Saint Margaret of Antioch and her oldest images as the patron saint of Nowy Sącz
According to legend, St. Margaret of Antioch was the daughter of a pagan priest. After being baptized in Antioch of Pisidia (Asia Minor), she dedicated herself to Jesus Christ, refusing to marry a pagan, the Roman prefect Olybrius. After the tortures to which she was subjected (burning with fire, scourging, hanging by the hair) during the persecution of Christians in the time of Emperor Diocletian, she was thrown into prison, where she defeated Satan, who appeared in the form of a dragon, with the power of the sign of the holy cross. Unwavering in her faith, she suffered a martyr's death at the beginning of the 4th century.
She entered liturgical books containing information about saints and blesseds in the 9th century. Her cult was popularized by the Crusaders; together with Saints Barbara, Dorothy, and Catherine of Alexandria, she forms the so-called Group of Four Holy Virgins. Since the 13th century, she has been listed among the Fourteen Helpers (a group of saints who are credited with special patronage and effectiveness in providing help in various needs); she was also one of the "voices" heard by Joan of Arc during the visions that the French mystic experienced from her early youth. In iconography, she is often depicted with a dragon, a cross in her hand, the palm of martyrdom, and a crown on her head.
She entered liturgical books containing information about saints and blesseds in the 9th century. Her cult was popularized by the Crusaders; together with Saints Barbara, Dorothy, and Catherine of Alexandria, she forms the so-called Group of Four Holy Virgins. Since the 13th century, she has been listed among the Fourteen Helpers (a group of saints who are credited with special patronage and effectiveness in providing help in various needs); she was also one of the "voices" heard by Joan of Arc during the visions that the French mystic experienced from her early youth. In iconography, she is often depicted with a dragon, a cross in her hand, the palm of martyrdom, and a crown on her head.
On the seals of Nowy Sącz, St. Margaret of Antioch has appeared since the beginning of the city's existence. As established by Marian Gumowski ("Rocznik Sądecki" vol. IV, 1960), the earliest of the known seals depicts the city's patron saint in a crown and halo, holding a cross in her right hand and the reins of a dragon on which she sits in her left hand. The dragon has an open mouth, two legs with claws, two horns on its head, wings and a curled tail, finished with a tassel. Behind the saint's back is the inscription "BTA MARG/ERI" (Beata Margerita - Blessed Margaret). The same author wrote about the second chronological seal of the city: "[...] it is even more impressive. It is 65 mm in diameter [...]. It depicts [...] St. Margaret sitting on a throne with a crown on the head with a hairstyle whose locks spread out as if from rays to the sides. The saint holds in her right hand a cross with a banner of three zones, and in her left hand a model of a church with one tower and a bird on the roof. At [her] feet [...] lies a dragon with its mouth open, as if biting the shaft of the cross, with two horns on its head, with clearly marked vertebrae on its long neck, with wings lying on its back and with a curled tail ending in three leaves".
Let us add that the patron saint of Nowy Sącz was also found on the 16th-century seal of the Court of Six Cities established by Casimir the Great (the highest instance for cities founded under Magdeburg law), which also featured the coats of arms of Kraków, Kazimierz, Wieliczka, Bochnia and Olkusz. Adam Chmiel wrote about this seal ("Wiadomości Numizmatyczno-Archeologiczne" no. 4, 1897), stating: "The second field is occupied by the coat of arms of the town of Nowy Sącz. The drawing of this coat of arms is the most artistically executed of all, but also misleading in the main one. We have seen that the seal of the town of N. Sącz depicts the figure of St. Margaret, trampling on a dragon, with a cross in her right hand and the palm of martyrdom in her left hand. Here, however, instead of the figure of the city's patron saint, there is a figure that looks more like a youth than a woman, facing straight ahead, naked, with only a scarf around her hips […]. This difference can be explained by the fact that the artist did not understand the figure expressed on the seal of M. N. Sącz with St. Margaret, which (perhaps not clearly impressed) he probably had as a model when engraving, did not attach historical accuracy to it and created only a human figure – graceful in its arrangement and design – the figure of a youth, adding to it, however, the attributes that he saw on the original seal, i.e. a cross, a palm and a dragon”.
