Saint of the Day, November 16

Saint Margaret of Scotland (about 1045–1093) was an English princess born in exile in Hungary. After the Norman Conquest of 1066, her family fled north, and around 1070 she married King Malcolm III of Scotland. By all accounts the rough king came to love and respect her deeply, and her faith changed him.

St. Gertrude (1256–c.1302) is the only woman saint the Church calls "the Great." Nothing is known of her family. At four or five years old she was placed in the care of the nuns at the monastery of Helfta in Saxony, Germany, a house famous for learning, and she grew into a gifted student of Latin, Scripture and the Fathers of the Church.