her room; to compound the situation, she carelessly left the door opened.  As was her custom, Margaret went to pray in the palace chapel.  She met up with one of the visitors, who, seeing her condition, asked her compassionately if she was blind, to which the child responded she was.  When little Margaret addressed her respectfully as Your Ladyship, the woman asked if she was blind how did she know she was a Lady.  Margaret responded, "You speak just like my mother."  Just as Margaret was about to divulge who her mother was, Margaret's nurse retrieved her just in time to avoid a disaster!  But not without her parents finding out how close they had come to being exposed as Margaret's parents.

          Parisio came up with an idea, as Margaret loved to spend hours praying in the chapel, he would build a cell next to the church and place Margaret in the cell where she could  pray as a recluse.  His wife, to give her some credit, could not believe he would place his own child in a prison, because that's what it amounted to, especially as she was only six years old!  When she protested the Church would never allow a child to become a recluse, he retorted angrily, it was not their affair, but his!  He used every lame excuse for his inhumane treatment of his daughter; she will be happy to have the privilege to pray all day long, so close to church; in this way she will be safe, after all it was not prudent for her to walk around the fort, she could get hurt.  Finally, his mind already made up, he told his wife he was commissioning a mason to begin constructing the cell tomorrow.

Margaret begins the Way of the Cross

          The church Parisio was referring to, his wife soon found out, was not the chapel of the palace, but one in the forest called The Church of St. Mary near the fortress of Metola.  As it was the parish church of the serfs and it was one quarter of a mile from the palace, with only some very rocky paths leading to it, guests would not be likely to visit and discover the little cell and inquire what was within.  The tiny cell was constructed with a very low ceiling, so it did not take long to finish, and Margaret's days of sunshine, visiting all her friends in the fort, playing with other children, were over.  The little prisoner was thrown into the cell, and without showing any emotion her father ordered the doorway to be walled up.  My God, he had confined his own daughter to a hot box in the summer and an unbearable ice box in the severe winter, a punishment grown men have not been able to survive after five days.

          Although all the men in the garrison and their wives were enraged, no one said anything, afraid of the mad retaliation of their lord.  Only the timid, gentle soft spoken pastor Father Cappellano spoke up, pleading for the child, accusing the father of being heartless.  Parisio responded by threatening to rip out the priest's tongue if he said another word.  Father Cappellano warned the two, mother and father, if they persisted in carrying out this act against God Himself, He would vent His righteous anger against them, ending with may God have mercy on their souls.

          Margaret's mother's lady-in-waiting, Lady Gemma and her husband Leonardo were dismayed over their helplessness to do anything for little Margaret.  Leonardo said he wished that Margaret would have been incapacitated mentally as well as physically, this way she would not suffer knowing her parents did this foul, inhuman deed.  His wife scolded him.  He continued, protesting that with her brilliant, active mind as she gets older, she will feel greater and greater pain knowing her parents cared so little for her, they would deprive her of even a meager, quasi-normal life.

          Lady Gemma confided, Margaret already knew her parents did not love her.  When Lady Gemma had kissed her and told her she loved her, Margaret said, "How can you love me?  My babbo[5] and mamma said that no one could love me because I am such a freak!"  Margaret continued, when she asked her parents what a freak was, they responded that other children were not midgets, crippled, blind, hunchbacked, lame and ugly.  She was all of these and more.  Upon hearing this, Leonardo flew into a rage, calling upon God to strike both parents dead!  His wife, Lady Gemma, pleaded with him to be silent, lest someone hear and report him.  And again, as in the time of Jesus, fear kept people from doing the right thing, the Christian thing.

          There was a knock on the door, just then.  It was Father Cappellano.  He guessed they were talking about Margaret as no one could think, no less speak of anything else.  When Lady Gemma said it would be better if the little one had died than suffer knowing she would never have a normal life, never know love, a prisoner day and day out without any human companionship, the priest said how little we Christians know about our Faith.  He said that Margaret knew that the reason we were born was to know God and knowing Him, love Him; and she knew that we can only know Him through His Cross, sharing His suffering on this earth.  He said if she does not weaken, someday she will bless the Lord for her afflictions, for she will receive her crown of glory.  He asked only that they join him in praying that the Lord preserve her, in her faith and courage in the days ahead.

          When Leonardo argued the priest expected too much from such a little girl, Father Cappellano recounted, when visitors came to his room, they shared how brave Margaret had been, that she had entered the cell without shedding a tear.  "But," the priest continued, "it was not that she did not feel sadness, for when I returned from speaking to her father, I overheard her sobbing, her little child's heart breaking."  Oh, she knew what was happening, but with the signal grace of the Martyrs before her, she was able to spare others from sharing her cross.

          When Father asked her why she was crying, was it because she had been locked inside this cell, all alone, she shocked even him, knowing her the way he did, as she answered, "Father when they brought me here this morning, I did not understand - because of my sins - why God let this happen to me.  But now, he made it clear.  Jesus was rejected by His own people, and God is letting me be treated the same so that I can follow our dear Lord more closely.  And Father, I am not good enough to be so near to God!"  She became so overwhelmed with the thought that God loved her so, she could not continue.

          Margaret was a normal child who grew into a normal young girl, with all the feelings and temptations that fill a young vessel, such as she, to the point of overflowing with emotions.  She was hurt that her parents did not love her, but she accepted it as a gift from God for her own good.  The more her passionate nature threatened to separate her from her God, the more she not only willingly accepted suffering, she sought suffering, imposing more and more mortification upon herself, fasting, and wearing a hair shirt before she was seven years old.

          The years went by slowly; the only calendar she had was the change of seasons - it was spring when she heard the birds chirping outside; it was summer when the cell became suffocatingly hot; she knew it was fall, when she had relief from the blistering heat; as the days became cooler, she knew that winter with its damp, freezing cold would soon be upon her.  And this is how she spent twelve years of her life, but that was soon to end.

For more information about Blessed Margaret click here