Her parents were noble Italians who wanted her to be the child of their dreams. However, she was blind, a dwarf, lame and a hunchback. Her parents were horrified at her appearance when she was a newborn and tried to hide her hoping to keep her existence private. A servant took pity on her and had her baptised, naming her Margaret which meant “Pearl.” At the age of six years old she was almost discovered. Her father then put her in a cell inside the wall of a church, providing necessities to her through a window. The parish priest educated Maraget and she lived this way until she was 16 years old. Her parents took her on a pilgrimage to a shrine hoping to have her miraculously healed. They prayed for her to be cured of her deformities. When it became obvious that she would not be cured, they abandoned her on the streets, returning home and she never saw them again. She begged for food and the town’s poor sheltered her in their homes taking turns to do so. She became a Dominican Tertiary and served the sick, dying and the imprisoned. She had mystical experiences and was known for her joy and sanctity. She died when she was 33 years old and hundreds of miracles attributed to her intercession occurred before and after her death, her body is incorrupt.
