St. Margaret with Dragon and Resurrection Banner Label

According to tradition, St. Margaret of Antioch (or St. Marina the Great Martyr) laid down her life for Christ during Diocletian’s persecution at the beginning of the fourth century. Our first St. Margaret of Antioch COLLECTION (SAU 038) emphasised Saint Margaret’s patronage of pregnancy and childbirth (q.v.). This one (M 016) emphasises her patronage of dying people. + As the patronage origin story goes, the devil in the guise of a dragon once swallowed St. Margaret whole. However, the cross she was wearing or carrying so irritated the dragon’s innards that he either egested her or ruptured to be rid of her. While even Mediaeval popes and hagiographers deemed this story fanciful, nevertheless, it was embraced by the laity and by artists if only for its symbolism. The cross and the dragon have been her principal attributes ever since. + While the story remains the same, the spin that’s placed on it here makes a difference. Like the Old Testament tale of Jonah and the Whale, the story of St. Margaret and the Dragon is an analogy for Christ’s death, entombment, and resurrection from the dead. Clad in a belted dark red gown and enveloped in a golden yellow mantle with an emerald green lining, St. Margaret, stands over the carcass of a large green dragon. The dragon, Satan in disguise, represents evil incarnate. In her right hand, St. Margaret holds a palm of martyrdom; in her left, a Resurrection banner just like the one that the Risen Christ carries on Easter Sunday. (See our Easter COLLECTION for examples.) Typically, such banners are suspended from a standard or from a tall, thin cross and bear a red cross on a white field. Here the cross is more a salmon pink like the ribbon that binds her hair than the usual bright crimson red. Nevertheless, the banner’s symbolism is the same: it signifies victory, victory over death… and the promise of life eternal to true believers. + Feast: July 20 + Image Credit (M 016): Antique image of St Margaret [Margaritha] from a devotional print in chromolithography, original publisher unknown, late 19th century, from the designer’s private collection of religious ephemera.