Saint Margaret is a virgin and martyr. She is also called “Marina”. She belonged to Pisidian Antioch in Asia Minor, where her father was a pagan priest. She was looked after by a pious woman after the death of her mother just after her death. Having embraced Christianity and consecrated her virginity to God, she was disowned by her father and adopted by her nurse.
One day, while she was engaged in watching the flocks of her mistress, a Roman prefect Olybrius caught sight of her. He was attracted by her great beauty and sought to make her his concubine or wife. When neither cajolery nor threats of punishment could succeed in moving her to yield to his desires, he had her brought before him in a public trial at Antioch. Threatened with death unless she renounced the Christian faith, the holy virgin refused to adore the gods of the empire. They attempted to burn her but the flames, we are told in her Acts, left her unharmed. She was then bound hand and foot and thrown into a cauldron of boiling water, but at her prayer, her bonds were broken and she stood up uninjured. Finally, the prefect ordered her to be beheaded.