Sister Mary Francis of the Five Wounds (the Venerable Margaret
Sinclair) is a humble little violet in the Garden of God.
The Garden of the Church is replete with such a variety, profusion
and beauty of flowers, so varied, so manifold, a countless number of
saintly souls, who for either a brief, short hour, or for a long
desert trek, gave their beauty, their fragrance of virtue, their
being to Jesus Christ their Saviour for the Salvation of souls.
Margaret is deserved of the title, a humble violet of God, because
she lived a life, for the most part hidden from the world, humbly
serving her Poor Clare Community as an extern sister, living out her
vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
The violet is a humble little flower, it is described as humble
because it grows close to the ground, its small blooms are almost
insignificant, blending into the foliage and dead leaves upon the
forest floor.
The violet blooms among the dead leaves and humus, long before the
trees come into leaf, the violet is a prelude to Spring ... a sign
of hope.
It is a flower that can all too easily be overlooked and trodden
upon, it nestles down within the leaves, favours the damp green
moss, and it prays its hidden prayer of Praise ... How many violets
upon the forest floor, how many hidden souls in the cloister are
ever seen by anyone but the eyes of God ? And yet they form a
beautiful bouquet of praise for their Maker.
Sister Mary Francis of the Five wounds made her religious vows in
the month of February, the month wherein the violet blooms.
Brought up in the slums of Edinburgh, amidst so much that resembled
the decaying life that inhabits the Forest floor, Margaret offered
herself to Jesus, in simplicity and humility, she bloomed through
her acceptance of suffering and the will of God.
The flower of the violet is possessed of five petals, and thus
recalls the Wounds of Jesus, it wears its purple gown of mourning,
but exudes a sweet perfume.
One ancient tale states that violets were in fact white, until Mary,
the Mother of the Lord turned from watching Christ upon the Cross,
at which moment all the flowers turned purple to echo her mourning--
one reason why purple remains the colour of mourning.
In Christian symbolism the violet means humility and constancy, and
particularly in medieval art, Christ's humility.
The violet also possess healing qualities and has long been used in
folk medicine, and who can know, understand, begin to perceive, the
healing that Sister Mary Francis's life has brought to so many
souls?
We would invite you to enter more deeply into the life of the
Venerable Margaret Sinclair by reading and reflecting upon the
material on this site, much of its deeper value and beauty is
hidden; you will need to gaze long and pray-fully to really
appreciate much of its beauty.
Gaze into the life of this beautiful soul, this humble violet of
God's garden and ask her to reveal to you the beauty, the wonder of
true humility.
After her death, the sweet smell of violets pervaded the air that
surrounded Margaret in her coffin ... this little plant of Saint
Francis and Saint Clare had bloomed oh, so briefly! ... and yet the
odor of her sanctity is still borne on the wind, her seeds are still
scattered upon the world to come to fruition in others, that they
too may grow ... in the beauty of holiness, upwards and outwards
from the off-scouring of this world into the unquenchable Light!
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