Niskapel ND de Lourdes - Ste Marguerite de Cortona - Mozet

This niche chapel at 11 Rue Pieltin is dedicated to ND de Lourdes and Ste Marguerite of Cortona and mentions the year 1921.

St Marguerite:

She was born in Tuscany into a peasant family . She lost her mother when she was barely seven years old. Her father remarries and her life becomes very difficult because her stepmother does not pay her any attention or affection.

Margherita is very beautiful and at the age of sixteen she is seduced by a rich young nobleman from Montepulciano named Arsenio, who promises to take her as his wife. She leaves her father's house to live with him in Montepulciano . Despite repeated promises, there is no marriage , even if a son is born from this union.

For nine years life was easy and carefree . She gets money to buy jewelry and to adorn herself. She has a lot of charm and is known as the 'Lady of Montepulciano', when she is really just Arsenio's mistress.

In 1273, Arsenio was murdered under mysterious circumstances. Legend has it that her dog Margaret came to take her to the body of the deceased, hence the images of the saint accompanied by a dog. Marguerite's life had changed radically. She is thrown out of her lover 's house . When she returned to her father 's house, she was not admitted . She is alone with a six-year-old child, homeless, destitute and desperate.

When she took refuge in a nearby church, she was received and heard by Franciscans. She placed herself under their guidance and did penance . Margaret arrived in Cortona with her son in 1272; she was then twenty-five years old. Margaretha had a profound experience of God's forgiveness and wanted to live a life of penance in the Third Order of Saint Francis. She devoted herself completely to charity, prayer and spiritual direction.

In 1226 Margaret founded a community of women who wanted to help the unfortunate, as well as the hospital "Santa Maria del Pardon" in Cortona. After seven hundred and fifty years , the hospital still exists.

Margaretha died on February 22, 1297. Her canonization took place in 1728.

She is usually depicted in Franciscan robes, of which she was a tertiary, with a little dog , and the attributes of the penitent hermit, crucifix and skull.

Willem Vandenameele