  margaret the virgin-martyr, known as margaret of antioch (in pisidia) in the west, and as and saint marina the great-martyr () in the east, is celebrated as a saint by the roman catholic and anglican churches on july 20 and on july 17 in the orthodox church. her historical existence has been questioned. she was declared apocryphal by pope gelasius i in 494, but devotion to her revived in the west with the crusades. she was reputed to have promised very powerful indulgences to those who wrote or read her life, or invoked her intercessions; these no doubt helped the spread of her cultus."margaret of antioch" the oxford dictionary of saints. david hugh farmer. oxford university press 2003. oxford reference online. oxford university press. accessed 16 june 2007 ==narrative== according to the version of the story in golden legend, she was a native of antioch, and she was the daughter of a pagan priest named aedesius. her mother having died soon after her birth, margaret was nursed by a pious woman five or six leagues from antioch. having embraced christianity and consecrated her virginity to god, she was disowned by her father, adopted by her nurse and lived in the country keeping sheep with her foster mother (in what is now turkey).[http://www.newadvent.org/ca
304_deaths 3rd-century_births 4th-century_Christian_martyrs 4th-century_Christian_saints 4th-century_Romans Anatolian_Roman_Catholic_saints Christian_folklore Eastern_Orthodox_saints Folk_saints Fourteen_Holy_Helpers Joan_of_Arc Late_Ancient_Christian_female_saints Saints_of_the_Golden_Legend Syrian_Roman_Catholic_saints