Saint Margaret of Cortona was a thirteenth century Italian Catholic Saint and part of the third order of the Franciscans. She is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of the Franciscan order and known for her austere pious life as well as numerous miracles. (1)
What she is not so well known for today is that she was a fervent and dare I say fanatical opponent of the jews like many medieval Franciscans (a fact often brushed under the carpet by the modern Roman Catholic Church).
This is indicated by ‘Traditional Catholic’s’ short biography of her when they write how:
‘During Lent of 1288 Margaret was shown, in a vision, the horrible state of the sinful world, the unfaithful Christians, the evil of the Jews, the desecration of the Holy Land by the Mohammedans, and the offenses and outrages against Jesus. Seeing this, heartbroken, she offered herself to God as a victim of expiation.’ (2)
Her extent of her anti-jewish fanaticism is here summarised but not well expressed, but Anthony Francis Giovagnoli in his biography of her expounds on this rather more fully when he writes how:
‘She said three hundred in honor of the Holy Trinity ; one hundred for the great Mother of God ; a hundred for each of the kindred most venerated by her; one hundred for her sins ; a hundred for the Franciscan order ; a hundred for the people of Cortona; a hundred for those who injured her; and many hundreds more for the Sovereign Pontiff, for all ecclesiastical orders, for sinners, heretics, schismatics, Turks arid Jews. And for all these various intentions she continued through life to pray ardently, at least once a day, yet with a great variety of interior feelings ; for in praying for all these different classes, she felt her heart inundated with heavenly sweetness and vigor, which was, however, strikingly less when she prayed for the Jews.’ (3)
Notice that last passage; she felt no love in her heart for the jews. The reason for this fervent hatred on St. Margaret’s part is easy to find when Giovagnoli goes on to write that:
‘Her preparation was long, beginning at midnight, and continuing in the church till near mid-day ; yet it was less long than fervent and devout; for, as she was wont to say, the streets through which the body of Jesus passed should be paved with the purest gold, that that sacred Body might thus be honored by us and welcomed, as much as it was slighted and maltreated by the impious Jews.’ (4)
As well as:
‘Yet her visions were not always so joyful; sometimes they made her weep disconsolately. This was the case whenever Jesus appeared wounded by the Jews or tortured by perverse Christians.’ (5)
Thus, the primary cause of her hatred of jews was the fact that the jews explicitly murdered her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ which is completely understandable given what she believed – rightly or wrongly – to be true (I happen to think she was right).
Hence when Leopold de Cherance remarked on how she often contemplated ‘the wickedness of the jews’ what he was referring to is the responsibility of jews for the crime of Deicide and also – in all probability – the various crimes against Christians that jews have committed through the centuries which she may or may not have known about.
References
(1) https://www.medievalists.net/2012/09/the-life-and-miracles-of-st-margaret-of-cortona-1247-1297/
(2) http://www.traditionalcatholic.co/st-margaret-of-cortona-the-second-magdalene/
(3) Anthony Francis Giovagnoli, 1888, ‘The Life of Saint Margaret of Cortona’, 1st Edition, Peter Cunningham & Son: London, pp. 110-111
(4) Ibid., p. 138
(5) Ibid., p. 188
(6) Leopold de Cherance, 1903, ‘St. Margaret of Cortona: The Magdalen of the Seraphic Order’, 1st Edition, Sealy, Bryers and Walker: Dublin, p. 114