Vigils Reading – St Hedwig

ST HEDWIG OF SILESIA

From Butler’s Lives of the Saints

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Hedwig was born in Bavaria about the year 1174, the daughter of

Berthold, count of Andechs. When she was only twelve she was married to

Henry, duke of Silesia. Together they founded a large number of religious

houses, the best known of which was a convent for Cistercian nuns at Trebnitz,

near Breslau in modern Poland, the first convent for women in Silesia. These

foundations helped both to develop the religious life of the people and to spread

a common German culture throughout their lands. They also established

hospitals and a house for lepers.

Their seventh and last child was born in 1209, and Hedwig persuaded her

husband to take a mutual vow of chastity. They lived apart, with Hedwig taking

up residence close to the nunnery at Trebnitz, and often sharing the austere life

of the nuns. She recommended fasting to those who wanted to live holier lives,

saying that it could “master concupiscence, lift up the soul, confirm it in the

paths of virtue, and prepare a fine reward for the Christian”.

Much of the rest of Hedwig’s life was spent in trying to keep peace

between her warring sons Henry and Conrad and in attempts to make peace

between her husband and his enemies. When Henry died in 1238, she

comforted those who mourned him with the words, “Would you oppose the will

of God? Our lives are his; our will is whatever he is pleased to ordain, whether

our own death or that of our friends.” She took the habit at Trebnitz but did not

take any religious vows, remaining free to administer her property for the good

of the poor. We are told that she took great care to instruct the uneducated in

their religion, on one occasion having an old woman share a room with her so

that they could go through the Our Father together whenever there was a free

moment. After ten weeks of patient teaching, the old woman could repeat and

understand the prayer.

When her son Henry II was killed in 1240 fighting the Tartar invaders,

Hegwig knew of his death three days before a messenger arrived from the

battlefield. Other miracles were attributed to her; she cured a blind man, for

example, and had the gift of prophecy, foretelling her own death in October

1243. She was canonized in 1267, and her feast was extended to the Western

Church in 1706.