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God’s Little One: St. Margaret of Castello.

      One of the most amazing demonstrations of God’s mercy was with “Little Margaret” – St. Margaret of Castello (1287-1320). She was born unusually small – a midget – and hunched-backed, facially deformed and ugly, her right leg shorter than the left causing a dramatic limp, and she was also blind. Unfortunately, her parents treated her very badly, shunned her, and kept her hidden. When she was six, she was locked in a small cell next to a chapel in the forest on her father’s estate. She could never leave, but she could attend Mass and receive the Sacraments. Fortunately, the chaplain on the estate was a kindly priest and regularly visited Margaret.

      God gave Margaret many graces of virtue. When she was locked in her cell, she told the priest how unworthy yet blessed she felt to be sharing in the Lord’s Cross in this way. Margaret had extraordinary faith in God and felt all was a gift and a blessing. Needless to say, prayer and reception of the Sacraments were her greatest consolations.

      When she was 20, her parents took her to a shrine at Castello, Italy, to pray for a cure. But none was forthcoming, and her parents then abandoned her there not saying a word. There she was – blind and crippled, abandoned and alone in a strange town, waiting for her parents who never returned. The goodness of the local beggars took her in and she became a beggar with them, still always kind, cheerful, and helping others whenever she could. At one point God gave her infused knowledge of all the Psalms – she said knowledge of them just came to her one day. Thereafter, she opened a small school teaching children the Psalms.

      Many miracles came through her intercession during her life: the blind were healed, as were the mute, deaf, lame, paralyzed, cancerous, and people with every sort of sickness. She never envied that she was not healed, she always accepted God’s will for herself and was happy and cheerful.

      The miracles included raising from the dead. Once a young boy drowned in a river. The heart-broken mother begged Margaret’s help and the child came back to life. A woodsman was mauled and killed by bears. Friends found the horribly mangled body, brought it to the man’s home, and the family implored Margaret’s intercession. The man was restored whole. Another time a child fell from a high balcony to the street below and was killed. Margaret interceded and he was brought back to life. After her death, even more were raised through her intercession.

      Margaret died at just 33 years of age. At her funeral, the people cried out that she was a saint and should be buried inside the church, but the pastor would not authorize it. God, however, had other ideas. While the people were disputing with the pastor, the parents of a girl crippled, mute, with curvature of the spine, and had never been able to walk, brought the child and pushed through the crowd right up to Margaret’s bier. They pled with Margaret, now deceased on earth, to have pity on a fellow crippled child. Margaret’s left arm began to slowly rise from her bier. The crowd and the pastor all fell silent, watching the arm. Margaret’s arm touched the child beside her. She who had never walked rose to her feet, and she who had never spoke screamed loudly, “I have been cured! I have been cured through Margaret!” She threw herself into the arms of her mother and father, laughing and crying. Needless to say, Margaret’s body was buried in the church right then and there.

      Is anything impossible for God? Can deformity, when borne with humility, love, and thanksgiving, not find an open ear in the heart of God when called upon by such a little one?

Dibby Allan Green

Originally published in the print edition of the Mojave Desert News for March 16, 2023.
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is located in California City, CA. Visit our website at ollcalcity.org.
Dibby Allan Green has a BA in Religious Studies (Westmont College, 1978) and MA in Theology (Augustine Institute, 2019), is a lay Catholic hermit, and a parishioner of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.   
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