Saint of the Day: Bl. Margaret Ebner

Dominican Nun and Mystic (1291-1351)

Her life

+ Margaret was born into an aristocratic family in Donauwörth, Swabia (in modern-day Germany). Around the year 1305 she entered the Kloster Mödingen, a monastery of Dominican Nuns, professing religious vows in 1306.

+ From 1312 to 1325 Margaret suffered an extended illness which ultimately led her into a deeper relationship with God. The year before her illness began, she received the first of a series of visions of Christ. These were later recorded in her Revelations.

+ Blessed Margaret Ebner died on June 20, 1351, and she was beatified by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1979.

For prayer and reflection

“Feed me with your sweet grace, strengthen me with your pure love, surround me with your boundless mercy, embrace me with your pure truth.”—Blessed Margaret Ebner

Spiritual bonus

On June 20, the Church also remembers Blessed Francisco Pacheco. Born in Portugal, Francisco, a Jesuit priest, served in India before being missioned to Japan in 1604. Although he had been exiled from Japan when a persecution of Christians began, he returned to assist the missionaries who remained to support the lay Christians. He was ultimately arrested and executed for his Christian faith on June 20, 1626, in Nagasaki, Japan. Blessed Francisco Pacheco was beatified with other Japanese martyrs in 1867.

Prayer

O God, who called your handmaid blessed Margaret to seek you before all else, grant that, serving you, through her example and intercession, with a pure and humble heart, we may come at last to your eternal glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.