St. Margaret of Scotland
An Anglo-Saxon princess who married Malcolm III of Scotland, held a synod to reform the Scottish church, founded Dunfermline Abbey, and died at Edinburgh in 1093.
Canonized 1250
St. Margaret of Scotland (Catholic Encyclopedia)
- Universal Calendar, 16 November — 'St Margaret of Scotland' (optional memorial), from the Liturgy Office of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. https://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Calendar/Universal/NovUC.shtml
- USCCB Liturgical Calendar 2026, 16 November — 'Saint Margaret of Scotland; Saint Gertrude, Virgin' (optional memorial). https://www.usccb.org/resources/2026cal.pdf
- Catholic Encyclopedia (Herbermann, 1907-1913), 'St. Margaret of Scotland' — born about 1045 to Edward the Exile and Agatha; married Malcolm III between 1067 and 1070; died at Edinburgh 16 November 1093; canonized 1250 by Innocent IV. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09655c.htm
- The encyclopedia article says her feast is kept on 10 June. That is the old date, from before the calendar was reformed in 1969, and it is not the one used here. The current General Roman Calendar puts her on 16 November, which is also the day she died.
- Her story is rated documented because the main source for it was written by somebody alive at the time. Who that was is disputed: the encyclopedia names two candidates — Turgot, her confessor, and a more obscure monk called Theodoric — and says the question is unsettled. The rating rests on when the life was written, not on who wrote it.
- Two things often said about Margaret are not in the document held for her. That she was raised in exile in Hungary is reported there as a tradition and then withdrawn: the article says no record of it has been found in that country, and that her birth date cannot be fixed with accuracy. That she died days after her husband fell in battle is not there at all — Malcolm is named twice in the article, and neither mention is his death. Both were removed from this record in August 2026.
- She has a short record rather than a full life because of what is held for her. The encyclopedia article is three paragraphs, and the only document on the Holy See's site that names her is an 1898 encyclical of Leo XIII to the bishops of Scotland, which gives her one sentence of praise and no life at all. A biography written in her own time does exist, printed in the Acta Sanctorum, but it is not held here. It is the one document that would change this.
- Leo XIII, encyclical Caritatis Studium to the bishops of Scotland, 25 July 1898 — held for this record. One sentence is the whole of what it says about her. https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_25071898_caritatis-studium.html