Margaret of Hungary

A brief biography.

Margaret of Hungary, daughter of Kkng Béla IV of Hungary and his wife Mary Laskaris, was born 22 January 1242. According to a vow which her parents made, when Hungary was liberated from the Tatars, that their next child should be dedicated to religion, Margaret entered the Dominican monastery of Veszprem in 1245. Invested with the habit at the age of four, she was transferred in her tenth year to the monastery of the Blessed Virgin founded by her parents on the Hasen Insel near Buda, the Margareten Insel (Margitsziget) near Budapest today, and where the ruins of the monastery are still to be seen.

Here Margaret passed all her life, which was consecrated to contemplation and penance, and was venerated as a saint during her lifetime. She strenuously opposed the plans of her father, who for political reasons wished to marry her to King Ottokar II of Bohemia. Margaret appears to have taken solemn vows when she was eighteen.

She died 18.01.1271 and steps were taken for her canonization, and in 1271-1276 investigations referring to this were taken up; in 1275-1276 the process was introduced, but not completed. After all she was canonized  by Pope Pius XII on 10 November 1943.

In art she is depicted with a lily and holding a book in her hand.

After the Dominican order had been suppressed by Joseph II, in 1782, the relics were destroyed in 1789; but some portions are still preserved in Gran (Esztergom), Györ, Pannonhalma.

Kinga (Kioga, Zinga, Cunigund), Margaret's sister, was born 05.03.1234, and married to duke Boleslaw IV of Poland, during the Tartar invasion in 1239. After  her husband's death on 07.12.1279 she took charge of the monastery in Alt-Sandecz, founded by her husband. In her old age, 24.041289, she retired to the monastery as a Franciscan tertiary, (OCSI) and died on 24.07.1292 of natural causes. She was beatified by Benedict XIII in 1690, declared patroness of Poland and Lithuania by Alexander VIII in 1715 and canonized by John Paul II on 16.06.1999.

Margaret's sister Jolanta (Helen) was born in 1244, and married to duke Boleslaw V Pobozny of Poland (Kalisch). He and Jolanta founded a Poor Clare convent (OCSI) in Gnesen (Giesen). Widowed in 1279, she, one of her daughters, and Cunegund retired to the Poor Clare convent Cunegund had founded in Alt-Sandeck. Helen became abbess of the convent in Gnesen in 1292. She died on 11.06.1298, and was beatified in 1827.

Philately

This sheet issued to commemorate and in connection with the 34th International Eucharistic Congress held at Budapest May25th to 29th, 1938. Designer: Lajos Márton (1891-1953).

Picture:

St. Stephen (970-1937),the missionary; St. Emerich (1007-1031). St. Ladislaus I (1040-1095) was the King of Hungary from 1077 to 1095;
a religious reformer in Croatia, prior to that time. The Holy Sacrament: in the left background are the towers of the Coronation Church of Budapest and in the right background the dome of the Esztergom Basilica. St. Elizabeth (1207-1231).

St. Maurice or St. Morris, an 11th century leader and educator, born at Nyitra, educated at the monastery of Pannonhalma; there he became a monk; later made an abbot, and from 1036 to 1064 was Bishop of Pecs.

Under his leadership the Cathedral of Pecs was built, and there he is buried.

St. Margaret was daughter of King Bela IV, born  January 22, 1242, became a member of the Dominican Nuns, on the Island of the Hares, today called St. Margaret Island, a part of Budapest. She died January 18, 1271, was beatified by the Pope in 1409 and canonized by Pope Pius XII on 10 November 1943.                                                                     

Hungary 1938, Mi 575, Bl 3; Sc B94 g.

The canonization of Margaret on 10.11.1943 by Pope Pius XII.

Margaret with the cross and the crown upon a cushion.
Designer of the stamp is Bela Kontuly (1904-1983)

Hungary 1944, Mi 753, Sc 620.

Margaret with the lily.

The designer is György Konecsni (1903-)

Hungary 1944, Mi 755, Sc 626. 

Stamps with overprint.

Hungary 1946, Mi 786,790, 795, 820; Sc 684, 689, 694, 708, 719.

Stamp with overprint 'Ajánlás', (registered).

Hungary 1946, Mi 875, Sc 760.

Panoramic view of Margit-Hid and Margaret-Island.

In the monastery, built by King Bela IV, Margaret lived
from 1252 till her death on 18 January 1271.

Stamp with taxes.

Hungary 1961, Mi 1789, Sc B220.

Note: there are other stamps with bridges of Budapest,
         among them the Margaret Bridge or Margit-Hid.

Hungary 1964, Mi 2072, Sc 1620. Hungary 1970, Mi 2578-79, Bl 75; Sc 2018.

Hungary 1972. Mi 2809, Sc 2183. Hungary 1985, Mi 3782, Bl 180; Sc 2948.

On the place of the monastery on Margaret-Island, today
the Thermal-Hotel, Budapest.

Hungary 1984, Mi 3704, Sc 2866.

750^th-Anniversary of Margaret of Hungary's birth

(22.01.1242). Stamp with on the tab her sister Kinga
(Cunegund about 1224-1292).

Hungary 1992, Mi 4201, Sc 3347.

On the FDC the ruins of the Dominican monastery
on Margaret-Island (Budapest). Designer: Gábor Gacs.

Panel by the Italian painter Stefano di Giovanni Sassetta
(ca 1392-1450).

This panel on wood (241 x 223 cm), known as The
Virgin with Child, Angels, between four Saints (St Nicholas, St. Miguel the Archangel, John Baptist and Margaret of Hungary),1430-1432, destined for the altar
of the church of Our Lady in Siena.

Now preserved in the collection Contini-Bonacossi, Florence.

Sovereign Military Order of Malta (S.M.O.M.) 1997, nr 231.    

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