Margaret of Castello

About Margaret of Castello

The Holy See identifies Margaret as a Dominican tertiary and records her birth around 1287 at Metola and her death on 13 April 1320 at Città del Castello. The birth year is approximate.

Her biography is difficult to reconstruct. Giovanna Casagrande’s scholarly entry explains that the narrative rests on two anonymous Latin legends composed between 1347–49 and 1400. She notes that no contemporary documents directly connected with Margaret are known. The Dominican friars and a women’s religious house in Città del Castello are independently attested during the late thirteenth century, but their existence does not confirm the legends’ personal episodes.

Later Dominican tradition describes Margaret as born blind and physically disabled, abandoned in Città del Castello, and welcomed into religious and household communities. These episodes belong to the legends, not to contemporary biography.

Casagrande records evidence for a local cult: a reference to her feast and body in 1395 and a municipal candle offering on her feast day in 1422. The current feast is celebrated on 13 April.

In 2021 Pope Francis extended her cult to the universal Church by equipollent canonization, recognizing longstanding veneration. This modern decree establishes her current ecclesial status; it does not resolve the gaps in the medieval record.