Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman and Belgian Martyrologies. The cultus of Margaret began immediately upon her death, as we learn from Caesarius of Heisterbach, a. contemporary, in his Dialogue, vi. 34, who has given there her history. Caesarius at the time was Prior of Villars, only a few miles distant. His Dialog us Miraculorum was written in 1222. In addition to the account of Caesarius, there is a larger account by an anonymous writer of the same date.] At the beginning of the thirteenth century there lived in Louvain a citizen and his wife, worthy people, keeping a tavern, who had a kinswoman, named Margaret, a pious, modest girl, as their servant. It was the intention of the good folks to go to Villars, on the 2nd of September, r22o, and there to renounce the world and enter the Cistercian Order. They had disposed of their goods, and had all their money in the house, intending to take it with them. On the eve of the expedition, after it was dark, some ruffians, knowing the intention of Amandus and his wife, entered the house, under the pretence that they had come to bid them good-bye. The worthy man at once sent forth Margaret to buy some wine that he might regale his visitors. No sooner was she gone, than the ruffians fell on him and his wife, murdered them, and seized on their money. Margaret unhappily returned before they left, and they ordered her to follow them.

They hasted from the house, and took their way out of the town, the gates of which were not yet closed, and did not tarry till they had reached a little tavern. There they halted, and called for wine; Margaret they roughly ordered to sit down, they had threatened her before with instant death should she open her mouth. The poor girl remained silent; but with streaming eyes. Her evident distress excited the sympathy of the hostess, and when the men left the house, she followed at a distance. The robbers were now uncertain what should be done with Margaret. It was impossible to take her further, her feet lagged with fear. One of them offered to make her his wife, but the rest refused to permit it; she had been a witness to their crime, and her voice must be silenced. Thereupon one with his dagger slit her throat, then stabbed her in the side, and flung her into the sluggish Dyle. Next morning the murder of Amandus and his wife set all Louvain in excitement. Search was made for Margaret, and the hostess of the tavern told what she had seen and overheard. But in the meantime the body of the girl had been found by two fishermen, who, fearing lest suspicion should attach to them if they produced the corpse, hastily buried it in the bank. That night lights shone and danced over the spot. Attention was drawn to it. The corpse was extricated and transported nearer to Louvain, and a chapel built over it by the side of the river.

Popular tradition has somewhat improved on the story, and tells that the body swam against the stream to the gates of Louvain, accompanied by a choir of angels, whereas the body was in reality dug out of the bank where the fishermen had laid it and transported by road, accompanied by the choir of the collegiate church of S. Peter. S. Stephen.

On the finding of the body, a woman who had been at work in the fields ran up with her pot of porridge in her hand, and when she heard people exclaim that the body was that of a saint, she said, “ It is no more that of a saint than my porridge is boiling !” whereon suddenly the oatmeal began to bubble and steam.

The murderers were afterwards caught and executed.