They were a strikingly handsome couple, Parisio and Emilia. They had everything money could buy; they lived richly and comfortably and enjoyed prestige and power. They were in control. And now they were expecting their first child. They planned on having a son. Everyone was informed. They counted the days, planning a great celebration for the child’s birth. Dignitaries were invited and like clock work, a feast was scheduled. The whole castle was in anticipation and even the half-starved serfs were anxious for the liege lord’s great day. The plan was flawless, and now they waited.
But no bell rang that fateful day in 1287, in the castle at Metola, Italy. The beautiful couple’s baby was born…it was not a boy, as planned, and it was not even pretty like its mother. Rather it was grossly deformed and blind. For the first time, Emilia and Parisio lost control of their lives. They never even thought that they, the great and wealthy, could be subjected to such a humiliation. The servants wondered at the silence in the castle and all questions were hushed.
Parisio and Emilia’s last names are lost to history. Their graves are now forgotten. No one hangs pictures of them in their houses; it’s almost as though they never existed. Margaret, their grossly deformed daughter, however, is now revered in churches throughout the world. In 1944 her biography, which was written shortly after her death, was found and devotion to her began to spread. There are organizations named after her and statues erected of her, hunchbacked and blind. Many favors are granted to those who pray to her. Children are lovingly named after her, and her cause for canonization is now under way.
Had Margaret’s birth been after 1972, she might never have existed at all. Her defects would have been detected, and her life snuffed out before she was born; she would have been aborted! Yes, Margaret would have been just another statistic at an abortion clinic. Had she been killed in abortion, many people would have been deprived of her holy example and encouragement; for plan as you will, life will have its misfortunes. We all suffer sooner or later, and it is the example of those who triumph over unwanted disasters that we label heroic. By their example, they are moral life rafts that keep our spirits afloat when all around us seems dark and lost. And when we call on these heroes in prayers, we are strengthened by their undauntedness and courage.
Margaret in retrospect would have felt that her life was not useless. She would have asked to be born, to be someone, to do something, for so long as there is life, there is promise! She turned her life into a beautiful gift for others, and she lived a very happy existence despite the trials she endured from birth, through no fault of her own.
