Blessed Margaret of Savoy

Margaret of Savoy (* around 1382 in Pinerolo, Piedmont, † November 23, 1464 in Alba ) was a Margrave of Montferrat and Dominican and is revered in the Catholic Church as Blessed.

Life

Margaret of Savoy was the eldest of four daughters of Prince Amadeus of Savoy - Achaia, Lord of Piedmont, and his wife Catherine of Geneva, the sister of the Antipope Clement VII in 1403, she became the third wife of the much older, dating from the Byzantine dynasty of Palaiologues derived Margrave Theodore II of Montferrat. The marriage remained childless. Margaret campaigned for an end to the ruling since 1378 split within the Catholic Church ( Occidental Schism ).

The Margravine was still under the impression of pious sermons of the Catalan Dominican missionary Vincent Ferrer. After the death of her husband ( 1418 ) she left the government of Montferrat her stepson Johann Jacob and retired to her castle in Alba in Piedmont. She refused the marriage proposal of the Milanese Duke Filippo Maria Visconti and founded in order to not make such a second marriage must, in 1420, at her castle with noble ladies of her suite a community of Third Order of St. Dominic. This she organized in 1445 in a monastery in order, became a nun of the Second Order of St. Dominic, and served until her death ( 1464 ) as abbess.

On December 13, 1464 Margaret's remains were initially buried in a simple grave, but in 1481 transferred to a much more magnificent final resting place in their convent.

1566 Pope Pius V allowed the commission of Margaret's feast; Clement IX. confirmed on October 8, 1669 their beatification. Your Memorial Day is celebrated in the Catholic Church on 23 November, in the Dominican Order, however, on November 25.

In the visual arts Margarete is often depicted as a nun who holds three arrows - for example on a fresco in the church of San Michele Maggiore in Pavia. Another commonly found motif is depicted in the background deer (since they allegedly held a tame deer in her convent ).