Saint Margaret of Cortona

I was born in Italy in the year 1247. My parents were farmers in Tuscany, where my mother died when I was seven years old. When my father remarried, life with my stepmother proved very difficult. I loved to attract attention from young men. When I was 18, I went to live in the castle of a nobleman named Arsenio. We were not married, although I bore him a son. My life changed drastically when I found Arsenio murdered in the forest. This crime shocked me deeply, and made me fear for his soul, as we had committed many sins. I felt I was to be blamed and turned to a life of penance. Three years after changing my life drastically, I became a lay Franciscan. Eventually, I set up an institution for women, who dedicated themselves to the sick and poor. This was my mission up to the moment I closed my eyes for the last time in 1297.