Hedwig

ON ST. HEDWIG, WIDOW, DUCHESS OF SILESIA,

IN THE YEAR 1243.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Hedwig, widow and duchess, at Trebnitz in Silesia. (S.)

BHL Number: 3767

J. V. H.

§ I. The Saint's cult; her Acts, and the Lesser Legend.

We have put off to this day treating of St. Hedwig, Widow, The cult of St. Hedwig duchess of Silesia, because for the most part we follow the authority of the Roman Martyrology, which, hindered by the solemnity of St. Teresa on the fifteenth day, transferred the festival of the Holy Widow to the seventeenth of October. For that St. Hedwig departed this life on the Ides (15th) of October is beyond controversy, all who have written of her deeds testifying to it, and the Roman calendars agreeing: for these have the following at today's date: Of St. Hedwig, Widow, duchess of Poland, who fell asleep in the Lord on the Ides of October. And in truth, under the Ides of this month we read the following eulogy, which, however, seems to stumble in this, that in place of Wrocław, to which Trebnitz lies adjacent, it has put Cracow, where no special memory of our Saint exists: At Cracow, of St. Hedwig, duchess of Poland, who, devoted to the service of the poor, also shone with miracles; whom Pope Clement the Fourth inscribed in the number of the Saints, and whose feast Innocent the Eleventh granted to be celebrated on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of November. From these words we have it that the Venerable Servant of God Innocent XI is the author of the cult which St. Hedwig obtains throughout the whole world.

[2] to the universal Church The praised Pontiff had, namely, on the 17th day of September 1680, at the prayers of John III Sobieski, king of Poland, granted the faculty of reciting in the universal Church the Office of St. Hedwig under the semidouble rite, at choice. Wherefore Queen Marie Casimire, widow of the aforesaid John, pressed Clement XI to grant that the said Office should henceforth be celebrated under the double rite, of precept, with a proper Prayer. Clement assented in part to the queen's petition, for by a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, the Pontiff approving, on the 27th day of March 1706, it was sanctioned that henceforth St. Hedwig should be venerated under the semidouble rite indeed, but of precept Guéranger, Institutions liturgiques, volume II, page 524., and that a proper prayer should be had, already approved for the Cistercian Order. I do not know, moreover, why the Breviary published in the year 1752 by order of François Trouvé, abbot general of Cîteaux, changed the Prayer prescribed for the Order, and judged that the proper Prayer of St. Elizabeth, Widow, at the 19th day of November, Tuorum corda fidelium etc., should be taken, changing only the proper name, Hedwig for Elizabeth: for nothing occurs in the Roman prayer, O God, who didst call Blessed Hedwig from the pomp of the world to the humble following of thy Cross etc., which is not in every respect fitted to her deeds.

[3] is extended for the 17th day of October: It remains for us to explain in a few words why, the fifteenth day of October being passed over, the festival of our Saint was attached to the seventeenth. St. Teresa had, namely, as we said, already occupied the seat of the fifteenth day: whose memory under the double rite Clement IX had already earlier ordered to be recalled by all Churches on these very Ides of October, as was shown at length in the preliminary Commentary to the Life of St. Teresa at that day Volume VII of October, page 762, number 52.. It was necessary, therefore, that the festival of St. Hedwig be deferred to another day: the sixteenth day was indeed vacant in the Roman Breviary, but in Germany the solemnity of St. Gall stood in the way, which was celebrated throughout almost the whole of that region: and this I think was the reason why Innocent XI assigned the seventeenth day of October for celebrating St. Hedwig. Nevertheless, the Silesians and the Poles keep the feast of the Saint, as principal patroness, under the double rite of the first class on the 15th day of October, by the ordinance of Clement IV, who by apostolic letters given on the 7th day before the Kalends of April of the year 1267 had commanded the archbishop of Gniezno and his suffragans that they take care to celebrate with attentive devotion the feast of this Saint on the Ides of October, namely the day on which she passed from the way to the homeland and went over from worldly bounds to the crown, and cause it to be solemnly celebrated by the faithful of Christ throughout their cities and dioceses Stenzel, Scriptores rerum Silesiacarum, volume II, page 125.. The possession of this seat, therefore, favoured our holy widow when the cult of St. Teresa, who is venerated at Wrocław on the 16th day, was extended to the Christian world. These things indeed we have set down first, that the reason for the transfer of the festival of St. Hedwig to the 17th day of October may be clear to the reader.

[4] various biographers, the best known Surius; There is no need for us to inquire laboriously into the Martyrologies which have made mention of our Saint, since the sanctity and cult of Blessed Hedwig are not to be propped up by these aids, whom Clement IV proclaimed to be a Saint by a bull given at Viterbo

on the 7th day before the Kalends of April in the third year of his pontificate, of Christ 1267. We therefore take our step towards the principal biographers of our Saint, who have narrated her deeds. Among these, then, there first occurs, as the best known, Laurentius Surius, who according to his custom not only changes the style, but greatly contracts the ancient Life on which he built his narrative, and omits most of the miracles Ibid., Preface, page IV.. He himself, however, confesses that the primitive Life is the work of an uncertain Author indeed, but a grave and trustworthy one; and adds: Fr. Laurentius Surius has somewhat polished the style where it seemed good Surius at the 15th of October.. We, therefore, whose purpose is to prefer the more ancient Lives, keeping even their original style, to the more recent ones, had to inquire, passing over Surius's elaboration, into the ancient Acts which had shone before Surius, as he himself clearly indicates in the words above.

[5] of the more ancient ones a double Legend survives, Moreover, from the Prologue of the Greater Legend, of which we shall treat presently, it is established that there once existed in the monastery of Trebnitz, where the Saint lies buried, the Acts of the examiners deputed by the apostolic See, who most diligently wrote down her meritorious works and virtuous exercises and miracles, and faithfully presented what they had written to the Supreme Pontiff. But of this writing, so far as I know, no trace survives, nor have I known anyone who makes mention of it as existing today. A similar lot befell the elaboration of Engelbert, a Cistercian monk, of whom we shall say more below. The most ancient Acts of St. Hedwig, therefore, which we have been able to find, are two Lives of the same Saint, which had most certainly already been written at the end of the 13th century. These, collated with various manuscripts, the most celebrated Gustav Adolf Stenzel, professor of history in the Academy of Wrocław, published in the second Volume of the Scriptores rerum Silesiacarum. After the Acts transmitted to the Roman Curia to promote the cause of the Canonization of St. Hedwig, as is narrated in the Prologue of her Life to be published below, I should think no more ancient monument exists of the deeds of our Saint than these two Lives. For it is certain that they were written at least by the end of the 13th century, since at the end of each Life these words are read Stenzel, volume II, page 105.: Here ends the Greater and Lesser Legend of Saint Hedwig, completed in the year of the Lord one thousand CCC. It is clear, therefore, that these Legends were written fifty-seven years in all after the death of the Saint, at the latest: and indeed in two little books, of which the one was called the Greater Legend, the other the Lesser Legend, according to their greater or lesser length. That the author of both elaborations is one and the same, the author himself manifestly demonstrates, who, treating in the Lesser Legend of the miracles of St. Hedwig, says Ibid., page 104.: As is sufficiently evident elsewhere, WHERE I HAVE SET DOWN MORE ABUNDANTLY CONCERNING HER LIFE AND MIRACLES. And that this is to be understood of the Greater Legend becomes clear from the offering or Prayer which concludes both Legends, and which is found in various codices, and those of the best note, after the indication of the year 1300 reported above: for there the author offers the twofold writing to St. Hedwig, or, as he himself speaks Ibid., page 105., with the poor little widow offering in the temple, he casts into the treasury of the glory of God and the praise of the Saint these two mites, NAMELY THE GREATER AND THE LESSER TREATISE of the life and miracles of the Saint. From what has been said so far, therefore, it is established that both legends were written by a contemporary or nearly contemporary author, and that he is deservedly called by Surius a grave and trustworthy man.

[6] but of an uncertain But as praiseworthy as the author is, so uncertain does he seem to Surius, inasmuch as he publishes nothing by which the name of the writer or his condition might be in any degree cleared up. His age, however, we hold in some fashion, since he flourished at least when the 13th century was already well advanced: his condition, next, we seem able in some fashion to deduce from the already cited offering or final prayer, in which he professes himself the servant of the Saint whose deeds he described, and at the same time glories in being joined to a college of the poor. From which words I consider it sufficiently manifest that he was either a monk by profession, but of an Order hitherto uncertain, or was connected with the monastery of Trebnitz by some sacred ministry. But there is no need for me to divine anything further. There is indeed a certain tradition which makes the author of both these Legends a monk of Leubus, and indeed a certain Engelbert or Engebert. For I find this in the Papers of the old hagiographers which have remained surviving in our cabinets. Father Charles de Grobendoncq had written from Prague to John Bolland, on the 17th day of March 1635, that Father Andreas Stredonius, professor of Rhetoric at Neisse in Silesia, a man, as he said, sufficiently curious, had various things which could illustrate the Acts of the Saint. Andreas also redeemed the pledge given by Charles: for by letters of the 1st of September of the same year he submits various things useful to hagiography. And among these he has this too: As regards the author, I remember having heard from Abbot Caspar of Heinrichau, of the Cistercian Order, recently deceased, that the author of this Life, which was distributed according to the virtues, was certainly Engelbert, abbot of Leubus. I would have inquired into this very thing too, had it not been known to me that the library of that monastery had recently been plundered, in which a parchment codex written in the author's hand was kept.

[7] author, These things indeed would proceed in some fashion if, among the abbots of Leubus who flourished in the 13th century, one occurred who had borne the name of Engelbert or Engebert: but in the Catalogue of the abbots of Leubus none is found distinguished by such or even a similar name. Here is the series of abbots from the origin of the monastery to the year of Christ 1304 Henel, Silesiographia, volume I, chapter VII, page 654.: Florentius died about the year 1177: Gunther I died about the year 1190: Conrad died about the year 1203: Gunther II, confessor of St. Hedwig, died about the year 1230: John I died about the year 1239: Henry died about the year 1253: Nicholas I died about the year 1270: Hermann I died about the year 1279: Hartlib died about the year 1296: Theoderic died about the year 1304. The title of abbot of Leubus must therefore be struck out, if indeed anyone wishes to retain Engelbert as the author of both Legends of St. Hedwig, and it must be said that Engelbert was a professed monk of the same monastery. And so indeed it is read in the paralipomena and corrections concerning Hedwig formerly sent from Silesia to Father John Bolland: for the corrector indicates that where Surius has the words of an uncertain author, one should read: From Engelbert, a professed monk of Leubus of the Cistercian Order. But all these investigations vanish if we attend to the Prologue of the life to be published below: for the writer declares himself altogether other than Engelbert, a monk of the Cistercian Order, when he says that he used the latter's compilation. Wherefore I consider that our biographer was neither of Leubus nor a Cistercian, since in that case he would have indicated his brotherhood by some sign. Nor, I think, of the more recent Orders, of the Friars Preachers or Minors, since no mention is made in this Life of these Orders, which certainly would not have been omitted, since, as we shall see, some convents were founded with St. Hedwig's co-operation. Whence our biographer is to be held anonymous, who was nevertheless joined by some bond to St. Hedwig, since, unless he wrote, he would hold himself negligent in discharging the debt of his service, and so to be reproved for the fault of omission, as ungrateful [The Prayer at the end of both Legends, Stenzel, Scriptores, volume II, page 105.].

[8] which we publish: here indeed It is certainly to be lamented that the codex has perished which was reported to have been written in the author's own hand: in which perhaps the writer's name was preserved. But Caspar, of whom the letter of Andreas Stredonius treats above at number 6, held the abbacy of Heinrichau from the year 1627 to 1633, when he was carried off by the plague [Ibid., page 667, and Zimmermann, Beyträge zur Beschreibung von Schlesien, volume IV, page 104.]. In the Swedish-German war, in the year 1634, the monastery was so plundered that, the monks having been dispersed and all the furnishings carried off, one horse was left Ibid.. I should be quite ready to believe that the autograph of Engelbert perished then. For the manuscript of Heinrichau which Stenzel praises, now in the library of the University of Wrocław Scriptores, preface, page IV., since he says it was written in the 15th century, can have nothing in common with the codex praised by Abbot Caspar and Andreas Stredonius. And let these things be said of the ancient Acts of St. Hedwig: I will add one thing, that there also exists a Life written in the German language and printed at Wrocław in the year 1504, which is taken from the praised Legends.

[9] the Lesser Legend, but below the greater. The Greater Legend, as the praised Gustav Stenzel made it public property Scriptores rerum Silesiacarum, volume II, page 1 and following., we shall give below, with suitable notes appended: but lest we defraud the reader of an equally contemporary document, we subjoin the Lesser Legend here; and that the more willingly, as it exhibits the deeds and endowments of virtue of St. Hedwig more compendiously. One thing we think should be pointed out, namely that we have changed the orthography, which according to the custom of the middle ages is irregular, and have restored the customary manner of writing; thus we write patientiæ, not paciencie, scientium, not sciencium; which we shall further observe in reprinting both the Greater Legend and the Treatise or Mirror of the genealogy of St. Hedwig, considering that by alterations of this kind nothing of authority is lost to ancient monuments, and this advantage accrues, that readers may more conveniently turn over the whole writing.

[10] The birth of St. Hedwig Light of light and fount of brightness, God the Father from heaven has illumined the world, darkened by vices, with a certain new splendour of his glory, in that in these last days he made Blessed Hedwig, radiant with virtues and with the prodigies of miracles, appear as a morning star in the midst of a cloud. She, the daughter of the duke of Merania, having a mother noble of the stock of the margraves of the East, surpassed the magnificence of her birth by the nobility of her virtues. For, divine grace aiding her, she always lived most honourably from her youth, giving diligent effort to cherishing purity of heart and body. For in the twelfth year of her age, bound by the conjugal bond to the noble man Henry, surnamed With the Beard, duke of Poland and Silesia, she carefully kept the laws and rights of matrimony, and yet did not forsake the zeal and love of continence, so that as soon as she perceived she had conceived, she avoided her husband's company until after childbirth and the completion of the time of purification.

[11] and marriage: At other times also she sometimes abstained for six or eight weeks from the allurements of the flesh, although she was joined to her husband as to the marriage-chamber. The seasons of Lent and of the Lord's Advent, the Ember days and Sundays, the vigils and feasts of the Saints and Fridays she venerated and honoured specially by the cultivation of chastity, so that she then entirely avoided the wantonness and pleasure of the flesh. At length, God helping, she led her husband by salutary counsel to vow perpetual continence together with her in the hand of the bishop, and this they kept, living together, for almost thirty years afterwards. And lest the beauty of this continence be obscured by the cloud of any sinister opinion, in all those years in which she remained separated as to the bed, she did not speak to her husband except for useful and necessary

cause, and this in church or in another public place, several honourable persons being present; nor would she visit him when he lay ill, nor even approach the pallet of the sick man without a fitting escort. To the love of chastity also, of which she herself was a lover, she invited whomever she could by word and example and by benefits. For the only daughter she had surviving she shut up, with many virgins and women, in a monastic enclosure, to preserve perpetually, for Christ's sake, cleanness of flesh and spirit.

[12] her profound And because, as Scripture testifies, the more chaste a person is, the more humble he ought to be, since true humility is the adornment and guardian of the virtues, and especially of chastity, this handmaid of God humbled herself in all things. Scarlet garments too, and silken cloths, and other superfluous ornaments with which women wishing to please the world and men are wont to be vainly adorned, she did not wear even in the time of her youth, although at that time she otherwise used apparel sufficiently honourable and befitting her for that state. But coming to a more advanced age, she wore simply a grey garment, making little of all the adornment of the world and the cultivation of the outward man, that in the inward man she might please God alone, and might in some measure by humility imitate the footsteps of the humble Christ and of his most humble Mother. For this reason she often washed the feet of the needy, wiping and kissing them. And not only on the feet and hands of the poor, but also on the places in which either they or other religious had stood or sat, she pressed kisses. And that she might more freely serve the Lord in humility, leaving the multitude of those who ministered to her, she withdrew with a small household to the monastery of Trebnitz, and making her dwelling there she exercised an admirable zeal for humility.

[13] humility: In which zeal also she advanced so far that those things which seemed in some way abominable, and therefore difficult to do, she herself, in a fervent and humble spirit, did with ease. For quite often she would go to the water in which the sisters had cleansed their feet and wash her eyes, and sometimes she likewise washed her whole head and neck as well. When the sisters were gathered at table or at another suitable time, she would go round in the choir all the stalls and seats, and each step on the stair leading to the dormitory, and the footstools placed before the beds, the towels and the rods of discipline and the other things which the sisters used in the common places, and kiss them reverently on bended knees. And where she saw the greater dirt gathered in the cloths with which the ladies in the monastery had wiped their hands, she imprinted stronger kisses out of great humility, reckoning herself an unworthy sinner in comparison with them. When on one occasion, passing through the choir, she had kissed the seats all round and, returning to the altar, had prostrated herself in prayer, a voice thundered from the cross, saying: "Your prayer is now heard." She would not take food before she had served food to the poor on bended knees. Moreover, she would not take drink before he had drunk from her cup who was the most deformed among the poor reclining before her. Often, from those to whom she ministered sumptuous nourishment, she secretly received, through go-betweens, the alms of the fragments for the love of God. Of the scraps gathered from the table of the sisters or of the monks for the poor, when she could secretly receive anything, she reserved this for herself as dainty dishes, reckoning that to be the food of Angels of which those serving the Lord had eaten.

[14] patience. The discipline of patience, the companion of true humility, she had learned so perfectly that in disturbing events she did not forsake tranquillity of heart, nor did the soft answer or the sweet word depart from her mouth, as suffices to be proved from two things which are most wont to disturb people not fortified by patience, namely the death of friends and the loss of property. For when many were lamenting almost inconsolably the death of her husband and the death of her son, killed by the Tartars, she, remaining among the mourners with a manly spirit and dry eyes, consoled those from whom she herself ought rather to have received consoling words in so vehement a sorrow for the loss of dear ones. And this she did, strengthened by the spirit of the Lord, to leave an example of fortitude to those then present and to those to come. One of her servants also lost several silver cups, with which she caused drink to be served to guests. To him she said only, in gentleness of spirit: "Go, seek whether perchance you may be able to find the vessels lost through negligence." When any sad things befell her or were recounted to her, she did not resound with murmuring nor utter complaint, but said: "The will of the Lord be fulfilled in us." Nor was she troublesome to one who gave offence, nor did she burden him with invective words, but said peaceably: "Why have you done this? God forgive you." Thus her mind, well conscious, tried silently in her heart to preserve patience continually.

[15] the utmost austerity The handmaid of God, knowing also that those living stones which are to be set in the building of the heavenly Jerusalem must be polished in this world by blows and pressures, and that through many tribulations one must pass to that supernal glory and glorious homeland, exposed herself wholly to the waters of sufferings, and without compassion continually wore down her body with many scourges of chastisement. For she macerated herself daily with fasts and abstinences so great that many wondered how a woman so weak and delicate could sustain torments of this kind. For she abstained for many years from fleshly foods, nor did she use fish or milk foods except on Sundays or on great festivals. She very often ate bread and water, especially on Fridays and on the vigils of the Saints. At other times also she was content with coarse, dry bread for her dish. Of wine I find nothing to be said, since, often using boiled water, she scarcely drank beer on feasts. Underneath, next to the flesh, she wore a hard hair-shirt, and she bound her loins with a girdle twisted of horsehair so tightly that her flesh was ulcerated by such torture.

[16] austerity of life, Covered by only one tunic and a simple mantle, without furs and pelisse, she always went with bare feet, winter and summer. And because she in no way indulged herself, but in the cold and in the chills of snow she would go thus half-naked to church, she often seemed wholly frozen, and drops of blood burst forth from the cracks of her feet and hands. But because inwardly by desire she touched the heavenly flame, that outward cold was easy enough for her to bear, as is evident from this, that on one occasion in winter time, while standing on the bare ground with her soles bared as usual, she was attending at length to the divine praises, the maid waiting for her, much chilled, was compelled by necessity to tell her that she could not bear the cold any longer. Withdrawing therefore to one side, she ordered the attendant to stand in the place where she herself had stood; and when she had done so, she quickly felt a wonderful warmth, so that the burning fervour in the spirit of the lady had, by a marvellous power, efficacy in the flesh of the handmaid. Not on softer mattresses or cushions, but on a sack of straw, or upon wooden planks, she rested for a little after long vigils of prayers, unless perhaps, a felt being laid on the straw, she sometimes relieved her weak little body for the sake of rest. With atrocious disciplines she lacerated the flesh of her body every night, and not content with the blows with which she afflicted herself with her own hands, she even often had herself beaten to the shedding of blood by certain ladies of her household. With so many and such great genuflections she had bruised her knees that certain lumps, equal to fists, rising from the flesh of those same knees, adhered to the knees themselves.

[17] the fervour By constant affliction, the more attentively she watched over the mortification of the flesh, with discretion however going before, the more she was helped in vigour of spirit and in the progress of grace, and the fire of devotion and divine love took fuller increase in her. For she was often borne upward and carried towards God with so ardent a desire that, made insensible, she did not notice the things that were about her, until, having tasted the heavenly sweetness so far as God granted, she at length returned to the use of the outward senses. And because she was accustomed to taste with the palate of the heart that sweetness, sweet above honey and the honeycomb, she ceased neither by day nor by night from divine colloquies and prayer, that she might either enjoy longer the sweetness of devotion already offered her by God, or might deserve to be prevented in the blessings of the Lord with the sweetness of a new savour. And lest the secret of her familiarity which she had in common with God, and the exercise of her devotion, could be either perceived or in any way hindered by those standing by, she sought solitary places for praying, or, praying in church, she hid herself as much as she could from the eyes of onlookers under the shelter of hangings, although her secret was quite often betrayed by groans and sighs, extorted by the force of divine love.

[18] and assiduity of her devotion: For her cheeks were bathed with floods of tears, and her face, thinned by many chastisements, covered with leanness and pallor, was sometimes changed as it were into an angelic countenance, while the Beloved smiled sweetly upon her with the grace of inward consolation. However early in the morning she had come to church, she did not depart thence, though others withdrew, until after midday, when about the hour of Vespers she wished to take nourishment for the body. For as some delight in banquets and seek flavours in various bodily foods and drinks, so she, and much more, delighted in hymns and psalms and spiritual canticles, in genuflections and the prostration of the whole body, while she suppliantly besought the Lord. And this above all she reckoned great delights for herself, when she could have and hear several masses, because then on the altar she discerned with the eyes of faith, and perceived with delight with the jaws of the mind, that magnificent and most delicate dish, unspotted, namely the lamb immolated on the cross for all. For love of whom she venerated and rewarded presbyters and greatly honoured all the clergy. She also adorned and promoted the divine worship with many noble ornaments.

[19] works of mercy As by devotion of mind she always tended towards God, so by beneficent piety she inclined herself to her neighbour, giving alms liberally to the needy, for she bestowed the benefits of relief on colleges and on religious persons dwelling within or outside monasteries, on widows and orphans, on the sick and the weak, on lepers and on those shut up in chains or in prisons, on pilgrims also, and on needy women nursing little children; and universally she permitted no one who came to her for help to go away unconsoled, whence wherever she went before, the poor followed her as their mother. The sick and those in chains she visited, either in person or by sending them necessaries through her messengers. Those also who were being led to death she quite often rescued. Captives too, and those detained for whatever causes, or oppressed by debt and harassed by judges, she freed both by prayer and by price. She dispensed of her goods so much out of regard for piety, not only giving to the poor, but also remitting to those owing her rent, that of the great revenues she had scarcely a small part remained to her for her own needs and those of her household. And when her own means failed her, so that she could not the work of mercy

fulfil, she would induce her husband to make satisfaction for her and relieve the needs of the poor. Before her there always reclined at least 13 beggars, to whom she sent the better dishes set before her, with the better drink. For she herself, abstaining from banquets, in charity refreshed the bowels of the needy with sumptuous nourishment. But because it was not expedient to place the multitude of them before her table, she had a special kitchen, from which food was served to those poor who followed her court, and to those dwelling in various places for whom she was accustomed to provide nourishment.

[20] and miracles: And because this handmaid of God did not neglect whatever good works she could perform, God also conferred on her this grace, that where human ability failed her in operation and she fell short by her own powers in what was to be done, she could accomplish by the divine power and that of Christ's passion what the desires of her neighbours in their necessities demanded of her. To those, therefore, who had recourse to her, for removing trouble of body as well as of spirit, she was able to give help according to the good pleasure of the divine will. For she cured the languishing, gave light to the blind, freed those exposed to dangers and to death; and many things of this kind, which exceeded natural power, she wonderfully did, the might of the Godhead assisting her. She also foretold many future things, and declared the malice, the troubles and the dangers of certain persons. For the amendment of souls also she uncovered to some, by a prophetic spirit, the secrets of their consciences and hidden offences. And that it might be more fully established that she had approached the summit of perfection by meritorious works and above all by fervent love of God and by grace, she foretold the death of many and also her own. Thus, while still existing in a corruptible body, by supernatural action she showed to mortals certain signs of the glorious life.

[21] the Saint's death As the end of her life approached, God, who had kindled her heart inwardly by the flame of love, showed her outwardly even to the end the wonderful delights which are at his right hand, namely through his messengers appearing visibly, alluring and inviting her to the banquet which he has prepared for those who love him. For when she was now lying ill, Blessed Mary Magdalene, Saint Catherine, Saint Thecla, and many other Saints also, coming to her, spoke with her. Who doubts that they conferred about her passing, and held conversation with her about the heavenly joy which she was now approaching? She passed from this world by a happy departure in the year of the Lord 1243, on the Ides of October. Who could ever doubt that, departing, she passed at once from exile to the homeland, from labour to rest, from mourning to unfailing consolation, since certain indications of the future glory immediately after the departure of the soul appeared clearly to all in her body? For the colour which before had been pale or livid in her from afflictions and sickness was changed into a snowy whiteness. Her cheeks and lips glowed like a red flower; and, contrary to the nature of a carcass and of flesh already corrupted, a sweet-smelling odour breathed from that venerable body, which ought rather, and more fittingly, to have been compared to a pearl than to a corpse. The pleasantness of that wonderful spectacle could well mitigate the grief of those mourning her death, since from evident signs they understood that they would now have in heaven the patronage of her whose company on earth they had to leave.

[22] and frequent miracles. For when her body had not yet been committed to the earth, God deigned to do many wonders through her, and afterwards for many years in succession, by her intervening merits, he bestowed on his faithful manifold consolation and the grace of healing. For to the sick and the weak, to the blind and the dim-sighted and those suffering in the head, to the deaf and the dumb, the maimed and the lame and the contracted, the hunchbacked and the scrofulous, the paralytics and the quartan-fevered, the epileptics and the demoniacs, the dysenteric and the quinsied and those afflicted with fistulas, to those in danger of death and the dead, and to those set in various miseries of pains, God favouring, she stretched out a hand of help, as is sufficiently evident elsewhere, where I have set down more abundantly concerning her life and miracles. Concerning all and each of which, when the apostolic See had been more diligently informed through faithful testimonies, and had consequently been made more certain of her sanctity, it inscribed her in the Catalogue of the Saints. Of thee, therefore, O fatherly brightness, since we believe her to be holy, we now earnestly beseech that, her merits and prayers interceding for us, thou wouldst pour the light of thy grace into our hearts, and after the present miseries make us sharers of the joys which this Saint now enjoys in the heavenly places, through Christ our Lord, who with thee and with the Holy Spirit lives and reigns through all ages of ages. Amen.

§ II. The illustrious family of St. Hedwig and her pious training in childhood: some things on the education of women in the middle ages.

Various Saints St. Hedwig was the daughter of Berthold, the third of this name according to Butler Vies des Saints, 17th of October, Louvain edition., the fourth according to the Andechs Chronicle Chronick des Klosters Andechs, page 6., the fifth according to Æmilian Ussermann Episcopatus Bambergensis, page 123., nay the eleventh according to Louis Gabriel Du Buat Origines Boicæ Domus, volume II, page 250., count of Andechs, and of Agnes of Rochlitz. This variety of numbers arises from the variety of origins from which they begin; since some derive the beginning of the family from the acquisition of the county of Andechs, others from the founder of the line, Arnulf, duke of Bavaria, who died in the year of Christ 937 Meibom, Rerum Germanicarum, volume I, page 687.. From which it is already clear that St. Hedwig sprang from a most noble stock. But she found the kinsfolk of her lineage as holy as they were illustrious. For from the line of Andechs is said to come, first of all, Blessed Rathard, presbyter, founder of the church of St. George at Diessen (probably the ancient Damasia of Strabo), who died in the ninth century. Our Sollerius, who assigns no special day to his cult, treats of him under the 8th day of August Volume II of August, page 354., and in the preliminary Commentary with which he illustrated the brief Life of Blessed Rathard, he doubts whether this Blessed man is to be counted among the Andechs, inasmuch as they are said to have taken their beginning in Rathold, who was younger than or contemporary with Blessed Rathard Rader, Bavaria Sancta, volume I, page 154..

[24] of the line of Andechs, The lineage of Blessed Rasso or Ratho would accordingly be more certain, since he is the son of the said Rathold, if it were established that Rathold was the head of the stock. But Gabriel Du Buat, who most accurately examined the Bavarian origins, finds indeed no prince of this name in the genealogy of Andechs Origines Boicæ, volume II, page 250.; nay, the praised writer confesses that he does not know Ratho's lineage and the year of his death Ibid., page 53.. Nevertheless, something makes for our reckoning the Blessed Man among the Andechs, namely that Blessed Ratho is said in the year 959 to have held the county of the Sundergau Origines Boicæ, in the place cited., which we know was possessed in the year 980 by Arnulf III, grandfather of Berthold, who first occupied Andechs Ibid., pages 127 and 250.. Ratho, moreover, was famed for warlike praise against the barbarians hostile to Germany and was illustrious for the foundation of the monastery of Wörth: he died on the 19th of June, which is his feast, in a year, as we saw above, uncertain [Rader, volume I, page 163, and volume III of January, page 892. Compare, however, Du Buat, Origines Boicæ, volume I, page 265.]. From what has been said so far it follows that St. Conrad, bishop of Constance in Germany, whose Acts we shall give on the day on which he is venerated, the 26th of November, is to be held of the same reckoning; for he sprang from Hassa, or Beata, sister of Ratho, married to Henry, count of Altdorf: he died in the year 976 [Rader, volume III, page 91. Compare Neugart, Episcopatus Constantiensis, page 281.]. To the Andechs is also ascribed St. Otto I, bishop of Bamberg and Apostle of the Pomeranians, who died in the year 1139 Butler, 17th of October, Vie de Ste Hedwige, note a.. But Sollerius, in the preliminary Commentary to his Life at the 2nd day of July, rejected this relationship with the line of Andechs Volume I of July, page 357 and following., which Father Fripeis, subprior of the monastery of Andechs, endeavours to establish Butler, volume II of July.; whether successfully, it is not for us, who lack his work, to judge. Certainly Æmilian Ussermann, treating of St. Otto, embraces the opinion of Sollerius Episcopatus Bambergensis, page 54., and is of the opinion that the error flowed from this, that Otto II, bishop of Bamberg in the same century, of the family of Andechs, was confused with St. Otto I Ibid. Compare Acta Sanctorum, volume VII of May, page 442, number 1..

[25] among whom Sts. Mathilda and Elizabeth But if sounder criticism counsels striking certain men distinguished for sanctity out of the reckoning of the line of Andechs, more certain things may be affirmed of the women who illustrated the princely family with the praise of the highest virtues. Illustrious, first of all, is the memory of St. Mechtild, or Mathilda, Virgin and abbess, daughter of Berthold, founder of Diessen, count of Andechs Ussermann, page 121., who is venerated in the monastery founded by her father on the Monday after Trinity Sunday: she died about the year 1160. Ours treat of this Holy Virgin under the 31st day of May Volume VII of May, page 442.. A sister of the same Saint was Blessed Euphemia, abbess of the monastery of St. Alto; who died in the year 1180: ours have a historical Sylloge under the 17th day of June Volume III of June, page 470.. But in fame of sanctity and celebrity of cult St. Elizabeth of Hungary, duchess of Thuringia, surpasses all; born of Gertrude, the sister of Blessed Hedwig, she had our Saint as her maternal aunt. Her deeds have been excellently illustrated by that most noble man Charles de Montalembert, who today stands out among the chief champions of the Catholic cause. Her festival recurs on the 19th day of November, on which she died in the year 1231. We could also add others joined in consanguinity with St. Hedwig, for example St. Louis, of the Order of Friars Minor, bishop of Toulouse, a great-great-great-grandson of the aforesaid Gertrude, and her granddaughter, Blessed Cunegund, wife of Boleslaw the Chaste, duke of Cracow; but our discourse would run on too long, and what we have related suffices to show that St. Hedwig did not lack domestic examples which she might imitate, and which she herself might commit by faithful tradition to late descendants.

[26] of the same line. The glory of sanctity was heaped up also by nobility of blood, the explanation of which is for the most part joined with the Legends themselves, under the title of the Treatise or Mirror of the genealogy of St. Hedwig. I do not consider the author of this little work to be the same as that of both Legends, although at first sight its insertion in various manuscripts before the offering, of which we treated at number 5 and following, might in some degree suggest it; whence it becomes easy to conclude that the Legends and the Mirror have one and the same author. But the difference between the biographer and the genealogist altogether forbids this: for the latter rightly names Berthold and his son Otto margrave of Hysterich, that is of Istria, and of Andechs, at number 7; while the biographer at number 1, omitting Andechs,

from the line, names him margrave of Baden and count of Tyrol, altogether falsely. For the rest, I should easily persuade myself that the genealogist too wrote before the year 1300, since in his Treatise he names none of the descendants of St. Hedwig who did not exist before the end of the 13th century. This genealogy we shall give at the end of the Greater Legend, according to the edition of the most celebrated Gustav Stenzel, and we shall subjoin annotations drawn both from the most learned editor himself and from others. But although this genealogical Treatise seems very full, the author nevertheless reviews only the maternal stock, because, he says, of the forebears of the father of this same Saint I have not learned many things, because I could not have writings or teachers concerning them, although he too without doubt sprang from a very noble lineage. This gap of our writer we shall fill compendiously with what the count Du Buat, praised above, hands down about the origins of the line of Andechs.

[27] The paternal line is unfolded: This writer, having refuted those who referred the origin of the Andechs to a certain Ratold, a bastard of the Emperor Arnulf Origines Boicæ, volume II, page 192., shows from various diplomas and contemporary documents that they draw their origin from the dynasts of Scheyern Ibid., page 196.. For he arranges the genealogy thus: Adalbert, count in the Traungau, who died about the year 860, begot Luitpold the margrave Ibid., volume I, pages 83 and 226., who had as wife a daughter of Louis III, king of Bavaria Ibid., page 322.; in this way Luitpold and his descendants were connected with the Carolingian line. From Luitpold, moreover, sprang Arnulf, duke of Bavaria, who died in the year 937 Meibom, Rerum Germanicarum, volume I, page 687.. The rest will be more easily disclosed from the following table.

[28] from Berthold, not of Moravia, Not a few have called Berthold, the father of St. Hedwig, duke of Moravia, which title the Roman Breviary also ascribed to him in the Lessons of our Saint at the 17th day of October. And this indeed by a manifest error, since Moravia in the 12th century obeyed other lords, and the Hedwigian documents without circumlocution called the Saint's father duke of Merania. The cause of the error I should easily believe to be some sort of consonance of the two names, the more widespread knowledge of Moravia than of Merania, and finally the very situation of that province, which borders Silesia on the south. But that Moravia obeyed other lords when Berthold, the father of St. Hedwig, held the county of Andechs, is shown by the Diplomatic Codex of Moravia published by the most celebrated Antonín Boček in the year 1836; in which in the year 1151 there occurs to us Otto, duke of Olomouc Codex diplomaticus Moraviæ, volume I, page 263., who in another diploma of the year 1160 is called duke of the Moravians Ibid., page 270.. When the Emperor Frederick I in the year 1158 had granted to Vladislav, duke of Bohemia, the use of wearing the royal circlet, he provided that this insignia of supreme dignity could not be placed on him by bishops other than of Prague or Olomouc, by which it was certainly signified that Moravia then belonged to the kings of Bohemia Ibid., page 267.. Then in the year 1174 Udalric, duke of the Moravians, about to set out on the Italian expedition, confers a vill on the Church of Olomouc Ibid., page 286.. The same appellation is also assumed by Frederick, duke of Bohemia, in the year 1180 Ibid., page 303., by Vladimir in the year 1191 Ibid., page 332. and by Vladislav in the year 1199 Ibid., page 354.. All of which show abundantly that Moravia never belonged to the Andechs.

[29] but duke of Merania Berthold, the parent of our Saint, is called in the genealogical Mirror to be given below duke of Merania and margrave of Hysterreich, or Istria, which is part of present-day Austrian Dalmatia. Most hold that the appellation of Merania is to be derived from the castle of Meran, which is scarcely a German mile distant from the castle of Tyrol, from which the present county of Tyrol has borrowed its name Butler, 17th of October.. Although they do not deny that the castle of Meran belonged to the family of Andechs, there are nevertheless some learned men who hold that the Merania of which the Life treats is rather the sea-coast of Istria Stenzel, volume II, page 2, note 1., towards the east: and this indeed, so far as is established about the truth of the name, is sufficiently probable, since the geographical maps set forth by Abraham Ortelius in the Theatrum Orbis terrarum, Table LXV, still show a place situated on the eastern coast of Istria which, called Mernfels, by others Mahrenfels Zylius, Topographia Provinciarum Austriacarum, page 67., may conveniently signify the Maranic rock. Moreover, who will say that the name of this sea-coast was not transferred, in memory of the original seat of the line, to Meran, the Tyrolese castle? In which case the title of Merania would have to be derived from the Dalmatian region rather than from the Tyrolese castle.

[30] and margrave of Istria, Moreover, the march of Istria, and hence the duchy of Merania, seem to have devolved on the family of Andechs about the year of Christ 1173, in which Berthold first occurs decorated with this title. The matter is explained by Erasmus Frölich, presbyter of our society, in his Specimen Archontologiæ Carinthiæ, chapter IV Fröhlich, Specimen Archontologiæ Carinthiæ, page 64.: By what occasion further, he says, and for what cause the march of Istria, which had thus far continued in the stock of the dukes of Carinthia in three successive Engelberts, passed to the Andechs, I think I have discovered in the documents of the Diplomatic Codex of Admont Pez, Thesaurus Anecdotorum, volume III, part III, column 714., where one reads about the year 1160 "Berthold, count of Andechs, kinsman of Duke Henry," and moreover "Henry, duke of Carinthia, and Hermann, brother of the duke." The ground of the kinship indeed escapes us, but the very title of kinship seemed to be enough for Hermann, duke of Carinthia (whose brothers had died without offspring, and who himself either had none yet in that year or had them very young), about the year 1173, to give the march of Istria, or to have it given by the emperor, to his kinsman Berthold II, count of Andechs, who, as the cited Erasmus Frölich teaches from various contemporary monuments, thereafter used the title of margrave of Istria.

[31] St. Hedwig is born about the year 1174 The year of St. Hedwig's birth is uncertain. One thing we know, that at twelve years of age she married the duke of Silesia, Henry, inasmuch as it is established from her Life, number 3: And this handmaid of the Lord, Hedwig, being twelve years of age, was joined in matrimony to the magnificent prince Henry, duke of Silesia and Poland. Sommersberg, moreover, in Genealogical Table I Scriptores rerum Silesiacarum, volume I, page 298. ties this marriage to the year 1186; whence it is easy to judge that our Saint first saw the light in the year 1174. Nor could there be room for controversy if Sommersberg had supported his opinion about the year of the marriage with a certain document: but this lacking, he used conjectures, and those probable, to which we too think we must adhere until we can be taught more certain things. Namely, Henry, St. Hedwig's eldest son, seems already in the year 1210 or 1211 to have reached manly years, that is, the 25th of his life: for in the year 1213, the dominion having been divided between him and his brother Conrad the Curly, who himself also had already put on the toga of manhood, a contention arose between the brothers, and a battle having been joined, Conrad was put to flight and shortly afterwards died. Now if in the year 1210 Henry was counting his twenty-fifth year, his birth falls in the year 1186 or 1187: whence one or other year is probably determined with which the marriage of our Saint is to be connected: for which reason the year of the Saint's birth is fixed at the year of Christ 1174 or the following.

[32] and marries Henry, duke of Silesia, Nor do we determine these things rashly; for Długosz in his Polish History narrates the following under the year 1213 Długosz, Historia Polonica, volume I, column 615.: Henry, duke of Wrocław and of Silesia, of an age as manly as it was vigorous, having been led on in prosperous and even fortune with the happy and blessed Hedwig, the woman his consort, was overwhelmed, both spouses alike, by a great storm in the midst of peace, when they were already declining towards the setting of life. For his two sons, namely Henry and Conrad, who was called the Curly, who had grown up to manly strength, when the third, Boleslaw, had already been taken away by fate, were dashed against each other by hatred, envy creeping between them; you would believe the one Esau, the other Jacob, from the outcome and the condition, since for the one stood the father Henry, for the other the mother Hedwig. For Duke Henry the father, embracing the younger, Conrad, with singular affection, betroths to him the daughter of the duke of Saxony and assigns to him as his perpetual portion the land of Lebus and the region of Lusatia. But Henry, the elder, at the persuasion of Blessed Hedwig, he destines for the Silesians and the people of Wrocław. When Conrad bore this with a troubled and angry mind, and, by a natural instinct easy and agreeable as a friend to the Poles, but a most bitter enemy to the Germans, he determined to rescind his parents' ordinance by arms, since prayers were of no avail, and having gathered a notable army of soldiers and troops of the Poles and the people of Lebus, he attacked his brother, etc. From which we see that both brothers had already in the year 1213 reached manly age, to which the administration of provinces could safely be committed, and which would be fit for waging wars.

[33] about the year 1186; And these things indeed bring it about that we may scarcely place the marriage of St. Hedwig later than the year 1186: but neither can we set it much earlier, namely in order that our Saint may be said to have some proportion of age with her sisters, Gertrude, who, having given birth to St. Elizabeth of Thuringia in the year 1207, married Andrew II, king of Hungary, scarcely before the beginning of the 13th century, and Agnes (whom others name Mary or Ediltrude), who, illegitimately joined to Philip Augustus, king of the Franks, in the year 1196, departed this life in the year 1201. Unless, therefore, we wish to establish too great a disparity of age among the three sisters, it is sufficiently manifest that the epoch assigned by Sommersberg must be retained. From what has been said so far it is clear that the shorter Legend which Sommersberg says Scriptores, volume I, page 313. was hung by the tomb of St. Hedwig is not in every respect to be approved, in which one reads (unless perhaps it is a fault of the typesetter): Berthold gave his daughter, Blessed Hedwig, in marriage to Henry, duke of Wrocław, in the year 1178. Thus far of the year of the Saint's birth and marriage.

[34] piously brought up by her parents: From her childhood, says the biographer at number 2, bearing an aged heart, she endeavoured, by avoiding levities, to become accustomed to good manners and to flee youthful insolences. By cherishing also the cleanness of an innocent life she always gave diligent effort to honesty and discipline. In all these and her other works, besides the persons whom she had as governors deputed to her by her forebears for the formation of good manners, she had as her instructor the Holy Spirit, who from infancy taught her to fear God and to abstain from every sin, so that she kept her soul clean from every concupiscence. Whence she never mingled reprehensibly with those at play, nor did she show herself a partaker with those who walked in levities. For in the age of childhood, in the cloister

of Kitzingen she learned sacred letters, in the study of which she both spent her time profitably in youth, and afterwards, in the understanding of them, drew abundantly the grace of inward consolation and devotion. From these words it is clear that her parents spared no care and industry to form their daughter Hedwig to every virtue, and at the same time to instruct her in those arts which befit a noble woman. Of the monastery of Kitzingen on the Main, moreover, it was already treated in the Life of St. Thecla, abbess, at the 15th day of October Volume VII of October, page 64, number 21.: one thing seems to need adding here, that, since St. Hedwig as a child, that is, before the year 1186, in which she seems to have married, dwelt in that monastery, we may say that she had no other mistress than Bertha III, who ruled the monastery from the year 1175 to 1195, of whom Æmilian Ussermann reports several monuments Episcopatus Wirceburgensis, page 447..

[35] on which occasion some things In the same ascetic house of Kitzingen St. Hedwig's niece, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, found some years later a refuge and solace for herself and her children, when, after the death of her husband Louis, she was expelled from Thuringia Montalembert, Vie de Sainte Élisabeth, chapter XX.. There then presided over the nuns of Kitzingen, indeed, a sister of our Saint, the abbess Mathilda Ussermann, Episcopatus Wirceburgensis, page 449., of whom, however, the genealogical Mirror makes no mention, above at number 27. And when afterwards the bishop of Bamberg, Ecbert, had transferred his niece Elizabeth to the castle of Bottenstein, Sophia, the Saint's daughter, nevertheless remained in the monastery, of which she afterwards obtained the supreme headship. And this indeed agrees with what Charlemagne had prescribed concerning monasteries of girls, § VI Labbe, volume VII of the Councils, column 1182.; for he did not wish that other girls should be admitted by the nuns for the sake of education than those who, offered by their parents, were hoped to remain perpetually in the monastery: But if not, he says, let her rear her infants at home, and let her not presume to send another within the monasteries for the sake of rearing, except one who wishes to persevere firmly in that place in the service of God, or according to the institutes of the Holy Fathers or canonical authority.

[36] concerning the education of women These things indeed proceed rightly in the case of Sophia of Thuringia, St. Elizabeth's daughter, who in fact professed the Benedictine Rule among the nuns of Kitzingen and after some years attained the abbatial dignity. But, as we have it from our biographer, St. Hedwig is read to have stayed for some time with the same nuns for the sake of instruction, although she was certainly not offered to persevere there in the service of God. Whence it is given to understand that the Caroline law in the 12th century either no longer was in force, or at least suffered not infrequent exceptions. Although I can by no means agree with Johann Harenberg, who in the History of the Church of Gandersheim contends to show Page 605. that monasteries were altogether, about their beginnings, seats of the best letters, and, as though he had denied it, summons our Nikolaus Schaten to court; who, however, after he had proclaimed the salutary institution of schools not only among clerics of approved life, but also in monasteries Historia Westphaliæ, book VIII, page 346., subjoins only this: In which matter (that of schools), he says, the heretical writers of our times are much deceived, when straightway they imagine all monasteries to be nothing but schools or playgrounds of boys, in order to proscribe that most holy institution of the religious life: as though a far more sublime end of the institution of monks had not been prescribed, from the worship of religion and the divine service, to which schools were an adventitious duty, undertaken of their own accord in aid of the labouring Church. Schaten then distinguishes two kinds of schools, interior ones for the monks themselves, and exterior ones, in which the children of nobles and of respectable people were cultivated in all piety and in the disciplines of the liberal arts. Finally the author affirms that no schools, nor the duty of teaching, were ever attached to the monasteries of nuns.

[37] are unfolded And in truth, there has not yet occurred to me in the ancient monuments a school for girls established at a monastery of nuns, unless perhaps an interior one for the virgins themselves, consecrated or to be consecrated to God; for I will not altogether deny that something similar existed in the monastery of Gandersheim. Although even this was not common after the middle of the ninth century, as the biographer of Saints Herlindis and Renildis at the 22nd day of March testifies, who seems to have written about that time: here are his words Volume III, page 387, number 5.: In the aforesaid monastery (of Valenciennes), to which the most blessed virgins had been entrusted to be instructed, spiritual mercy bestowing it from above, they were fully instructed in every divine doctrine, in the various usages of the divine Office and of the ecclesiastical order, that is, in reading, in the modulation of chant, in psalmody, and also, what is very wonderful in our times, even in writing and painting, which seems exceedingly burdensome to the most robust men of this age. In like manner also they had been most honourably instructed in the art of every work which is wont to be done by the hands of women in diverse ways and with varied composition, namely in spinning and weaving, in designing and sewing, and in setting gold also and pearls in silk they had become craftswomen in wonderful ways. What we have thus far described exhibits a sufficiently adequate image of feminine instruction such as it was in the 8th century, in which Saints Herlindis and Renildis lived in Belgium, but at the same time shows that the same instruction had much degenerated in later centuries: for he says that it was very wonderful in his times. Whence we do not see how Harenberg could have reproached Schaten with an opinion which he did not profess for men: but that for external women a school existed among the nuns, Harenberg proves by one argument, namely that among the women of Gandersheim there was a canoness, as he himself says, a scholastica; but from that office no one will readily deduce an exterior school. One example on this matter, and that an uncertain one, could be adduced, namely the monastery of Trebnitz, founded by our Saint Hedwig, in which, says our Biographer at number 8, she took into her care many girls noble by birth and some proceeding from simple lineage, bereft of parents and destitute of means. Of these she shut some up in the monastery for the virginal life, but joined others in matrimony for the preservation of conjugal chastity. Certainly, if it were altogether certain that St. Hedwig had placed the said girls, who afterwards were to marry, in the monastery of Trebnitz, it would have to be held undoubted that the benefit of education was bestowed there on secular maidens: but although the most celebrated Stenzel interprets this passage in that sense, the context itself does not clearly declare it. Let these things be said concerning a subject which no one, so far as I know, has yet treated, and for that reason I thought the question should be pointed out. Now we return to our Saint Hedwig, from whom we have digressed a little.

§ III. The foundation of the convent of nuns of the Cistercian Order at Trebnitz.

Henry, duke of Silesia, That St. Hedwig was placed in matrimony at twelve years of age, we have already related above at number 31 from our biographer: at the same time, until taught better, we held as ratified the conjecture of Sommersberg that this marriage was celebrated about the year of Christ 1186. The Saint's husband was Henry I, who descended, through his grandparents Władysław, duke of Silesia, and Adelheid, daughter of the Emperor Henry IV Sommersberg, Scriptores rerum Silesiacarum, volume I, page 304., from his father Boleslaw the Tall and his mother Adelheid, daughter of Berengar, count of Sulzbach Ibid., page 306., of the line of the Piasts, ruling the Poles already from the ninth century Ibid., page 300.: he was also called Henry the Bearded, or With the Beard, because, as the Chronicles of the Poles narrate Ibid., page 42., the pious prince with his most blessed wife Hedwig, living together continently for almost thirty years out of love of chastity, both abstained from the marriage bed, and as the badge of a pleasing religion Duke Henry himself bore the clerical tonsure and a beard after the likeness of a bearded lay brother, whence he was commonly called the Bearded Duke. His father, Boleslaw the Tall, having died on the 6th day of December 1201, Henry succeeded, the beginnings of whose reign were tranquil until the year 1212, when, a division of his realm having been made among his sons, a fraternal war blazed up, of which indeed we shall treat below.

[39] that he might provide for the public prosperity, The tranquillity and prosperity of his realm Henry employed to promote the spirit of religion among his people: for which it was above all useful to build monasteries and other religious institutions, from which there then flowed above all whatever could form the people to religion, to good morals and to all the arts. There was before Henry's mind, namely, the flourishing state of Franconia and Swabia, which provinces he had traversed when leading his bride Hedwig from the ascetic house of Kitzingen. Nevertheless there were not a few writers on Silesian affairs who esteemed the Bearded duke's liberality towards the Church less fairly. The same certainly praised the counsels of those who gnawed away step by step the fortune of churches and monasteries, and at length for the most part took it away. Namely, opinion-makers of this kind did not notice that, once the barrier by which the clergy defended their property had been torn down, nothing would thenceforth be sacred and holy to the mob, as it is called today, of proletarians; and that the domestic fortunes of individual families could be stormed by the same reasonings by which at all times ecclesiastical goods have been attacked and plundered. That portentous hallucination has brought forth in our age a horrible monster, Socialism or Communism, which declares internecine war on the whole of human society and presages enormous calamities for peoples. The Church claimed her property by the same right of ownership, by the same titles of possession continued through centuries, and with a far more excellent purpose, by which private persons today defend their fortunes against the Socialists: and the arguments which once prevailed against the riches of the clergy, and which are commonly approved so long as it is a question of the Church, can be turned back ineluctably against any citizen whatever and his opulence: nor do I clearly see by what reasoning they can be warded off. When religion cannot defend itself by its majesty, sanctity and possession, what wonder if to abandoned men nothing sacred, nothing inviolable is acknowledged in the right of ownership, in the bond of marriage, in the ties of family? We proceed to explain the foundations of Duke Henry.

[40] founds a monastery The most celebrated foundation of Henry and his holy spouse Hedwig is that of Trebnitz. Trebnitz is a town of 2256 inhabitants, two German miles distant from Wrocław, whose church, sacred to St. Bartholomew and distinguished by the tomb of St. Hedwig, is today, the convent of nuns of the Cistercian Order having been suppressed, a parish church with three presbyters Ibid., Preface, page VI and following.. Trebnitz is said to have got its name from a Polish phrase meaning needing nothing, because once, when the nuns were asked whether they needed anything, they answered that they needed nothing (Trebnitz). This, however, smacks of fable, since, as is clear from the letters of foundation, the place destined for the monastery had already before got its name, Trebnitz Ibid., page 25, and the Chronicle of the Princes of Poland, ibid., page 100.. There are those who narrate that the convent was founded by virtue of a vow made by Henry, who, one day while engaged in hunting, fell together with his horse into a marshy pit in the very place where the church now is, and since no hope of safety seemed to shine, he conceived a vow, if

he escaped the danger, to build a church there Ritter, Geschichte der Diöcese Breslau, page 125.. These things, however, do not in every respect agree with the letters of foundation. For Duke Henry makes no mention of such a danger or vow: but only professes Sommersberg, volume I, page 827. that he founds it for the remission of his sins and for the salutary increase of the souls of his father and mother and of all his forebears, and of all the faithful of Christ, to the honour of God and of Holy Mary the Virgin and of the Blessed Apostle Bartholomew. Nevertheless there exists to this day in the underground church, at the right of the altar, a spring, commonly named after St. Hedwig, to which wonderful effects are ascribed; it is said, moreover, that this water is a vestige of the marsh in which Duke Henry was once imperilled [Fragmente der Klöster Schlesiens, page 62 and following. Ritter, Geschichte der Diöcese Breslau, page 125.]. Another thing is also handed down, which most accurately expresses the gentle disposition of our Saint; namely, that during the whole time of building Trebnitz no criminal was punished with death, but as many as were to be visited with capital punishment were, at Hedwig's intercession with her husband, condemned to works on the building. A third cause, finally, of the founding of Trebnitz is assigned by the Chronicles of the Poles, published by Sommersberg Rerum Silesiacarum Scriptores, volume I, page 1 and following. and by Adolf Stenzel Ibid., in the place cited., who thinks that the Chronographer lived about the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the following Ibid., Preface, page VI and following., wherefore no small credit is to be given him in those things which touch more nearly upon his times. The cause, then, of the building of the monastery the praised Chronicles set out thus Ibid., page 25, and the Chronicle of the Princes of Poland, ibid., page 100.: Since she (Gertrude, daughter of Henry and St. Hedwig) had been betrothed to the count palatine of the Rhine (Otto of Wittelsbach), who killed Philip, king of Germany (in the year 1208), for which he himself also was afterwards slain (in the year 1209 Compare Oefele, Rerum Boicarum Scriptores, volume I, page 666.), and therefore would not marry another, at the instigation of Blessed Hedwig her father built the noble convent of Trebnitz for his daughter, in which he himself and his blessed spouse, having happily passed away, were laid to rest. And Henry seems to hint at this cause in letters given in the year 1208, saying Sommersberg, volume I, page 822.: And it is to be known that I have rather chosen (preferred?) this Order of Nuns (the Cistercian), because, while there are in my land cloisters of a threefold Order to which the male sex could and can flee for the salvation of souls, the refreshment of claustral quiet was lacking only to the female sex. But now in the oft-mentioned cloister, through the mercy of God, feminine frailty can have a refuge for the expiation of its sins. In transcribing Sommersberg I have corrected certain expressions which disturbed the sense of the words, and that the more freely because Adolf Stenzel says Scriptores, volume I, page 25, note 2. that the letters of foundation were faultily published.

[41] of Trebnitz, nuns being summoned from Germany The whole sequence of the matter Długosz embraces in these words Historia Polonica, book VI, under the year 1203.: Henry, duke of Wrocław and of Silesia, moved by the frequent prayers, counsels and persuasions of his consort, the duchess Hedwig, a most devout and religious woman, founds in his duchy and in the place which is now (nay, then too; see the preceding number) called Trzebnica, three miles distant from the city of Wrocław, a monastery of nuns of the Cistercian Order, under the honour and title of St. Bartholomew the Apostle. And for the endowment of the monastery he conferred and gave, by perpetual donation, the town of Trzebnica, likewise the vills of Lipnica, Comescha, Breinow, Cotlowice, Tuczmandorff, Hartlipdorff, Sudlino, Lawor, Srankowa, Rotzonice, and many other vills, rents and incomes which would suffice for a thousand persons, the duchess Blessed Hedwig renouncing the right of dower which she had had inscribed in the goods bestowed on the monastery. And beginning from the foundations both the church of Blessed Bartholomew and the monastery and its workshops, he completed them with a most beautiful and costly wall within fifteen years, and in the year 1219 he accomplished the dedication of the church itself. It has been ascertained, moreover, a reckoning having been made, that the expenses of the church and monastery rose to thirty thousand Polish marks. And during all the fifteen years in which the aforesaid work was being accomplished, Blessed Hedwig permitted no malefactor, however great the crime with which he was defiled, to be marked with a sentence condemning him to death, either by Duke Henry or by his officials and judges, but applied each one to the labours of the monastery of Trzebnica, that according to the demerit of his fault he might expiate the crime committed by harder or easier labour, for a longer or shorter time. And nuns from the monastery of Bamberg, first summoned to take up that new place, began to inhabit the aforesaid monastery, and the first abbess of that place was the virgin Petrusza, a German, the second Gertrude, daughter of Duke Henry and of Blessed Hedwig; and both in the beginnings and afterwards a hundred nuns were accustomed to stay and live in the monastery itself at one time, the endowment of the monastery abounding. And the aforesaid place was accepted for founding the aforesaid monastery, although others offered themselves with greater convenience, for this reason: that Duke Henry, engaged in hunting, falling with his horse into that very place, then marshy, did not think he would otherwise escape the imminent danger, entangled in the slimy mass, so that no one any longer would bring help, his attendants and companions running about through other places and glades, unless he had invoked help from on high, unless he had bound himself by a vow to found a monastery of nuns there as soon as possible. But, as is the condition of men, to promise many and arduous things in the moment of danger and, having obtained the vows of their promises, easily to forget, Duke Henry, freed by divine help alone from the imminent destruction of the bog with which he had long struggled, began to neglect what he had solemnly vowed; showing himself for some time rather a delayer than a fulfiller of his vow. But the woman, Blessed Hedwig his consort, understanding by the Spirit both that her husband, Duke Henry, had made a vow of this kind under the aforesaid necessity and that he had neglected it up to that day, did not cease, both by salutary prayers and by admonitions, to bring him to render the vow which he had made, the making of which, since it had been done without witnesses, he had believed would be hidden both from his duchess Hedwig and from any others, until he carried his pledge into full effect; and when the building as well as the endowment of this monastery had been completed, and the illustrious duke asked Petrusa, the abbess, and the nuns whether she or their monastery needed anything, offering himself to provide for any need by ducal munificence; and having received the answer that the dowry gifts furnished by him to them and to the monastery would be full and sufficient, and that the monastery needed no ampler provision, from the outcome of the answer he gave a name to the place, and called it "Trzebanic, which in the Polish vernacular sounds 'needing nothing.'" Thus far Długosz.

[42] with nuns of the Order of St. Benedict, We have already seen above that the name of the new monastery is not to be derived from such an answer, inasmuch as it existed even before the foundation: but I should easily believe that such an answer flowed from the name of the place. That the first abbess of Trzebnica, Petrusa, was a newcomer from Germany, all constantly affirm; and that this Petrusa was the mistress of St. Hedwig in the ascetic house of Kitzingen we have from our biographer at number 54: it must therefore be that Petrusa, laying aside the black habit of the Benedictine Virgins, put on the white one of the Cistercians Ritter, Geschichte, page 126.; and there is nothing in this fact which in any way conflicts with the customs of the 13th century; but since it was a question of leading a new colony of virgins into a distant and unknown land, it is a very great indication of the trust which the regular prelates had placed in Petrusa, that they were willing to entrust a select band of nuns to a virgin who had not been formed to Cistercian ways by long use. Next, the Cistercian nuns are reported to have been summoned from Bamberg Compare Diplomatische Geschichte der Abtei Banz, page 219.: Manrique, indeed, the annalist of the Order, says [Annales Cistercienses, year 1203, chapter VII, number 10, volume III, page 411.]: Of the monastery of Bamberg, whence the nuns were brought, scarcely any further knowledge is at hand for us.

[43] who had professed the Cistercian Rule: There is indeed cited a diploma of the year 1179, given by Peter, bishop of Tusculum, in which by the authority of the Apostolic See he confirms Ussermann, Episcopatus Bambergensis, page 401. the church of the Nuns at the Blessed Virgin and St. Theodore, ordaining first of all that the monastic Order, established there according to the rule of Blessed Benedict and the institution of the Cistercian brethren, be inviolably observed for all time. But Æmilian Ussermann, who in the year 1802 most accurately investigated and described the whole diocese of Bamberg, after the cited diploma adds this In the place cited.: This monastery was never ascribed to the Cistercian, but to the Benedictine Order, whence I consider that here by a slip of the pen Cistercians were put in place of Cluniacs, by which name the black monks are denoted. And indeed no mention of a Cistercian monastery older than that of Trebnitz is to be found among those who have written of the bishopric of Bamberg. The praised Æmilian enumerates three ascetic houses of Cistercian virgins situated in the bishopric of Bamberg, namely Schlüsselau Episcopatus Bambergensis, page 406., Himmelkron Ibid., page 408. and Grundlach, or Himmelsthron Ibid., page 412., but none of them is older than that of Trebnitz; whence, in my opinion, the nuns of Trebnitz are wrongly said to have been summoned from Bamberg. I think, too, that occasion was given to the error by the fact that Egbert, St. Hedwig's brother, who in this same year 1203 Ibid., page 137. was created bishop of Bamberg, gave his help in fetching a colony of nuns from some Cistercian convent: whence also, since they had been gathered by the help of the bishop of Bamberg, the opinion prevailed that they had likewise formerly lived at Bamberg. The convent of Trebnitz, subject at first to the abbot of Pforta in Saxony, passed afterwards into the care of the abbot of Leubus, as being nearer.

[44] the convent among certain The munificence of the prince and the peace of the monastery were disturbed, a few years later, by Thomas I, bishop of Wrocław. For he, as his Life, compiled from various testimonies, has it [Sommersberg, volume II, page 155. Compare Stenzel, Chronicon principum Poloniæ, Scriptores, volume I, page 161.], seeing that the episcopal table of Wrocław had been gravely castrated and injured by the little provident donations of his lords and immediate predecessors Cyprian and Lawrence, made to the monasteries of Leubus and Trebnitz, both of whom had conferred notable sheaf-tithes on the aforesaid monasteries by perpetual donation, rescinded and annulled them and reunited them to his table, not without the greatest cloud of indignation on the part of Henry With the Beard and of his sons Henry and Boleslaw, at whose intercessions those donations had been made, since they bore it with an ill mind that the monasteries founded and endowed by them should be despoiled of so rich an endowment, as though bestowed by themselves: nor indeed did they complain in silence, and hatreds were constantly heaped up against him on the part of the princes as well as of the barons, and he was shaken by many persecutions and adversities, which he bore with a brave spirit. Nor, the same writer relates, did the vexation stop here: for afterwards a strong and violent hand was laid on him by Boleslaw, duke of Legnica, son of Henry With the Beard, with the assent of other princes, with Bogufal the provost

and Heicard, canon of Wrocław, at Gorka, a village of the abbot of St. Mary on the Sand, whose church he had come to dedicate, on the sixth of October he was seized and imprisoned, bound with fetters. And although the archbishop of Gniezno had pronounced, on account of his captivity and against his captor, the duke of Legnica, Boleslaw, execrable sentences of interdict; although moreover Pope Innocent the Fourth, at the solicitation of Fulco, archbishop of Gniezno, and of all the bishops of the Polish Church, by letters and envoys promulgated the Cross and a general passage against Duke Boleslaw by a bull, which I have seen in the original, yet the iron breast of Duke Boleslaw could not be softened by so many and such great scourges, until Thomas himself, the chapter of Wrocław protesting, consented, impiously and miserably, for himself and for all the clergy of Wrocław, when he ought rather to have sought every death for the liberty of the Church, that the sheaf-tithes of all grain, which the pious religion and devotion of the ancient kings and princes of Poland had instituted, should be turned into tithe-measures and ferto-payments, the dukes and barons demanding it, and not being willing to consent to its payment otherwise, but striving to increase their own revenues and to diminish the Church; and he thus mutilated the benefices of the diocese of Wrocław in the greater half of their incomes by that execrable consent. And that was the first schism by which the dukes and barons of Silesia began to cut themselves off from the body of the kingdom of Poland, not without grave and enormous offence to God and the Church, and, the old decrees having been abrogated, to institute their own ordinances.

[45] adversities These things indeed the biographer of Thomas I, but less accurately: for the captivity of the bishop is to be bound to the year of Christ 1256, as Bogufal II, bishop of Poznań 1255–1265, teaches us Sommersberg, volume II, page 69., that is, when Henry the Bearded had already been dead eighteen years; whence it is clear that the biographer did not observe the series of years exactly. Next, the praised Bogufal assigns an altogether different cause to the captivity of Bishop Thomas, namely that Boleslaw, led on by diabolical madness and by the persuasion of the Germans, by whose counsel he was ruled, despoiled the bishop … of all things, for frivolous causes, of which, however, this had been the greater, that he might extort money from him to be paid out to the Germans [Compare Sommersberg, volume II, page 71, and volume XI of Labbe's Councils, volume II, column 773.]. But these things in no way agree with the controversy about the tithes carried on with the Monasteries of Leubus and Trebnitz, which moreover seems to have been already settled in the year 1235 by William, bishop of Modena and Legate of the Apostolic see Stenzel, Urkunden der Diöcese Breslau, Introduction, page XXVIII.. What is read in both texts alleged by us about the separation from the kingdom of Poland and about the favour shown to the Germans, we shall examine more opportunely in another place. For the rest, the Chronicles of the princes of the Poles say Sommersberg, volume I, page 62. that Thomas, born of a noble Polish family, so shone in the wisdom of letters and in virtues of character that his fame was celebrated in the Roman curia and among nobles and magnates. He also built the choir of the church of Wrocław, with the help of the dukes Henry II Stenzel, Scriptores, volume II, page 135. and Boleslaw II Stenzel, Urkunden der Diöcese Breslau, Introduction, page XXXI., from which again it is clear that the question of the tithes had been settled long before the time of Thomas's captivity, which is also indicated by the diplomas of the sons of Henry II, Mieszko, duke of Opole, of the year 1241 Ibid., page 5., and Duke Boleslaw II, of the years 1244 Ibid., page 6 and following., 1249 Ibid., page 16 and following. and 1250 Ibid., page 18., all of which preceded the captivity. There are other diplomas which, belonging to the years 1258 Ibid., page 20. and 1260 Ibid., page 21 and following., altogether presuppose this captivity.

[46] it prospered until its suppression in the year 1803. But if at times the nuns of Trebnitz found the bishops of Wrocław less propitious to them, neither did they always have the princes of Silesia favourable: for in the year 1284, a dissension having arisen between Duke Henry IV and the bishop of Wrocław Thomas II, the said duke, says a Silesian diploma Ibid., page 142., perhaps believing he could find some money, overturned certain altars and dug into the walls in the church of the monastery of the nuns of Trebnitz. The bishop, namely, had placed all churches, secular as well as regular, under interdict, wherefore the duke in turn had forbidden under grave penalties that any citizen should presume to hear the divine offices elsewhere than in the church of the Friars Minor, who, namely, had not obeyed the interdict. It is not of our institute to inquire more curiously into the cause, then pending and sufficiently ambiguous, since the contemporary writers use rather general words Ibid., page 120.. It will suffice us to have alleged this one thing, to show that the favour of the princes shown to the nuns of Trebnitz was not constant. Amid these prosperous and adverse things Trebnitz grew, and came to such opulence that it was held the richest among the Silesian convents: for it possessed one town and seventy-five rural villages [Herber, Statistik des Bisthums Breslau, 1826, page 117 and following; Fragment aus der Geschichte der Klöster Schlesiens, page 70 and following.]. In the year 1803 it celebrated its sixth centenary jubilee, a coin being struck for this celebration Fragment, page 69., whose obverse shows the image of St. Hedwig with the inscription: St Hedwiga Ux(or) Heinr(ici) d(ucis) S(ilesiæ) Aut(rix) Trebn(icii) 1203 St. Hedwig, wife of Henry, duke of Silesia, foundress of Trebnitz, 1203: and the reverse the ground-plan of the monastery, and the words: Sæculum VI a cond(ito) monast(erio) celebratum MDCCCIII The sixth century from the founding of the monastery celebrated, 1803. But seven years later the monastery of Trebnitz was suppressed, in the same year 1810, its last abbess, Dominica von Gillern, having already died before Ibid., in the place cited.. The buildings of the monastery, except the church still sacred to the catholic religion, are today a workshop in which cloths are made. Thus perished, after a prosperous course of six hundred years, a distinguished monastery: whether, moreover, the Silesians are happier since the goods of the nuns were distributed among seculars, and the convent itself, in place of sacred virgins, has a crowd of workmen as its inhabitants, may justly be disputed.

§ IV. Other foundations made by Henry the Bearded with the co-operation of St. Hedwig.

Besides Trebnitz various convents were founded: Nor did the pious liberality of Duke Henry and his holy spouse Hedwig stop at the most ample foundation of the convent of Trebnitz. For in the following years we find very many monasteries either built from the ground and endowed by their work, or much increased. Someone might wonder at the pious munificence of the princes, nay even turn it into a fault, since princely estates seem to be conferred on monasteries, and the public treasury consequently impoverished. But matters did not stand so in the 12th and 13th centuries in Silesia; for the goods which were given to the monks for the most part lay neglected and uncultivated: it profited the whole country, therefore, when immense tracts of fields, such as there were very many in Silesia Ritter, Geschichte der Diöcese Breslau, volume I, page 96., as Joseph Ritter testifies, were subdued to cultivation. In this way also the German arts and industries, which had flourished so powerfully under the Hohenstaufen emperors, were transferred into Silesia, then almost wholly Polish. To this is also added that in those centuries, which we call barbarous, scarcely any other aid offered itself for taming dispositions and forming manners than that convents should become schools of the best discipline. Finally it must be observed that the princes of those times had no need to spend their treasury, as is now done, on armies always under arms, on the splendour and luxury of their court, on establishing theatres, all of which exhaust the most limpid fountains of public money. For the rest, these critics of the Saints approve the counsels of very many kings and peoples when they strip the Church of all her goods, or at least of the principal ones: because, namely, the opulence of the Church does not square with our manners: why then do they deal so severely with the ancient princes, who themselves too wished to render a useful service to their realms? Certainly, when King Frederick William III by a single decree of the 30th of October 1810 suppressed all ecclesiastical institutions and convents in Silesia, he adduced the spirit, character and necessities of his age as the grounds of the spoliation. Here are his words rendered into Latin from the German language Sauer, Die Elisabetherinnen in Breslau, page 66.: Considering that a) the purpose for which ecclesiastical institutions and convents have hitherto been founded is partly incompatible with the opinions and necessities of our age, partly can be obtained in another way: b) that the neighbouring regions have applied the same remedies: c) that by this way alone we can be equal to paying the debt to the French: d) that in this way we diminish the taxes of our subjects, already burdened, we decree, etc. It is not the business of our work to unfold all these things more widely; let them be said in passing, that we may not force the deeds and counsels of the 13th century to the norm and character of the 19th. Now let us proceed to the foundations of Henry and St. Hedwig, which we shall set out in chronological order.

[48] 1st, that of Kamenz The first foundation which occurs after the building of Trebnitz is that of the monastery of Kamenz, which began in the time of Pope Innocent III, who died in the year 1216, and of Lawrence, bishop of Wrocław, elected in the year 1207: whence the convent was founded between the years 1207 and 1216 Sommersberg, volume I, page 143.. Its origin the Chronicles of the princes of Poland report in the following manner Stenzel, Scriptores, volume I, page 161.: In the times of the same (Lawrence) the monastery in Camencz was founded, where there had formerly been a castle, and it was called Camencz on account of the crags which had been there, taking its name from stone or from stony crags. This castle a certain Wratislaw, duke of Bohemia, had founded, building there a chapel in honour of Saint Procopius. Afterwards regular Canons from the monastery of St. Mary of Wrocław were placed there; but in successive times monks of the Cistercian Order were introduced, in the time of the lord Thomas the first, bishop of Wrocław, in the year of the Lord 1246, on the 7th day before the Ides of January, in the times of Pope Innocent the Fourth. Henry conferred on Kamenz a great waste so named for the sustenance of the brethren, in which afterwards were the vills of Meifrid, Volmar, Henry and Heimeric (today Maifritzdorf, Follmersdorf, Heinrichswalde and Hemmersdorf Sommersberg, volume I, page 143.). Henry also gave to the same convent in the year 1230 the right of patronage at Frankenstein and Bardo (Wartha), with the high and low jurisdictions. Kamenz then passed in the year 1222 from the regular Canons to the Cistercians Henel, Silesiographia, volume I, page 670., who occupied it until the general suppression of the year 1810.

[49] 2nd, that of the Friars Minor at Goldberg, To the year 1212 Henel in his Annals of Silesia Sommersberg, volume II, page 242. refers another foundation of Henry, namely that of Goldberg, or the Golden Mountain: nevertheless Vigilius Greiderer, who wrote the Germania Franciscana in the year 1777, places the construction of the monastery, and consequently the introduction of the Friars Minor into Silesia, in the year 1219 or even a little after 1220. The Chronicle of Goldberg, he says Germania Franciscana, book V, number 60, volume I, page 840., as Father Severin Wrbczansky, author of the Nucleus Minoriticus, attests concerning the Minorite convent of Goldberg under

the title "Monastery," discourses thus: "The holy Hedwig dedicated this place, namely the monastery of Goldberg, to studies, to learning and to religion three hundred years ago, and she also built it. For in the year 1208 she summoned at great expense Franciscan monks from Assisi, which is a city of Etruria Nay, of Umbria. in Italy, where Francis, a religious man, had gathered a certain college of the poor, and she placed them first in the town of Goldberg and built this monastery, which is said to be the first of this Order in Silesia; by this she opened a school and propagated the Gospel in her dominion, while those darknesses still endured." This report, Vigilius Greiderer continues, most certainly fails as to the year in which St. Hedwig summoned the Minorites. Indeed, in the year 1208 St. Francis had either not yet gathered any disciple, or at most three (Wadding [Annales Minorum, at the years 1208 and 1209, § XIII, volume I, page 50, Roman edition 1731.] and other writers), of whom in the said year he sent none outside Italy. Others, noticing the unstable foundation of this assertion, put back these acts to the year 1212, and a report resting on the archive of the city of Goldberg suggests to me that St. Hedwig raised for the Minorites at Goldberg a convent and church of Saints Peter and Paul in the year 1212. Nor do I wish to give assent to these; for on the one hand they adduce no positive support for the year 1212, and on the other I nowhere detect any trace that our Holy Father Francis sent any brother into Germany or Poland, in which Silesia was included in the 13th century, before the year 1213. Indeed, the first mission into Germany, as I said in book I, numbers 18 and following, was decreed first, according to me, in the year 1219, according to Wadding in 1216 Ibid., at the year 1216, § II, volume I, page 247., and that without the desired effect. My opinion therefore is that the said holy woman summoned the Minorites between the years 1219 and 1220, or, what seems more likely, a little after 1220, and raised a convent for them at Goldberg. Thus far Vigilius Greiderer; nor is there any reason for us to disapprove his opinion by our own reckoning: this one thing is clearly established from the opinions of various authors, that Henry the Bearded and his spouse St. Hedwig are to be held as the founders of the convent of Goldberg and the initiators of the Order of Friars Minor in Silesia. The convent continued until the Hussite war, when in the year 1427 or the following, Goldberg having been occupied, the Hussites plundered it and laid it waste with fire. It then gave way in the year 1540 to a Lutheran school, until in the year 1704 it was restored to the Friars Minor by the Emperor Leopold I and in the following years increased by a new church of St. Hedwig [Greiderer, Germania Franciscana, book V, number 59, volume I, page 840 and following. Compare Zimmermann, Beyträge zur Beschreibung von Schlesien, volume VIII, page 344.]; in the fatal year 1810, the monks having been suppressed, the church was assigned as a parish church to the secular clergy Schematismus des Bisthums Breslau, page 82..

[50] 3rd, the Hospital of Wrocław. The third foundation, of which only a part is owed to Henry, is the hospital and hospice of the Holy Spirit at Wrocław. This foundation the Chronicle of the abbots of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Sand reports in the following words Stenzel, Scriptores, volume II, page 168.: Likewise, in the year 1214, the same lord Witoslaus (abbot of the said monastery of canons regular of St. Augustine) obtained from the aforesaid Duke Henry and from St. Hedwig his consort a site for the hospital and provostship of the Holy Spirit near Wrocław. In the structure of which church and hospital he himself laid the first stone for the foundation and in part endowed it, but it was built for the great part from the goods of the monastery of the Blessed Virgin. Which hospital his son, Henry the Second, also endowed with some goods, as is evident from the privileges of the provostship of the Holy Spirit given concerning it Compare Ritter, Geschichte der Diöcese Breslau, volume I, page 127.. I see that this hospital passed to non-Catholics, and, the church perishing, migrated to another place near the chapel sacred to St. Sebastian, where a new building was erected, capable of holding sixty sick persons Zimmermann, Beyträge, volume XI, page 280..

[51] 4th, that of Sagan The precise and exact time of the foundation (of the abbey of Sagan), says the Catalogue of the abbots of Sagan Stenzel, Scriptores, volume I, page 176., I am not able to find; I reckon, however, that it was about the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and seven, for I do not remember having read through any privilege of the house of Sagan of an older date. This agrees also with the time of the life of the founder himself, or of the founders themselves, of whom it follows. By the illustrious and magnificent prince, the lord Henry, duke of Silesia, called With the Beard, whose wife was Blessed Hedwig; nay rather, according to the truthful and common report, by the most holy Hedwig herself, at whose prayers and instance her husband founded and erected it, so that she may rightly be said to have founded and erected it; as also, when the mother of the sons of Zebedee made petition, they are reckoned to have petitioned, on whose account and at whose request the mother herself supplicated the Lord. This college was first drawn from the abbey of St. Mary on the Sand: but not so very long afterwards these canons, passing over their immediate superior, namely the abbot of St. Mary, went over into the jurisdiction of the congregation of Arrouaise, in Artois. The sequence of the matter the chronographer of the Sand narrates in the following words Stenzel, Scriptores, volume II, page 179.: In his times (those of Nicholas Quoss, abbot of the Sand) the abbots of Neuburg on the Bober and of Sagan began to withdraw themselves from the obedience of the monastery: concerning which it is to be known that the church of Neuburg, situated on the river Bober, belonged from of old to the monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Wrocław with its tithes, revenues and all its appurtenances, as is evident from the confirmation of the lord Pope Innocent the Fourth, and was so incorporated in this monastery that no brethren ought to be placed and instituted in it except from the monastery of the Blessed Virgin of Wrocław, as is evident in a certain letter of incorporation of this kind, which ought to be among the privileges of the monastery and in its archives, and is of the lord Lawrence, bishop of Wrocław, of the year 1227. And at first indeed it was a provostship, then erected into an abbey, saving, however, its subjection and obedience to the monastery and abbot of the monastery of the Blessed Virgin of Wrocław, whence the monastery of Neuburg drew its origin. But in the time of the lord Nicholas, the aforesaid abbot, a certain Borghard was elected abbot of Neuburg without the request and consent of the abbot of that monastery of the Blessed Virgin and of his brethren; therefore also, at the instance of the abbot of the monastery of the Blessed Virgin, he was cited by the abbot of the monastery of Arrouaise Gosse, Histoire de l'Abbaye d'Arrouaise, page 377. to the general chapter, at which both appeared, and Nicholas, abbot of the monastery of the Blessed Virgin, was one of the definitors of the general chapter, where, after discussions held concerning the defects committed in this kind of election, the aforesaid Borghard, abbot of Neuburg, humbly prostrated at the feet of the abbot of Arrouaise, as head of the Order, and of Nicholas, abbot of Wrocław, as his father abbot, besought that the defect touched on above be supplied by apostolic authority and that of the general chapter, offering to render and show to the said N., abbot of Arrouaise, as head of the Order, and to the said N., abbot of Blessed Mary, as father abbot, and also to the said chapter, as is fitting, due reverence and subjection; which also was done. In the same chapter also the monastery of Neuburg was transferred under the name of abbot and convent to Sagan, for the purpose of remaining there perpetually, so that thenceforward the abbot and convent should be called not of Neuburg but of Sagan, the said place of Neuburg remaining under it and the monastery of Sagan, as is evident in a certain letter of the chapter of Arrouaise given concerning it, of the year of the Lord 1284, which is still among the privileges of our monastery. And since in the said chapter of Arrouaise and in its letter there was no provision made nor special expression concerning the obedience and subjection of the abbot of Sagan to our monastery, it is sufficiently clear how the Church of Neuburg and then the monastery of Sagan withdrew itself from its obedience. There is some discrepancy between the present narration and what is reported in the Catalogue of the abbots, since here everything is attributed to Borghard, abbot of Neuburg, but there to his successor, Tylemann I Ibid., volume I, page 180, where the diploma of translation is.. The provostship of Neuburg (Naumburg) on the Bober was erected into an abbatial Church in the year 1256 Ibid., page 179., and after the community had been transferred to Sagan, the parochial right was granted to the same church of Sagan Ibid., page 180.. See more of the fortunes of this ascetic house in the cited Catalogue of the abbots of Sagan, which brings down its history in detail to the year of Christ 1616. This institution too perished in the year 1810.

[52] The canons' institution of Sagan is next followed by the foundation of Heinrichau, 5th, that of Heinrichau, begun in the year 1222 and completed in 1227 by the introduction of monks of the Cistercian Order. These things I take from Augustin Sartorius, writer of the Cistercium Bis Tertium, cited by Henel Silesiographia, volume I, page 661.: Heinrichau, a celebrated house of Cîteaux in the duchy of Münsterberg among the Silesians, arose in the year of the Lord 1222, the foundation being munificently inaugurated by the illustrious lord Nicholas, a noble of Cracow, canon of Wrocław, and notary and secretary, or even chancellor, of Henry the Bearded, duke of Poland and Silesia, as Jongelinus asserts in the Notitia abbatiarum, book V, page 53. The first colonies were taken from Leubus and brought into Heinrichau in 1227, on the 5th day before the Kalends of June. The etymology of the place, according to the cited Jongelinus, was taken from Duke Henry: and I read that this was given by the will of Nicholas, the original founder, out of reverence for the prince, because the latter had granted him the faculty of building a convent for our monks from the goods which he himself had given to Nicholas for the days of his life by title of faithful service. For which cause also the aforesaid Duke Henry, in the first letters of concession, wished the prerogative of the foundation to be granted to himself and his successors, because, namely, the absolute power of disposing of his estates, to be incorporated in Cîteaux after his death, belonged less to Nicholas the notary; inasmuch as the direct ownership stood with the duke, only the use being given to Nicholas as a merited stipend. And so the benefit which Nicholas had given to Cîteaux was temporary, doubtless to be extinguished with its Mæcenas: but that which Duke Henry granted was perpetual and stable. For that reason also the foundation, as perennial and never to cease, which is the most important consideration in founding convents, comes to be ascribed altogether to the duke, and Heinrichau to be named from that title a ducal convent. Although, moreover, to the illustrious Nicholas, who cast the first stimuli, the first seeds of the foundation, his own glory and gratitude also ought to be repaid, without whom perhaps the Cistercian Order today

would have one Heinrichau the less [Compare Manrique at the year 1222, chapter XIII, number 7, volume IV, page 209. Zimmermann, Beyträge zur Beschreibung von Schlesien, volume IV, page 90 and following.]. For the rest, that St. Hedwig was munificent towards the sacred place we have from her Life, number 55. This monastery too was assigned to the royal treasury in the year 1810.

[53] 6th, that of the Friars Preachers at Wrocław To the year 1226 belongs the foundation of the convent of the Friars Preachers at Wrocław; for some report that in the very year of St. Dominic's death, 1221, the said Friars settled at Frankenstein Sommersberg, volume 142.. The event is narrated thus by the chronographer of the abbots of St. Mary on the Sand Stenzel, Scriptores, volume II, page 171.: Likewise, in the year of the Lord 1226, the same abbot Witoslaus made a certain exchange with the lord Lawrence, the aforesaid bishop of Wrocław, and, as appears from what follows, a very unequal one. For he resigned into the hands of the same lord bishop Lawrence the church of St. Adalbert at Wrocław, having the rights of a parish church, and the vill of Oltaschin, belonging to the monastery, with every right of spiritual or parochial cure, excepting, however, the tithes which the said church had had from of old, and excepting free burial and the visitation of the sick. In recompense for which the same lord bishop Lawrence assigned to the monastery ten marks of silver in the money of Wrocław, and eight measures of the episcopal corn-rent of threefold grain at Ohlau, and the tithe at Tarnawa, as is evident from the privileges given concerning it. And at the aforesaid church of St. Adalbert the same bishop established the Friars Preachers, newly founded by Blessed Dominic and confirmed by the lord Pope Honorius the third in the year of the Lord 1216, as is evident from the Roman or Martinian Chronicle (of Martin the Pole); transferring and bounding its parish people to the church of St. Mary Magdalene at Wrocław. That the first Preachers were brought into Wrocław by Blessed Ceslaus Odrowąż, who also obtained his tomb there, ours report in the preliminary Commentary to his Life at the 16th day of July Volume IV of July, page 188, number 26..

[54] 7th, that of the same Preachers at Bunzlau; Another convent of the Preachers I find founded by our Henry at Boleslavia (Bunzlau, in the district of Silesia-Liegnitz). Its beginnings are referred to the year 1234; and the convent continued until the Hussite war, when its buildings were altogether laid waste and the monks killed in the year 1427. The convent remained deserted until the year 1668, when Hyacinth Tuschke, prior at St. Adalbert's, claimed the site and the ruins left on it for his Order by right of postliminy. No one will wonder that not a few resisted a restitution delayed or neglected for so many years: nevertheless the matter was settled by a compromise on the 6th day of July 1677, and thereafter the Dominicans inhabited the restored convent until the fatal year 1810 [Henel, Silesiographia, chapter VI, page 47. Zimmermann, Beyträge, volume VI, page 171.]. To about the same time must be referred the building and endowment of the parish church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of St. John the Baptist at Leoberga (Löwenberg, or Lemberg, in the district of Liegnitz). The said church has our Henry as its author and founder; it belonged at first to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem Nicht aufgehobene Klöster in Schlesien, page 616.: whence, when the knights of the Order began to occupy commanderies in place of presbyters, the right of patronage over the said church remained with the Order Zimmermann, Beyträge, volume VI, page 862.. Now this parish has the royal treasury as patron Schematismus des Bisthums Breslau, page 72..

[55] Henry to Conrad of Masovia Nor was Duke Henry content with such manifold foundations in favour of his Silesia; he also exhorted others, when opportunity offered, to similar munificence. Thus we read that it came about chiefly by his counsel that the Teutonic knights obtained the land of Culm. The matter is narrated by Boguphal, a writer of the 13th century, in these words Sommersberg, volume II, page 59.: Conrad, duke of Masovia, who sustained many attacks from the Prussians and from the Pollexians in the land of Culm, on the counsel of Bishop Gunther, granted the land of Culm for twenty years to the bearded hospitallers of St. Mary of Jerusalem of the German house, signed with the black cross, that they might resist the Prussians and Pollexians, fighting with them, with his help mediating. Within which years, since the Prussians and other pagan peoples had been exceedingly hostile to the lands of the aforesaid Conrad, duke of Masovia, the aforesaid Conrad called to his help Henry With the Beard, his nephew, duke of Silesia, relying on whose aid and that of the aforesaid crusaders he wrought a great slaughter among the Prussians and other pagan peoples, bravely subduing them. After the famous triumph of which victory, the oft-mentioned Duke Henry asked Conrad, his paternal uncle, that he would deign to assign the aforesaid land of Culm in perpetuity to the crusaders. At whose prayers the same Conrad graciously, by donation, assigned in perpetuity to the aforesaid hospitallers the aforesaid land within the rivers Ossa, Vistula and Drwęca.

[56] is the author of establishing the Teutonic knights at Culm. Manrique, the Cistercian annalist, has almost the same things [Annales Cistercienses at the year 1227, chapter VIII, number 7 and following, volume IV, page 342.], except that he attributes the principal parts of the transaction to Christian, of the Cistercian Order, bishop of Culm. But Długosz, writer of the Polish History, reconciles everything well. For he narrates Długosz, Historia Polonica, book VI, column 644. that Duke Conrad, on the counsel of Christian, whom he himself calls Christinus, summoned seven brethren, Teutonic knights, from Germany to his help: in the course of time he bestowed on them the castle and town of Nieszawa with the vills of Murzynno and Orłowo. But when, the cited author continues, having enjoyed some successful battles, the Crusading Brethren helping him, he had made a huge slaughter of the Prussians, persuaded by the assiduous prayers of Henry With the Beard, duke of Wrocław and of Silesia, on the counsel of his consort Agafia, and of his sons Boleslaw, Casimir and Siemowit, and also of the prelates and barons of his lands, namely Gunther, bishop of Płock, Michael, bishop of Kujavia, Christinus, bishop of Culm, Pacoslaus, count of Dersow, he assigns and gives to them the lands of Chełmno and of Lubawa, situated within the rivers Ossa, Drwęca and Wrola, in which the barbarians had occupied the castle and town of Rogowo and other fortifications, although in fact, not in right; since Duke Conrad could not in any way have made that donation to the prejudice of the kingdom of Poland. Which donation, although for that season it seemed salutary, yet afterwards, the Crusaders always panting to occupy the remaining lands of the kingdom of Poland, there followed very great outpourings of Christian blood, the Poles defending their natural seats, and slaughters also committed, horrible to relate … But in that donation of the lands of Culm and Lubawa made by Conrad, duke of Masovia and Kujavia, to the Crusading Brethren, this was first and chiefly provided, and both Master Hermann and the Crusading Brethren had bound themselves to it by letters patent, that the possession of the Prussian land and of any other to be conquered among the barbarians should be divided equally between Conrad, duke of Masovia and Kujavia, and his sons and successors, princes of Poland, and the master and Order of the Crusaders, and that the donation of the lands of Culm and Lubawa, the Prussian land having been conquered, should be made void and devolve with full right to Duke Conrad and his successors. As far as concerns the manner and duration of the donation, we see that Boguphal and Długosz do not agree: but which of the two sets out the pact rightly, in the absence of the instruments, it is not for us to determine. Sommersberg adds to the cited text of Boguphal that the author of the Bibliotheca Polonica has set out this affair more fully, and indeed on the faith of diplomas. Let this much be said of the foundations of Henry the Bearded, husband of St. Hedwig.

§ V. Of the Dissension that arose between the sons of Duke Henry and St. Hedwig.

The sons of St. Hedwig after the death of their brother Boleslaw, From his marriage with St. Hedwig, Henry, duke of Silesia, begot three sons, and as many daughters, Agnes, Sophia and Gertrude. In the genealogical Mirror of the posterity of Henry the names of the sons are recited in this order Stenzel, Scriptores, volume II, page 115.: Henry, Conrad, Boleslaw; which names are found in inverse order in the Genealogy Ibid., page 110., namely Boleslaw in the first, but Henry in the third place: wherefore the very variety forbids defining a certain order among Henry's sons. I should, however, be fairly ready to believe that Henry preceded Conrad in age, because in the Chronicles of the Princes of Poland Ibid., volume I, page 104. Conrad is called without circumlocution the younger, Henry the elder son of Henry: but the same Chronicles Stenzel, Scriptores, volume II, page 106. openly say that Boleslaw was Henry's first-born; whence according to these the series of primogeniture would have to be ordered so that Boleslaw would be called the eldest, Henry second-born, whom Conrad follows as third. Duke Henry, moreover, weary of human cares, passed the last thirty years of his life in continence, with the assent of both spouses Life of St. Hedwig, number 6., which I think happened about the year 1208, with a solemn episcopal blessing intervening, since he died in the year 1238. And that he might disentangle himself still more from the affairs of the world, he divided his inheritance among his sons: but whether among three, as the most celebrated Joseph Ritter has it [Geschichte der Diöcese Breslau, volume I, page 97. Compare Henel, Annales Silesiæ, in Sommersberg, volume II, page 243.], or only between the two survivors, Henry and Conrad, for Boleslaw died young, I would not dare to define. No ancient writer occurs to me who reports that the principality was divided into three; next, Boleslaw was buried with his sisters Agnes and Sophia in the convent of Lebus Chronicle of Poland, Stenzel, Scriptores, volume I, page 24., while Conrad, who died about the year 1213, was laid to rest at Trebnitz. Whence, in my opinion, it is given to understand that Boleslaw died not long after the founding of Trebnitz, that is, the year 1203, and therefore fairly young.

[58] the inheritance having been divided by their father, Whatever be the case, it is certain that after the death of Boleslaw, or on its occasion, the division of the paternal principality was made or revised, and that the land of Lebus and of Lusatia fell to Conrad, the rest of the inheritance being reserved for his brother Henry. The matter is clearly set out by Długosz in these words Historia Polonica, book VI, column 615 and following.: Henry, duke of Wrocław and of Silesia, of an age as manly as it was vigorous, having been led on in prosperous and even fortune with the happy and blessed Hedwig, the woman his consort, was overwhelmed, both spouses alike, by a great storm in the midst of peace, when they were already declining towards the setting of life. For his two sons, namely Henry and Conrad, who was called the Curly, who had grown up to manly strength, when the third, Boleslaw, had already been taken away by fate, were dashed against each other by hatred, envy creeping between them; you would believe the one Esau, the other Jacob, from the outcome and the condition, since for the one stood the father Henry, for the other the mother Hedwig. For Duke Henry the father, the younger, Conrad,

embracing with singular affection, betroths to him the daughter of the duke of Saxony and assigns to him as his perpetual portion the land of Lebus and the region of Lusatia. But Henry, the elder, at the persuasion of Blessed Hedwig, he destines as duke for the Silesians and the people of Wrocław. When Conrad bore this with a troubled and angry mind, and, by a natural instinct easy and agreeable as a friend to the Poles, but a most bitter enemy to the Germans, he determined to rescind his parents' ordinance by arms, since prayers were of no avail; and having gathered a notable army of soldiers and troops of the Poles and the people of Lebus, he attacked his brother. And although both parents had laboured with the greatest efforts to remove and quiet the dissension of the brothers, yet seeing their labour fall back in vain, they suffered each son to pursue his purpose (Duke Henry withdrawing to Głogów, and the duchess Hedwig to Neptz). Henry, the elder, did not bear his brother Conrad's invasion either, but collecting an army of Poles and Germans, he met Conrad between Legnica and Goldberg, at the place which is called Studnica, or the Red Church; where, battle having been joined, and it having been fought bravely on both sides, very many falling by the edge of the sword, victory went to Henry. Conrad the Curly, when, having lost many of his men, he had fled from the battle, turned aside to his father Henry at Głogów, thinking, as it turned out, that he would be safe there too. But when, as the days went on, he had gone out into the Tarnów forests for the sake of hunting, while chasing a wild beast he fell from his horse, and, his legs being broken, he expired; carried to the monastery of Trebnitz, through the efforts of his sister Agnes (Gertrude), abbess of Trebnitz, who had loved him most tenderly while he lived, he is buried in the place of the chapter.

[59] they attack each other in arms, He having been thus taken away, the fraternal and domestic war, which no one doubted would at some time be resumed and renewed, came to rest. And lest the death of her son Conrad the Curly, suddenly announced, should wound with enormous grief the heart of his most religious mother, the duchess Hedwig, she was asked to come not to her son's funeral, but to visit a sick man. But she, having long before foreknown in the spirit both the defeat and the death of her son, and knowing that he was already dead, answered the messengers: "Why," she said, "pretending that my son Conrad is ill, do you feign that he is alive? Whose fall was known to me long before, because by his rashness the blood of very many would be shed." She then went to the obsequies of her son, and paid him the rites befitting the excellence of his ducal dignity and the affection of maternal charity. In this, as it were, duel, in which two full brothers contended for the principality of Silesia, it is worth while to observe the conflict of two peoples which in that region were beginning to divide the land equally, namely the Slavs, or Poles, and the Germans. The two nations had already been intermingled by many princely marriages; thus Władysław II, grandfather of Henry the Bearded, took to wife Adelheid, daughter of the Emperor Henry IV, or, as others will have it, Christina, daughter of Henry V or of Leopold, margrave of Austria [Sommersberg, volume I, page 303. Compare Stenzel, Scriptores, volume I, page 16, note 3.]; whatever the case, certainly Henry's grandmother came of German stock. Similarly his mother too, Adelheid, daughter of the count of Sulzbach, sister of the empress, the wife of Conrad II Ibid., page 306.. And Henry's wife was our Saint Hedwig. It is easy, moreover, to judge from marriages contracted in this fashion that the manners, customs and laws of the German nation, as being of a more refined and polished character, were also gradually transplanted into a neighbouring region, such as Silesia was towards the West, and struck deeper roots day by day. For it is the character of a more cultivated nation that, even if it be subdued by arms, it gradually instils into the victor its arts, letters, sciences and institutions: so formerly conquered Greece brought her arts and her manners into Rome, and the victorious Tartars received laws and industry from the subdued Chinese. And this comes about the more easily, the greater the affinity in other respects, for example in warlike valour, in the nature of the soil and the character of the climate. In such a manner, namely, marriages winning confidence, the usages and customs of a friendly nation are insinuated step by step.

[60] the Poles standing for Conrad Changes of this kind, however, which affect the inmost character of a region, overturn laws and manners established by long use of centuries, clothe a nation with a foreign face, such changes, I say, are introduced neither in a short time nor without struggle and collision. For every nation is as tenacious as possible of its own institutions. And these things indeed appear to the eye in the Germanisation, if one may so speak, of Silesia. The Poles certainly resisted German manners, and only with difficulty inclined to German ways. That fraternal war between the Silesian princes Henry and Conrad, although it arose from the private ambition of the princes, nevertheless took its strength from the mutual jealousy of the two nations. This is said openly by the Chronicles both of the Poles and of the princes of Poland Stenzel, Scriptores, volume I, pages 25 and 104., the latter of which speaks thus: Conrad, who greatly execrated the Germans, having gathered an army from various parts of Poland, endeavoured to drive from the land his brother, who was in Silesia with a few Germans. Dissensions of this kind manifested themselves in the Church also, since the Poles, against the resistance of the Germans, contended that Silesian benefices and prelacies should be entrusted to their own countrymen. Thus we read in the Lives of the bishops of Wrocław Sommersberg, volume II, page 289. that in the year 1319 the cathedral chapter was split into two parties, some electing a German, Vitus, as bishop, others a Pole, Luthold: and the unwelcome controversy continued for almost seven whole years, until, Pope John XXII pronouncing, victory went to Vitus the German; but that indeed a brief one, the bishop dying eight days later. In the subsequent elections, as may be seen in the place cited, the same evil raged, until Bishop Conrad, to close the entry to the Church of Wrocław to the Poles, provided by his statute Ibid., page 193. that no one should be permitted to obtain a prebend or dignity in the Church of Wrocław except a diocesan or a doctor of law, theology or medicine. In this way, as it seems, the pontifical dignity thereafter remained among the Germans alone.

[61] the Germans standing for Henry; Nor did dissension of this kind creep only among seculars: but the same evil infected even the most holy Orders. For we find the following in a letter directed by the archbishop of Gniezno, James, on the 16th day of February 1285 to the pontifical legates Stenzel, Urkunden der Diöcese Breslau, page 152 and following.: after proclaiming the fidelity of the Polish nation towards the Apostolic See, he continues: But now, the German nation coming in and already occupying Poland in many places, grave loss and damage accrues not only to your holiness, but also to us in our rights. To the Roman Church indeed loss accrues, because while the borders of Poland are occupied by princes of Germany, which princes are subject to the empire, and so the occupied borders devolve to the empire, and on this account the Roman Church is defrauded of her own dominion, German soldiers as well as colonists coming into Poland and occupying the vills and other places which the Poles had possessed, and from which they paid on each head a rent to the Roman Church, namely the penny of Saint Peter, which the Germans themselves, soldiers as well as colonists, refuse altogether to pay; and so the Roman Church is likewise deprived of her right and at length will be altogether deprived, unless these things be effectively met by your skill. But from us, through the entry of the same German nation, ecclesiastical liberty and our rights, at first devoutly observed, are now taken away, nay some are altogether denied, as is plainly evident in the payment of tithes, which some of them do not pay at all, and others not according to the customary law of the land, but according to the first custom of their nation. But other evils too have been multiplied in the land through the entry of the same nation, while the Polish nation is despised, shaken by wars, deprived of the laudable rights and customs of the country, seized in the silence of the untimely night in its own possessions, and, what is worse than these, the immunity of the Churches is violated and ecclesiastical censure is altogether despised and made little of by the same. And to be silent about other things, this alone we relate not without grief of heart, that certain religious too of the aforesaid nation, seducing others by pernicious examples, are the first to break through and altogether enervate the sentences of prelates and the rigour of ecclesiastical discipline. For the German Friars of the Order of Minors, the sons of the land of Poland having been cast out, not without grave scandal to the whole people and to us, splitting the province of Poland, which was laudably and honourably ruled by the sons of the land, brethren of their Order, have now made and ordained that it be named Saxony. But not content with these things, they receive new houses in the midst of the Poles, against our protest; in each of their convents which they retain sustaining scarcely one or no Polish brother at all in their midst, whereas through native brethren due reverence was shown to the prelates of the Churches, and the consolation of both peoples was more fittingly and effectively provided for. We therefore, lest we might be accused and deservedly reproved of negligence regarding such great excesses, have thought it right to lay complaint before your paternity, that the oft-mentioned German friars, considering themselves of the province of Saxony though placed in the midst of Poland, alike disparage and despise us and our lawfully pronounced sentences, and by their persuasions and pernicious examples cause them to be held cheap among others, etc.

[62] which dissension of nations long held both peoples. What we have alleged so far shows more than sufficiently how unsociably the two nations behaved towards one another, and that peace could be composed only after a long time. Germanism was more favoured by the people; and hence it came about that both cities and private persons preferred to use German law rather than Polish. For under Polish law both persons and goods were much more subject to the lord of the territory, the real and personal burdens were heavier Ibid., Introduction, page XIX and following.. The citizens therefore took care that German law should be introduced: thus already about the year 1241 the city of Wrocław enjoyed such a law, for when Henry II, St. Hedwig's son, died in this year, when, say the Chronicles of the princes of Poland Stenzel, Scriptores, volume I, page 107., the land of Silesia ought to have breathed again, the contrary happened. For Boleslaw, Henry's son, besieged Wrocław in three expeditions; which, although it was still new, the Germans settling there under German law, and was as it were nothing in strength, yet, contracting itself in its straits, defended itself manfully Compare Stenzel, Urkunden der Diöcese Breslau, page 6, note 3.. From documents of this kind, of which we could bring forward very many, it may be seen that Germanism gradually insinuated itself into the manners and laws of the Silesians: to which thing, as we have said before, the marriages of princes with women sprung from German blood contributed much: it is certainly established that our Saint Hedwig bent her powers that the German element might be ever more and more extended throughout Silesia: which indeed seems to be counted among the merits of that most blessed woman, since in this way she joined Silesia more intimately with the rest of Christian Europe, and more powerfully confirmed the catholic religion. In like manner, and

indeed in a manner which is in every respect consonant with the norm of sanctity, is explained the special love which our Saint bore towards her son Henry, as being more inclined towards the Germans: while Henry the Bearded, as a Pole, preferred Conrad, the son who favoured the Poles.

§ VI. Various wars waged by Henry the Bearded; his death; the Tartar or Mongol war, in which Henry II, son of St. Hedwig, perished.

Henry I is rescued from the hands of Świętopełk; About the year 1227 another series of calamities rolled upon that truly valiant woman, St. Hedwig. Namely Władysław, son of Otto (Odonicz), duke of Greater Poland, whom Henry of Silesia had restored to his paternal inheritance in the year 1216 Ritter, Geschichte der Diöcese Breslau, volume I, page 98., now, having entered into an alliance with Świętopełk, governor of Pomerania, attacks his paternal uncle, Władysław Laskonogi. But the latter calls to his help Henry of Silesia, with whom he had long since contracted an intimate friendship. By common counsel they proclaim an assembly of princes, to be held on St. Martin's day, the 11th of the month of November. Świętopełk weaves delays, and, Władysław Odonicz being privy to it, watches the assembly through spies. And while at Ganzava (today Gąsawa, in the district of Bromberg, the circle of Schubin) the princes were consulting in security, and, very many matters having been completed, were entering the baths to tend and wash the body, Świętopełk the Pomeranian, having collected a strong band of Pomeranians and Poles, came upon them, and bursting in hostilely as well upon the lodgings as upon the ducal and military tents, cut down all who resisted him. Władysław Laskonogi indeed at first withdrew himself from the danger by flight, but was shortly to be slain by Świętopełk; but Henry the Bearded, seized by the butchers in the very bath, was wounded with several wounds, and would without doubt have fallen, had not a knight, Peregrinus of Weszemberg, with wonderful fidelity and wonderful devotion to his prince, interposing his own body, freed the duke from destruction. So, carried in a litter to Wrocław, he was shortly cured.

[64] captured by Conrad of Masovia, he is freed by St. Hedwig; By the cruel murder of Władysław Laskonogi the affairs of Poland were greatly disturbed. The monarchy of Poland, namely, was vacant, and provision had to be made for the guardianship of Władysław's children: both dignities were sought by Conrad, duke of Masovia and Kujavia, brother of the deceased Laskonogi, and Henry, duke of Silesia: and the latter indeed was commended by his years and by the friendship of the widowed duchess, the former by nearness of blood. The tangled controversy was committed to arms to be settled: and Conrad, conquered in two battles, turned all his warlike apparatus to wiles and arts. For Henry, thinking his adversary now subdued, had sent back his son Henry with the troops into Silesia, out of compassion for the countryfolk harassed by both armies, and was staying in security in the duchy of Cracow. Conrad, informed by his spies of this state of affairs, some of the people of Cracow also favouring him, made Duke Henry, who was staying at Spytkowice and occupied with hearing Mass, a captive in the very church, and carried him off into Masovia. But Henry, the son of the captive duke, intending to effect his father's liberation, enlisted a huge army and purposed to harry Masovia with a hostile incursion. But Blessed Hedwig, foreseeing very many evils, slaughters, killings, the shedding of Christian blood, burnings, devastations of lands, oppressions of countryfolk and of the poor, betook herself, her people striving against it in vain, into Masovia, and approached the enemy, who, as was said, was not to be bent by any prayers. At the sight of her, Conrad laid aside all the ferocity with which he was boiling, and, as though conquered and seized by a certain terror, promised that he would comply with all Hedwig's wishes and prayers. And she, trusting in God, not only freed her husband from captivity, and with the prudence in which she excelled reconciled the dissenting princes, but also knit between them the bonds of affinity, that they might thereafter be more peaceable; namely by betrothing two granddaughters by her son, Constance and Gertrude, to Casimir and Boleslaw, sons of Conrad.

[65] the war being settled. Moreover, Henry left to Conrad both the guardianship of his brother's children and the monarchy of Poland. All these things having been confirmed by oath, peace was established between the princes by the work of St. Hedwig. Nevertheless Pope Gregory IX absolved Henry from that oath, as having been extorted by force and fear, by which he promised to renounce the guardianship of the children of Laskonogi and the monarchy of Poland. Nor can anyone turn this into a fault in Henry, since it is certain among jurists that an oath extorted by force and fraud, if it was not invalid from the beginning, is at least, as it is said, rescindable. These things indeed we have chiefly extracted from the Polish History of Długosz [Historia Polonica, book VI, column 637 and following. Compare Stenzel, Scriptores, volume I, page 19 and following, and 103.], who refers these deeds to the year 1228. I think the pontifical absolution was conferred later, since until the year 1230 Henry professes himself only duke of Silesia in a diploma of the 14th of September 1230, although in other diplomas of the same year he ascribes to himself, besides Silesia, also the duchy of Poland and of Cracow. All of which were at length confirmed by a bull of Gregory IX given in 1235 Stenzel, Scriptores, volume 1, page 20, note 3.. And so the pernicious dissension came to rest.

[66] He seems, however, to have been rather unfair towards ecclesiastical property, One thing, however, must not be concealed, namely that Duke Henry, on the occasion of these controversies, was accused before Pope Gregory IX of having violated ecclesiastical immunity. For the Pontiff commissioned William, formerly bishop of Modena, afterwards of Sabina, and cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, then his penitentiary and legate of the apostolic See to the Northern nations Ughelli, Italia sacra, volume II, column 123., to inquire against the princes of Poland who wickedly oppressed the Churches, and to compel Duke Henry the Bearded to make good the injuries and damages inflicted on the bishop of Gniezno and on other ecclesiastical men Raynaldus, Continuatio Annalium Baronii, year 1236, § LXV.. But Henry did not comply with the admonitions and commands of William; nay, the prince, cited before the legate, would not appear even through his procurators, wherefore he was bound with the bond of excommunication, which he tried to escape by interposing an appeal to the apostolic see, which Gregory calls frivolous Ibid., year 1238, § LVI.. The appeal nevertheless seems to have been admitted; since, as we have from a letter of Gregory to Henry, the son of the Bearded, given on the 8th day before the Kalends of June 1238, from which we have drawn the preceding Ibid., § LVII., the archbishop of Gniezno and Henry's procurators being present at the apostolic See, the Cardinal Deacon of Saints Cosmas and Damian was granted as auditor; Before whom, says Gregory, the case having been litigated for some time, we, wishing to defer to your said father without injury to the law, ordered him to be absolved ad cautelam through the abbot of Stragon and his colleagues, and to be cited to appear before us in person or through a suitable procurator at a fixed term, to do and receive concerning the principal matter what justice should counsel. But they, not observing the form of the apostolic mandate, although they had cited him according to the form handed to them, a fixed term having been assigned him, nevertheless wrongly caused him to be absolved ad cautelam through another, in fact, since in law they could not.

[67] But when at the prefixed term, even when awaited after the term, no procurator appeared for him, although he can be excused in some fashion: except only for obtaining and contradicting, our beloved son S., presbyter Cardinal of the title of St. Mary across the Tiber, deputed by us as auditor on this matter, deservedly reckoning him contumacious, condemned him in the lawful expenses which the said archbishop had incurred from the time of the issuing of the citation. At length, however, certain persons who acted as procurators, exhibiting a sufficient mandate, having received from the archbishop aforesaid the libel, as well concerning the exactions and grievances aforesaid as concerning the damages inflicted on him and on the Church of Gniezno in vills, possessions, men and other things; and also concerning the expenses incurred from the time of the moving of the suit, litigated with each other for some time concerning it before the same Cardinal: but before the rumour of the death of your said father had come to our knowledge, it could not come to the joinder of issue. The Pontiff then exhorts Henry the son to make satisfaction for the injuries and damages inflicted on the Church. These things certainly indicate that the elder Henry, or the Bearded, dealt rather hardly with the prelates of Poland. For the rest, says the praised Raynaldus, if some stain seems to have been cast on his name on account of the afflicted Church of Gniezno, it can be wiped away by this excuse, that he was of the opinion that he was justly pursuing his right; or that ministers in his name (which they are rather often wont to do for the sake of winning the favour of princes and of diverting some gain to themselves) oppressed that Church. For my part I should not wonder if this too ran among Henry's thoughts, that he wished to force ecclesiastical affairs in Poland, so far as regards temporal things, to a certain German norm, which was generally less burdensome to the people Stenzel, Urkunden der Diöcese Breslau, Preface, page XIX..

[68] the death of Duke Henry, These controversies not yet having been settled, Henry, the husband of St. Hedwig, died; and the writers of Silesian and Polish affairs praise him with unanimous voice. He died at Crossen on the 14th day before the Kalends of April 1238; the Life of St. Hedwig, number 21, says indeed that the duke closed his last day about the year 1237; which, although it does not altogether affirm it, nevertheless seems very like an error: unless indeed the biographer reckoned the beginning of the year 1238 from Easter, which fell in that year on the 2nd day before the Nones of April Stenzel, Scriptores, volume II, page 13, note 2.. Wherefore the Chronicles of the princes of Poland write Ibid.: At length the pious prince with his most blessed wife Hedwig, living together continently for almost 30 years out of love of chastity, both abstained from the marriage bed, and as the badge of a pleasing religion Duke Henry himself bore the clerical tonsure and a beard after the likeness of a lay brother, whence he was commonly called the Bearded Duke. Who, at last descending to the lower parts of his principality, namely at Crossen, on the 14th day before the Kalends of April, happily closed his last day, and, being brought thence to the monastery of Trebnitz, which he himself had long before founded with great zeal of piety for a convent of nuns serving God in chastity, and had largely endowed, was solemnly buried there in the year of the Lord 1238, as befitted such a prince. His tomb at Trebnitz is adorned with the following inscription Sommersberg, volume I, page 312., which declares compendiously the chief virtues and endowments of the deceased:

Duke Henry, the honour of Silesia, whom I strive to bewail,

Lies here, founding this foundation, abounding in virtue,

Guardian of the needy, school of morals, rod of the guilty;

That without delay a good place in rest be his, pray.

[69] which St. Hedwig bears bravely Moreover, St. Hedwig bore the death of her husband, by far the dearest to her, not only with an even but also with a brave spirit; nay, as her biographer narrates at number 21, while all the sisters at Trebnitz wept inconsolably for the loss of so great and such a patron and founder of the monastery, she, appearing among them with dry eyes, reproved the softness of their womanly hearts … Moreover she consoled them in the cause of her own sorrow, not that she

did not love him whom she loved in the Lord, as being a religious man and useful to the people, but because she strove to subject herself in all things to the divine will, and wished to show the sisters examples of constancy and patience in the time of her tribulation. Similarly, when she heard that her son, Duke Henry, had been killed in the battle with the Tartars, no tears bursting forth and no signs of grief shown, she consoled her daughter, the abbess at Trebnitz, and her daughter-in-law, the wife of the same slain son, who were weeping and as it were dying for sorrow, and said: "It is the will of God, and what God wills and what pleases the Lord our God ought to please us." In that very hour too her spirit exulted in the Lord, and, raising her eyes and hands to heaven, she said: "I give thee thanks, O Lord, that thou hadst given me such a son, who while he lived always loved me and held me in great reverence, and never troubled me in anything. Whom, although I would gladly have him with me on earth, yet I greatly rejoice for him that through the shedding of his blood he is already joined to thee, his Creator, in heaven. Whose soul I commend the more diligently to thee, the Lord God." For the rest, her biographer testifies at number 76 that she foretold her son's death three years before it happened; nay, she also revealed to her secretary, Demunda, the very moment of time at which Duke Henry fell, as is narrated in the same place.

[70] The Mongols covet Europe, Henry II, called the Pious, St. Hedwig's son, fell on the 8th day of April of the year 1241, killed by the Tartars. These Tartars, moreover, were a Mongol nation, which under the leadership of Genghis Khan had subjected the whole Chinese empire to its yoke and had held dominion far and wide through Asia Deguignes, Histoire des Huns, volume III, page 53 and following., when about the year 1224, pursuing their enemies, they came to the borders of present-day Russia Ibid., page 61.. It was, moreover, a savage and cruel nation; which seemed to itself to have shown great mercy to a captured city when, fifty thousand having been granted their lives, it had consigned the rest of the multitude, that is, thirty thousand of the inhabitants, to death, and as many thousands again to captivity; which indeed historians report of Samarkand, the chief city of the Indies Ibid., page 50 and following.: nay, it was seriously deliberated with Genghis Khan whether it would not be opportune to reduce the whole northern Chinese land, all its inhabitants having been killed, to a vast solitude, which would furnish broad pastures for the herds; but at length the kinder opinion prevailed, which maintained that cultivated fields, iron, silk and things like these would bring far greater profit to the royal treasury Ibid., 62.. Such was the nation which, under the rule of Ögödei, from the year 1227 the successor of his father Genghis Khan, under the leadership of Batu, was preparing an irruption into the West.

[71] and Poland, though resisting in vain, In the year of Christ 1236, indeed, five hundred thousand Mongol horsemen under Batu, or Bato, invaded eastern Russia: and first they subjugated the dwellers by the Euxine Sea, then, after they had reduced Bulgaria into their power, they took Moscow, the capital of the Russian empire, in which city, although occupied after a surrender agreed upon, they slew a huge multitude of the people with the sword, and made the whole region tributary and subject to themselves. Nor content with these victories, in the year 1240 they invade Russia anew and occupy Kiev. And from there he sent troops under the leader Bela (whom Joseph Ritter calls Peta Geschichte der Diöcese Breslau, volume I, page 136.), to lay waste Poland, Silesia and Moravia. Having advanced as far as the Vistula, and having occupied a fortress set on the river, they withdraw again into Muscovy; from which, breaking out a third time in the winter season of the year 1240, they cross the Vistula, solidified by ice, and take the city of Sandomierz and slaughter all its inhabitants to extermination: and they were already threatening Cracow when they return into Muscovy, without the prince of Cracow, Boleslaw, daring to set a barrier against them as they returned. But the bolder Włodzimierz, palatine of Cracow, attacks the common enemy at the vill of Tursko, at the river Czarna, and kills many. Terrified by this defeat, the Mongols went off into Muscovy, that, their forces renewed and allies enlisted, they might be able to burst into Poland the stronger Ibid., page 95 and following..

[72] they invade; Meanwhile the Poles, encouraged by their victory, also gather new forces for themselves: the palatines Włodzimierz and Pakosław and Clement, castellan of Cracow, assemble at Szydłów and join battle with the Mongols: at first indeed they win a slight victory over the enemy, but the barbarians, their forces united, burst upon the Poles and break them. The Christians in consternation turn their backs to the enemy, and spread the terror of the Mongol name far and wide. Boleslaw indeed, surnamed the Chaste, fled into Hungary together with his mother and his wife: Cracow, deserted by its citizens, becomes the prey of the enemy, who lay everything waste with fire, so that not even one church remained unharmed, except the church of St. Andrew, situated outside the city, in which some Poles who had taken refuge repel the Mongol force: but the barbarians, who have no leisure to be detained by this siege, leaving that fortress, such as it was, press on as far as Wrocław, which the inhabitants themselves had destroyed by fire before the hostile irruption.

[73] then Henry II takes up arms, Such was the face of affairs when Duke Henry, St. Hedwig's son, determined to undergo the hazard of war. Already at the beginning of January of the year 1241, the leader Bela, or Peta, with his Mongols came so unexpectedly upon Racibórz, which is about twenty-five German miles distant from Wrocław, that scarcely any time remained to the citizens for closing the gates: the enemy pressed the city from without, which was being killed within by the most atrocious famine. Nevertheless, for whatever cause in the end, still unknown, the barbarians freed the city from siege on the 16th day of January; whence to this very day a feast is kept at Racibórz in thanksgiving. But in the month of March the enemy again apply themselves to the city, which Mieszko II, duke of Opole, having enlisted an army, endeavoured to defend: and that indeed not unsuccessfully, since Mieszko, about five hundred men having been killed, put the barbarians to flight and pursued them as far as Cracow, where the force and strength of the Poles stood in battle array. But here too fortune favoured the barbarians: for on the 18th day of March at Chmielnik, near Cracow, they were cut down, and Mieszko returned by byways to Racibórz; where he took suitable counsels for the protection of the city Ritter, Geschichte der Diöcese Breslau, volume I, page 137..

[74] and a battle These things having been arranged on the spur of the moment, Mieszko proceeded with his soldiers to meet Henry, duke of Silesia, who had enlisted an army of thirty thousand men. And not long afterwards a huge multitude of Mongols came a third time in sight of Racibórz, which, however, passing over, they direct their troops along both banks of the Oder towards Wrocław, laying everything waste with sword and fire; but Wrocław itself had already been destroyed by flames by its citizens or by the soldiers. And so at length the barbarians approach Legnica, where Henry stood with his army Ibid., in the place cited.. Duke Henry, moreover, had distributed his soldiers into four squadrons: over the first, consisting of volunteer soldiers and the miners of Goldberg, was set Boleslaw Syepiolka, son of the margrave of Moravia; the second, which the troops of Cracow and of Upper Poland formed, was led by Sulisław, brother of Włodzimierz, palatine of Cracow; in the third, gathered from the men of Opole and the soldiers of the Teutonic Order, the leader was the aforesaid Mieszko: over the fourth, finally, enlisted from the chosen warriors of Poland and Silesia, Duke Henry himself was set. The Mongols also divided their army into four, and each of its parts was more numerous than the whole Christian host.

[75] he joins an unlucky one, On the field, therefore, says Długosz, whom we copy in abridgement Historia Polonica, book VII, column 678 and following., which is called the Good Field, either from the fertility of the soil or because it is stretched out and broad in all directions, both armies met on the 5th day before the Ides of April. The first squadron, which we said was formed of volunteers and gold-miners, made the beginning of the battle, which it had demanded with great eagerness for itself: at first there was a sharp onset on both sides, and the volunteers and the men of Goldberg had finished off the first ranks of the Mongols with their lances; but when the matter began to be conducted with swords at close quarters, the Christian squadron, surrounded on all sides by the archers of the barbarians, was overwhelmed by the multitude of arrows: Boleslaw the Moravian and the rest of the foremost soldiers falling, the remainder fled back to the columns of the Poles. Then two companies, standing under the leadership of Sulisław and Mieszko, succeed to the battle, which, when they had waged it successfully and steadfastly, and had made a huge slaughter of the barbarians, the barbarians were compelled first to give ground and, the Poles pressing more sharply, to turn to flight. Meanwhile certain men from the columns of the Mongols, whether they were of Ruthenian or of Mongol nation is held uncertain, running about with very swift pace between the two lines, uttered terrible cries, calling to the Poles in Polish to flee, but to the Mongols in their own tongue to persevere in the fight. At this cry Mieszko, believing that not an enemy but a friend had cried out from a certain compassion, deserting the battle, fled, and drew into a like flight a great body of soldiers, especially of those who obeyed him in the third column De Guignes, Histoire des Huns, volume III, page 98..

[76] in which Henry himself But Duke Henry, not at all frightened by the flight of Mieszko and of those who were under his column, leads his fourth line, composed of the better and bravest fighters, into battle and drives the army of the barbarians to take to flight. But Batu renews the battle, brings help to the tottering and scattered Mongols, and charges the Poles with a terrible onset. But these did not yield to the enemy pressing on them; nay, victory now inclining towards the Christians, the barbarians had begun to look to flight, when the standard-bearer of a certain special banner began to wave his banner, more probably as it were as a signal for kindling bundles of tow, with which they might drive smoke and stench against the enemy Ibid., in the place cited.. The Poles, covered with fog and stupefied by the smell, waver; and the Mongols, raising a horrid shout, burst upon the enemy, and, the columns which had stood intact up to that time being broken, make a huge slaughter, in which Boleslaw the Moravian and Pompo, master of the Teutonic knights, fell. Duke Henry, however, fighting most bravely, his army had not yet deserted: but, since all the others had been either killed or scattered in flight, he was surrounded by a dense ring of barbarians; so that he was surrounded from behind and in front: yet he did not on that account abandon the battle, but, killing whatever Mongols came in his way, he strove to break through their multitude: yet easily the few were swallowed up and crushed by the many. Now there were only four knights about Duke Henry, Sulisław, brother of Włodzimierz of Cracow, Clement, palatine of Głogów, Conrad Konradowicz and John Iwanowicz: and these four were trying with all the force they could to lead Duke Henry out of the line and the battle, lest he should fall into the peril of death, thinking that, the prince being saved, the defeat would be less bitter and less shameful.

[77] is miserably slain: And perhaps the outcome would have answered their counsel, had not the horse on which the duke sat, already worn out by very many wounds, slowed its course. Henry, therefore, recognized by his ducal insignia, of the barbarians

drew the eyes upon himself alone, and, attended by three comrades (the fourth, John Iwanowicz, having been separated from the others), he was hemmed in on all sides by hostile squadrons: nor on that account did he cease to fight bravely with his three companions. Meanwhile Iwanowicz, the wedges of the enemy having been broken through, presented to Henry a fresh and unhurt horse, found by Rocisław, the ducal chamberlain; and Henry, following Iwanowicz, who was opening a way through the midst of the barbarians, was just on the point of escaping safely from the utmost danger, when, his companion and groom having been wounded, his flight was both intercepted and he was surrounded by the Mongols a third time. Bereft, therefore, of all hope of safety, the duke fights most boldly against the barbarians pressing on all sides. But while, his right hand raised, he was about to strike a Mongol, pierced under the armpit by the lance of another barbarian, he slid dying from his horse; and the Mongols, raising a huge shout and a din of uncouth voices, seize him, and, having dragged him outside the place of the combat, cut off his head with a sword, and leave his body naked, stripped of its insignia [De Guignes, Histoire des Huns, volume II, page 99. Ritter, Geschichte der Diöcese Breslau, volume I, page 137.]. This was the issue of a most atrocious battle, by which the Mongols, made fiercer, were already threatening all Christendom, had not God averted this calamity from Europe. For the rest, the body of Duke Henry, sought for burial several days later, when the Mongols were departing to Racibórz, since among the corpses it could not be recognized because it was beheaded, his wife Anna giving the sign of the six-toed left foot, was at length found, and, brought to Wrocław, was committed to the earth in the church of St. James, afterwards of St. Vincent, of the Friars Minor Sommersberg, volume I, page 316..

[78] The Mongols, however, although victors, And indeed one might justly wonder that the barbarians, after so remarkable a victory, went back to Racibórz, while inner Germany and other western regions seemed to lie open to their arms. Nevertheless the matter is probably explained, because, namely, the Mongols, although victors, were themselves also much worn down in strength, and a similar victory again, won by the slaughter of so many of their own, would at length have been far more fatal to the triumphers than to those triumphed over. From a letter, indeed, of Wenceslaus III, king of Bohemia, we have it that he was staying with a most powerful army near the field at the very time at which the battle was being fought, and on the day following the battle stood in arms, ready to receive the enemy manfully. Which the barbarians hearing, fearing lest they should leave a most powerful enemy at their back, drew back their foot: by this reasoning, namely, it is explained how with so sudden and so headlong a course, leaving aside the provinces of Germany, they invaded Moravia.

[79] fearing the arms of other princes; Here are the words of Wenceslaus Stenzel, Scriptores, volume II, page 462.: The Tartars have powerfully occupied the province (if I am not mistaken, Hungary); but the part of the army which came into Poland, the duke and very many nobles of the land having been killed, turned its march towards the parts of Moravia, our land, and lays it waste so bestially and horribly that their sword spares no one's life, without distinction of sex, age and condition: for at the time when they were in Poland we with our army were so near the duke that on the day after he fell we could have reached him with all our strength; but he, alas! without consulting or requesting us, engaged with them, from which thing he was miserably slain; which being learned, we advanced with the army to the borders of Poland, wishing on the morrow to have taken, with divine help mediating, a worthy vengeance on them; but they, our purpose and intention being known, took to flight, and, the great and most rapid rivers which they crossed notwithstanding, in a single natural day completed in their advance 40 miles, and so, as has been said before, they turned aside into our land of Moravia, where, making a stay, they inflict on us incessantly the greatest and intolerable damages, slaughtering from the greatest even to the least, with women and little ones: they have destroyed noble cloisters and killed very many monks: wherefore we have thought it right most earnestly to ask your love, in which we place special confidence, that for the love of Jesus Christ and for the defence of the Catholic faith you would deign to show us your counsel and likewise your help as to how they are to be met in the time of malice.

[80] whom the Pope had summoned to a holy war, The time of the writing of this letter is uncertain, since it is not indicated. Nevertheless, since Wenceslaus says that the Tartars, or Mongols, were staying in Moravia at the time when he was writing, the letter seems altogether to belong to the month of April or May of the year 1241, if it is true that the barbarians stayed there for only one month De Guignes, Histoire des Huns, volume III, page 99.; which indeed John Dubravius also intimates, saying that the enemy, deceived by the people of Olomouc, whom they thought cowardly and timid, relaxed their customary watches: of which the Christian war-leader, being informed, unexpectedly crushes the enemy, and, their leader Peta having been killed, forced them to flight; and they, leaving Moravia, came by a seven days' journey into Hungary to Batu, the supreme commander of the European war. Meanwhile Gregory IX, who already on the 4th day before the Kalends of March 1241 had exhorted Bela, king of Hungary, not to deprive the Church of God of his help in so great a necessity Boček, Codex diplomaticus Moraviæ, volume III, page 4., by other apostolic letters, given on the 13th day before the Kalends of July of the same year, orders the Cistercian abbot of the Holy Cross and the Friars Preachers and Minors to preach a crusade against the barbarian irruption Ibid., page 5 and following..

[81] they return into Russia. Nor did the Christian princes turn deaf ears to these invitations; for most of them professed themselves ready and prepared to undertake the holy war. Conrad, king of the Romans, calls the Germans to an expedition of the Cross Ibid., page 10.; St. Louis, king of France, having heard of the calamity, exclaims: "Either let us repel the Tartars, or, if it should befall us to be conquered, we shall pass to God as Confessors or Martyrs of Christ" Raynaldus, Continuatio Baronii, year 1241, § XIII.. Nay, even Frederick II himself, the emperor, then the most bitter enemy of the Roman Church, seemed at least to feign the same ardour for defending the faith, when he sought the help of the king of England for this matter: but, as Paris says, a common rumour had grown that the Tartars had been unleashed by Frederick to the destruction of the Christians, either that he might overthrow the Church by their help, or that, the most cruel enemy having been let in, the Pontiff might cast aside his counsels of dislodging him from the empire Ibid., § XXIX.. At length the Mongols had advanced from the kingdom of Hungary into Austria; but when they saw there a most powerful army of Christians opposed to them under the banners of Wenceslaus of Bohemia, of the dukes of Austria and of other princes, they drew back their foot; nay, deserting Hungary itself they fled into Russia, into whose character, occupied for two hundred years, they instilled an Asiatic element Ritter, Geschichte der Diöcese Breslau, page 139..

§ VII. St. Hedwig prepares herself for a blessed death by the reception of the Sacraments: her death, canonization and cult.

Although she seemed healthy, she is anointed with extreme unction; Her son Henry II having died, St. Hedwig did not long survive. What, however, chiefly occurs as noteworthy in the narrative of her death is this, that the Saint wished to be anointed with the last oil of the sick before her sickness. Of which thing indeed some examples are reported by those who have written either on the rites of the Sacraments or on theology. Thus Edmond Martène, in his Treatise on the ancient rites of the Church Book I, chapter VIII, article 1, volume I, page 296, Venice edition, 1783., shows various persons who received this last Sacrament while healthy: Odilia, daughter of count Herimann, a monk of Marmoutier, divinely warned of his approaching departure from the world, and Gingurianus, a lay brother of the monastery of Rugensis. But let us observe, first, that this Sacrament was bestowed on those who were about to depart from life by a natural death, and indeed very soon: whence, in my opinion, the principle always and everywhere received, at least in the Latin Church, is confirmed, that extreme unction is to be conferred on the sick alone; for the examples which are adduced have this in common, that it is a question of persons near to death, and therefore of men of this kind who already had within themselves, although hidden, the proximate cause of death, and hence a grave sickness, which sufficed for conferring the last Sacrament of the dying. There is only one difference between these special cases and the ordinary ones; namely that in the former faith is placed in a prophet, in the latter in a physician, which difference indeed is not essential. So too our Saint Hedwig, although she seemed healthy and unharmed, nevertheless knew by heavenly revelation that she had in herself a hidden sickness, to be resolved in death; there was therefore sufficient cause, since she was believed a most holy woman, illumined by supernal lights, for the Sacrament to be administered to her at her request, which her confessor would not deny, nor perhaps even could.

[83] and on the Ides of October 1243 she dies holily; For the rest, we also hold it certain that St. Hedwig laboured under a fairly long sickness before she died; since, as our biographer has it at number 86, she is already reported to have been sick when the sisters returned after the assault of the Tartars, that is, in the year 1241: for there is no reason for us to conjecture that the nuns wandered outside the cloisters for a solid two years without necessity. Moreover, all the writers of weightier note agree that the Saint died on the 15th day, or the Ides, of October, and if any speak otherwise, it is to be ascribed to ignorance or to the fault of copyists. Our biographer has this at number 91: Blessed Hedwig passed from this world in the year of the Lord one thousand CCXLIII, on the Ides of the month of October, about the hour of Vespers, so that at that very hour at which she was accustomed in her daily fast to be bodily refreshed with dry food, she might be transferred to the delights of heaven and to the sabbath of unending rest, to be celebrated with all the Saints. What Sommersberg reports, therefore Silesiacarum rerum Scriptores, volume I, page 313., that St. Hedwig departed from this world on the 7th day before the Ides, or the 9th day of October, and was buried on the Ides of the same month, is not to be held of great weight, when the nearly contemporary writer of her Life asserts constantly, without any variety of reading, that the Saint's day of death is the 15th of October. And since we determined above at number 31 that St. Hedwig was born about the year 1174, it is manifest that she died almost seventy years old.

[84] renowned for miracles, concerning her canonization After St. Hedwig had departed from this world, whom God had glorified with many and illustrious miracles, both in death and after death, it began at once, as it seems, to be treated of her canonization. For as soon as she breathed out her spirit, the sisters of Trebnitz, as our biographer has it at number 93, running up with great desire and eagerness of mind, each seized whatever she could take of the Relics of the body. For some cut off the nails of her fingers, others of her feet, and some the hair of her holy head. And indeed, in truth, scarcely twenty years having elapsed from the death of St. Hedwig, when, as the bull of canonization speaks, so many miracles are laid open … the devotion of the faithful people could not but glow, the clamour could not be kept back, but that in the world's

notice it should bring the aforesaid things with ready lips. And thus you (the archbishop of Gniezno and his suffragans) and the noble men, the dukes of the same province, more vehemently stirred by the clamours of the people themselves, lest by suppressing the great works of God you might seem worthily liable to be marked with ingratitude, together with our beloved daughters in Christ … the abbess and convent of the same monastery, in which her body has been laid to rest with that honour which befitted it, took care to set forth in order to our predecessor of happy memory Pope Urban (IV) the matter done in the premises, as the truth was afterwards ascertained, asking with suppliant devotion and unremitting instance that he would cause the Saint herself, whom her life and miracles had proclaimed to be joined to the college of the Blessed, to be venerated among the other Saints with fitting celebration.

[85] the Roman Pontiff orders action to be taken. Accordingly, as our biographer has it at number 165, the lord Volimir, bishop of Włocławek, and brother Simon, provincial prior of Poland of the Friars Preachers, were deputed by the Apostolic See as examiners, who began to investigate and examine the life and miracles of Blessed Hedwig in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and sixty-two, on the seventh day before the Kalends of November, writing down the depositions and names of the witnesses and their whole process concerning this business entrusted to them, and, seals having been affixed, transmitting it to the Supreme Pontiff; they signified to him that many other kinds of signs also and cures of sicknesses, which they had heard from trustworthy persons had been wrought by the merits of Blessed Hedwig, they were unable to examine on account of the difficulty of summoning witnesses from remote parts. Whence a second commission was given them by the Supreme Pontiff to inquire concerning the same business, and then, proceeding anew to the examination, they found more than the former, which, writing them down, they transmitted a second time to the Apostolic See. The first aforesaid examination, therefore, was made in the chapter-house of the sisters of Trebnitz, in the year of the Lord mentioned; the second in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and sixty-three, on the 5th day before the Kalends of March, in the house of the same Sisters; the third in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and sixty-four, on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of April, in the same place, in the church of St. Bartholomew; the fourth in the same year at Wrocław in the house of the Friars Preachers, on the seventh day before the Kalends of April. In other places also the aforesaid prelates and inquisitors made examinations concerning the life and miracles of this Saint. We read that there were sent to Rome to urge the canonization of St. Hedwig Nicholas the Scholastic and Solomon the archdeacon, of Cracow, Herebert, dean of Wyszogród, and many other honourable persons, as the biographer has it at numbers 166 and 167 [Compare Prospero Lambertini (Benedict XIV), De Canonizatione Sanctorum, book I, chapter XX, number 12.].

[86] which is at length accomplished by Clement IV; But the death of Urban IV delaying the cause, Clement IV, who succeeded him, although, says the biographer at number 167, he was sufficiently instructed by the suitable testimony of many concerning the prerogative of the merits of the said Blessed Hedwig, nevertheless desired that a sign should be wrought by God through her merits, so that, while he beheld it with bodily eyes, he himself too might be a witness of her sanctity. There is then narrated the healing of a daughter of Pope Clement himself, whom he had formerly had by his lawful wife when devoted to secular service: and finally St. Hedwig is said to have been canonized on the Ides (15th) of October 1267. If indeed we hold this epoch of the canonization as true, it will have to be said, in my judgment, that the biographer is treating of the solemnity to be celebrated throughout Silesia; for since the bull itself, by which St. Hedwig is inscribed in the Album of the Saints, is dated on the 7th day before the Kalends of April (26th of March), which in the year 1267, marked with the dominical letter b, fell on the Saturday before the IVth Sunday of Lent, which is called Lætare, the statements of the biographer at number 168 fit rightly, who reports the miracle of the multiplied fishes; for that day on which the aforesaid solemnities were performed was one of abstinence, and it was not permitted to use meat on it, nor could fish suitable for such a festivity be had. Whence also I do not consider that the variant reading of the codices of Trebnitz and Leubus is to be admitted, which assigns the day of canonization to the 18th day before the Kalends of December of the year 1266 (the 14th of November), which in that year fell on a Sunday, on which consequently it was permitted to eat meat. In this way both the day of the bull's dating stands, and the biographer is not to be said to have altogether gone astray, who seems to indicate not so much the pontifical act as the Silesian celebration. We subjoin the bull of canonization.

[87] whose bull is exhibited: Clement, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his venerable brethren, the archbishop of Gniezno and his suffragans, greeting and apostolic benediction. The pious mother of all the faithful, the Church, exults, about to bring forth from her inmost parts the jubilee of a new praise proceeding from this, that, as the world declines towards evening, she is known to have found, as an inestimable pearl, a valiant woman, whose bulwarks of constant mind no ram, driven by adverse events, could shake, nor turn her from that purpose of sanctity which she had worthily conceived in the womb of her mind. But since the wise man asserts that the finding of a woman of this kind is difficult, let it be brought to light who she is, and let knowledge of her be had, lest, withdrawn from the notice of men by the clouds of ignorance, she be defrauded of the proclamations of praise by which she is to be exalted everywhere through the climes of the world for her merits. For it is not fitting that she whom the title of such great virtue has made illustrious should any longer be hidden under a bushel, and that she should be kept in hiding whom the divine benignity has so advanced by a heap of merits. For antiquity did not wish to forget valiant women, but so set and raised them upon the candlestick of virtue and grace that devouring age cannot abolish their memory, nor the envy which gravely infects the goods of others blacken it. Hence antiquity itself consigned to perpetual monuments, by the brightness of their deeds, Judith and Jael, who slew Holofernes and Sisera with a manly right hand, that, as they were of use to the ancients, their memory might thereafter be prolonged to posterity for an example. For which reason, lest we be judged unlike that antiquity which did not withdraw the hand of solicitude from labours, that it might profit posterity, which kept the watches of the night that it might leave us the institutes of discipline and of morals, we have thought it fitting to disclose more expressly who this woman is and what she did, that it may by no means be hidden from those whom pious devotion renders studious in the purpose of sincerity.

[86] the virtues of St. Hedwig are proclaimed; And indeed she is the holy Hedwig of pious memory, the brightness of whose birth, by the derivation of blood, so shone forth that she proceeded as a noble offshoot from those who bore the sceptres of kingdoms, and whom the loftiness of the empire makes illustrious, adding by herself more splendour to the rays of nobility than came to her from the root whence she had drawn her origin; for which, if it had been fitting to glory according to the flesh and the world, she could deservedly have gloried, with no flattering falsehood. But since glory of this kind for the most part, emptying the outlook of virtue, casts those whom it exalts headlong into the vice of pride, in order that the power of Christ might abound more richly through grace in her breast, she took glory not in that which is the nobility of the flesh, but only in her infirmities, perceiving that those are by no means deprived of the fruits of divine love, nor defrauded of the gift of heavenly blessing, whom it befalls to be visited by the benevolent Father with the sharpness of salutary infirmity. Further, while she was a little girl, she did scarcely anything childish in deed, and as the time of more advanced age succeeded, lest any occasion of reproach should be furnished to the adversary, she took to be lawfully contracted a marriage with Henry of illustrious memory, duke of Poland, in which, salutarily preserving the imparted good of marriage, she so prudently conducted herself that, keeping the faith of the marriage-bed inviolate, instructing in the fear of God the offspring she had received, she did not depart by the injury of separation from the duke himself, to whom she is believed always to have clung not by a headlong affection of pleasure but by the discreet judgment of reason, until by fatal lot he was taken from the midst, although, that they might give themselves more devoutly to prayer and contemplation, by equal vow and unanimous consent they held the marriage-bed separated for many courses of years, since the mind drawn to many things is less able to serve its Creator, and a woman desiring to please her husband is sometimes held more sluggish in the things which are God's.

[89] especially in the state of widowhood At length, the duke himself having breathed out his spirit most christianly, as is asserted, she at once aspired more to the familiar company of him whose beauty the sun and moon admire, as free and loosed from the law of an earthly husband; but since he is not found in the land of those who live delicately, and detests the assembly of the malignant, she sought, where she could, since the whole world is set in wickedness, to find where she might seek him, where she might find him for whose desire she languished; and indeed, while she considered the difficulty of finding him and could not but seek him whom she loved, her mind indeed wavered and was tossed more vehemently among the rocks of perplexity; for love urged her to seek, but the difficulty of finding him who was to be sought, obstacles being thrown in the way, delayed the end of her purpose; and so, while she was held in doubt, it was at length instilled from heaven into her ears by the accounts of Sacred Scripture that he is found in the fields of the wood and that his discourse is with the simple. Then she began to run about with anxious search and to inquire with her whole mind where are those fields which God so illumines by his presence, and in which flourishes that simplicity which is declared worthy of the divine addresses. But the spirit which gives understanding at once met her as she wavered, and, loosing the knot of every doubt, explained the fields of the wood to be the places of religion, in which, as though they were not in the world, the things which are of the world are not done, but what she desired is found in them the more easily, the more they are separated from the tumults of the world. Hence, so instructed by the unction of the Holy Spirit, whose it is to teach concerning all things, with the vehicle of chaste love assisting, she is drawn the more swiftly to the monastery of Trebnitz of the Cistercian Order, the less she was weighed down by earthly affections; in whose nuns indeed the simplicity of intention and the purity of mind so pleased her that she could, by the divine clemency, have accounted being with them her delights. And although she observed, before all the nuns, those things which were of regular discipline, so far as was permitted to her state, yet she refused to make the vow of profession and to renounce property, for no other reason, as is said, than that she might have wherewith to stretch out her palm to the poor and open the right hand of munificence to the needy.*

[90] by assiduity in prayer, Having therefore found there him whom her soul had sought, she at once prepares a flowery bed for him in her conscience, and, admitted by sweet contemplation as it were to his embraces, captivated by the draught of a new sweetness, from then on she judged bitter whatever the golden cup of Babylon offers to drink. For, as one inebriated with his love, she disdained to speak or hear of any other than of him; she venerated his gifts, and, loving his friends and composing herself to his nod, she is not believed afterwards knowingly to have transgressed his will, which she had studied altogether to fulfil. But he who had seduced Eve, the mother of all, thinking to find the daughter like the mother, after he perceived that the world was despised and trampled on by her, began to weave the devices of fraud, poured out the venom of iniquity, and, sharpening the arrows of vices, tried to pervert her, whom, clinging to the heavenly things from which he himself had fallen, he envied. But since in vain is the net cast before the eyes of winged creatures, since she knew his wiles,

she without doubt feared his snares but little. For she kept herself happily in a loftier citadel, which she had fortified with a rampart of virtues, where, as though supported by divine protection, she laid low the enemy himself, overturning his camps and despising his machinations; she by no means feared the dart which the enemy himself rather often draws from the quiver of impiety to destroy man. In this appearing so much the braver and more excellent than the aforesaid women, as it is more magnificent to lay low a spiritual than a temporal enemy and finally to have carried off the glory of triumph over him; since we read that many, as though seduced by him, gave over their breasts to offences, who did not turn their backs to visible enemies. But where is the tinder of sin, where the frailty of the flesh and the domestic enemy? Did it yield the contest, refuse to fight, and hesitate to engage with the spirit of this holy woman? For in this mortal body it cannot be altogether extinguished, but, lurking in the marrow, it creeps in the flesh, rages in the veins, and, unless it be restrained, bursts out into the madness of vices.

[91] the austerity of her penance, Which indeed she prudently attending to, by vigils and almost constant fasts and by an astonishing roughness of garments, as by the ploughshare of temperance, so cultivated the earth of her body that, as though subdued to the spirit, it produced no thorns and thistles of vices. And when the field of her body, cultivated with such solicitude, had been filled with an abundance of the fruits of honesty, she offered it to God as a victim for an odour of sweetness, mortifying its concupiscences and not the flesh; because certainly it would not be a reasonable service if anyone should strive for the destruction of the body and there should be made of it a victim which would not live by nature. Lastly, in all these things there was not lacking to her that which is the file and the charioteer of the virtues, prudence; but through it she so furthered and directed all things to be done that there was neither excess in measure nor error in order. For what was more prudent than by free services to merit the bridal chamber of the heavenly king, what more serious than to purchase for herself eternal things with momentary ones and divine things with temporal ones? For if Scripture records Abigail as most prudent, because she was made by the intervention of marriage the wife of David, whom, when angered, she had first appeased by eloquent speech, how much more skilful must this woman be reckoned than she, who both merited to become the spouse of Christ and, by the fragrance of the prayers to which she had incessantly given herself, made him inclined to grace who was sometimes provoked to vengeance by the excesses of offenders? O form of the virtues, title of chastity, harbour for the shipwrecked, and path of truth for those wandering in the way of morals! O admirable vessel, the work indeed of the Most High, which God set up on earth, that her life might be a mirror of sincerity to those who are of right heart.

[92] the sincerity of her humility For of such humility was she while she lived, that she devoted herself to the service of the poor in that manner that she sometimes ministered to them the necessaries of life on bended knees, and, showing a liberal hand to lepers out of a vow of compassion, she by no means shrank from their ulcers bursting with matter, nor feared the danger of the contagious disease; but the more the force of love towards God and neighbour urged her to zeal of assiduity, the more carefully she bent herself to the relief of the said lepers, so that where ulcers of this kind were brought forth, at once the bowels of pity were loosed in her, as though she put on their infirmity. Of such sincerity of devotion also did she remain in all things, that with the water with which the nuns of the same monastery had washed their feet, as though by their contact something of sanctity were in it, she very often sprinkled her face and eyes. She gave herself so attentively to the divine offices and especially to the solemnities of the Masses, that from sunrise until midday she did not depart from the church while offices of this kind were being said, not languid with torpor, nor in the meantime wearied, so far as could be judged, by the evil of accidie; nor yet let anyone think that she gave herself to the rest of sitting while such solemnities were being sung, since she then either stood upright or prayed bent down with bowed knee.

[93] and her patience in every way; But of what patience she was at the death of the late Henry, duke of Silesia, her only son, must not be passed over in silence, since it is delightful for those who fear God to hear it. For the bearer of grief came in to her, with torn garment and downcast face, and, his sobbing quite often interrupting his speech, he could scarcely express, impeded by sobs of this kind, how the same duke, a man indeed glorious, had fallen by the swords of Tartar savagery. Having heard which at length, she is said not to have contracted her face, not to have uttered sighs, but with exulting spirit at once to have answered: "I give thee thanks, O Lord God, that thou hast deigned to give me such a son, who, never inflicting any troubles on me, always reverenced me with honour and loved me with filial affection; and although I would rejoice to have him present while I live, yet I rejoice with him in this, that by the way of martyrdom he has merited to be joined to his Redeemer; and so I suppliantly commend his soul to thee." O word most worthy of acceptance and to be solemnly annexed to perpetual monuments! But for God's sake, what was it, in so lamentable a case, where the whole country bewailed its bereavement, that she was not affected by mourning and was not bathed in tears, except that she knew him sent before, not lost, and that she might be an efficacious medicine for grief and an example of consolation to mothers grieving immoderately at the death of their sons?

[94] Finally, since in the spiritual contest the crown is owed as a reward to the victor, the just judge, wishing to render to her that crown with which virtues she died: which, overcoming the world, the flesh and the devil, she had made due to herself by so many triumphs, called her, marked with his stigmata, the bulk of her body laid down, to the homeland, that crown of the kingdom being granted her which does not wither, is not taken away nor dries up, but makes him perennially happy whom it marks with glorious splendours. For this crown is not subject to time, which is the cause of corruption; to whom it is once granted, it is not afterwards taken away, since, it being granted, ingratitude cannot be committed, which is a sufficient cause for revoking a gift; and since it always clings to the fount of life, it never lays aside its greenness nor is affected by the losses of dryness, since it receives without intermission the watering of such a fount. Who will not hasten to come to this crown? What labour, what burden, does the greatness of so great a reward not lighten? Or what bitterness for the present so vehement, so troublesome, that it is not sweetened by the pay of so great a remuneration? O happy woman, who has obtained this crown, which the rewarder of all the good bestows! So distinguished, therefore, by the royal diadem, she reigns in the heavenly homeland, not unmindful of the exiles sighing to her with tears, whom she so consoles with her benefits that those lawfully striving in this world sometimes receive through her patronage pardon of their guilt and medicine for their ailments: which indeed the miracles subjoined evidently declare, a few out of many chosen for the present, as having been without doubt proved by most powerful and undoubted testimonies.

[95] various miracles obtained by the Saint's intercession For a certain boy had by chance fallen into a stream, and while he was being rolled along the wooden channel led under the wheel of a mill, the wheel itself stopped, the function of its revolution being hindered on this account; and while it is diligently inquired by those who had charge of the custody of the mill why this happened, the extremity of the boy's feet, which was being borne above the surface of the water, is offered to their sight. And although, the spirit of compassion prompting, they endeavour to draw him out of the water, where he had thus remained immersed for an hour and more, yet, the size of the wheel opposing, they cannot accomplish what they attempt from the office of pity. But that ingenious art might supply the defect of strength, certain instruments having been artfully applied, they draw up the wheel itself together with the boy, whose body was so compressed by the size of the wheel that in that part where the belly is known to cling to the back they judged it reduced to the thickness of the palm of the hand. And since it was crushed, cold and stretched out with excessive rigour, so that the witnesses asserted that he had without doubt been lifeless, the name of the Saint herself being suppliantly invoked, life is so restored to the boy that on the morning of the following day, no trace of injury remaining in him, he walked on his own feet.

[96] are narrated There was also a certain noble woman who, on account of a vehement and long-continued pain in the head, had incurred such a darkness of the eyes that by their defective sight her own hand could not be perceived; and since she could not be helped by the aid of physicians, she is brought to the tomb of the Saint herself, where, at once obtaining the gift of health, she did not afterwards incur the trouble of a relapse of the affliction. There was also another woman who, her sinews contracted, had had her feet for a year unfit for walking, both of whose thighs had so putrefied that it was exposed to be gnawed by worms breeding thence. And when she had been carried to the tomb itself by the assistance of friends, she returns home thence healthy, not helped by the support of any prop.

[97] miracles: Moreover, there was a certain man who from boyhood had had such slenderness of the shins that they scarcely exceeded the thickness of a reed, and therefore he could neither walk nor had any ability even of standing on them; and yet, leaning against her tomb, her help having been reverently implored, at first indeed not without fear, but as time went on, his shins being made solid and brought to their due size, all trembling being removed, he went on freely and securely. There was also another woman who was altogether deprived, paralysis threatening, of the use of her hands, feet and tongue; but as soon as she is carried to the place in which the Saint herself had been entombed, she received health entire, and is restored by evident miracle to those things of which the aforesaid sickness had deprived her. There was also a certain noble who for two years and more did not rise from the bed of sickness, because he had been struck with paralysis in the right part of his body, which, the covering of skin having been removed, had remained full of cancerous holes. And since the greatness of the disease exceeded the effect of any medicine, he is carried by the hands of friends to the tomb itself, where, dissolved in tears, he obtains by weeping full health, which carnal medicine was not able to confer on him even by the zeal of a skilled physician.

[98] moved by all these, the Pontiff, For such various diseases, therefore, one not dissimilar antidote and singular remedy is prepared, which is compounded for salvation from purity of devotion and of faith, which the woman of the Gospel and that king whose prayer the Lord heard and whose tear he saw experienced in their infirmities, since faith saved her, and the prayer of the other with tears was admitted, health being granted him for the increase of his days. Hence virtue reigns, vice is exiled, and, merit increasing, impiety is cast out. But since the province of Poland is adorned with such great gifts, enriched with the treasure of her precious body, what of favour and grace with God can be denied it when it asks, since it has merited to be cherished by the protection of such an advocate with him? For that she has taken the Poles themselves under her patronage to be furthered, let this be a sign to them, that she leaves to them as a pledge her very body, namely the garment of her spirit; nor yet by this let it be believed

that she is the patroness of the Poles in such a way that she does not further the prayers of other faithful before God, since in the homeland she now has more perfectly, than she would have had while she lived, that charity which even then she held diffused to all. But while so many miracles are laid open, signs grow frequent and benefits are conferred, the devotion of the faithful people could not but glow, the clamour could not be kept back, but that it should bring the aforesaid things with ready lips to the notice of the world. And thus you and the noble men, the dukes of the same province, more vehemently stirred by the clamours of the people themselves, lest by suppressing the great works of God you might seem worthily liable to be marked with ingratitude, together with our beloved daughters in Christ … the abbess and convent of the same monastery, in which her body has been laid to rest with that honour which befitted it, took care to set forth in order to our predecessor of happy memory Pope Urban the matter done in the premises, as the truth was afterwards ascertained, asking with suppliant devotion and unremitting instance that he would cause the Saint herself, whom her life and miracles had proclaimed to be joined to the college of the Blessed, to be venerated among the other Saints with fitting celebration.*

[99] after diligent inquiry, he inscribes Bl. Hedwig in the Catalogue of the Saints And indeed, although the sincerity of your devotion showed itself commendable in the presenting of a petition of this kind, in that it was so presented, yet because concerning the judgment of the present life, which makes a Saint if final justice accompanies it, it rather often happens that the Church herself is deceived, lest any fraud should befall or any error creep into the premises, it was necessary to proceed in this matter not with headlong haste but with fitting gravity applied; which the same predecessor diligently observing, ordered the truth concerning the premises to be inquired into more diligently through our venerable brother … bishop of Włocławek, and our beloved son brother Simon, provincial prior of the Friars Preachers of Poland and Bohemia, first, and, the business of this kind having been remitted to them, a second time. Since, therefore, through the inquiry so made and afterwards remitted to the Apostolic See by the bishop and prior themselves, and from the faithful report of our venerable brother … bishop of Tusculum, to whom the examination of the same inquiry had been committed by the same predecessor, it has been evidently established concerning the sincerity of the holy woman's life and the truth of the signs, we, after much deliberation previously had with our brethren, as the greatness of so great a business had demanded, have decreed, on the counsel both of those brethren and of the prelates who were then staying at the same See, that she, who, despising the pomp of the service rendered her, scorning the reverence of a magnificent house and trampling on the height of power, bowed herself for Christ to the narrowness of a poor cloister, that she might be an example of humility to all, should be inscribed in the catalogue of the Saints; nay, more truly, we have declared her already inscribed.

[100] and orders that Bl. Hedwig be honoured as a Saint. For the rest, although Jesus Christ the Son of God suffices for all things, yet he willed to have many men as partners in the work of piety, because, although he alone obtains what others do not merit, yet he is not the only advocate for us with the Father; nay, with him and through him the cohorts of all the just who have gone before us into the kingdom are so, according to what is read, that much incense was given him, which are the prayers of the Saints, that he might burn them upon the golden altar in the sight of the Most High; but since from constant falling mortal infirmity continually needs to be helped by the suffrages of prayers of this kind, in order that it may hasten help to itself the more, it ought to revere the Saints themselves the more devoutly by the example of imitation and the servitude of homage; wherefore, lest it do negligently that which is expedient for its salvation, we command your fraternity by apostolic writings that you take care to celebrate with attentive devotion the feast of this Saint on the Ides of October, namely the day on which she passed from the way to the homeland and went over from worldly bounds to the crown, and cause it to be solemnly celebrated by the faithful of Christ throughout your cities and dioceses. Desiring, therefore, that her sepulchre, which is known to glow with such evident signs, be frequented with fitting honours, and that the faithful themselves be induced to this by alluring gifts, to all who are truly penitent and have confessed, who shall annually come thither with reverence on the same feast to seek her suffrages, trusting in the mercy of Almighty God and in the authority of his Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, we mercifully relax one year and forty days, and to those coming to the aforesaid sepulchre within the octave of the same feast, one hundred days of the penance enjoined on them. Given at Viterbo on the 7th day before the Kalends of April, in the third year of our pontificate.

[101] The Saint's cult in Silesia, As regards the cult of St. Hedwig, it is abundantly shown from the Life itself, to be exhibited below, that it was widely propagated throughout the whole of Silesia; for most of the miracles are reported to have been wrought at her tomb, and we read at number 124 that Catherine, wife of Cuno the Frenchman, vowed an annual fast on the vigil of the festival of St. Hedwig if by her intercession her daughter Margaret should be healed, which it is easy to judge others also imitated. The extension of the cult of our Saint is also confirmed from the concourse made to the translation of her body, as the biographer narrates at number 171; for to the aforesaid festivity, he says, there flowed together from diverse regions of the world an almost innumerable multitude of people: princes also and lords of lands, very many prelates and rectors of churches, with a multitude of religious persons of diverse Orders, solemnized by their presence that feast on which this translation was celebrated, namely on the 16th day before the Kalends of September (the 17th of August); certain Manuscripts, however, indicate the 15th day before the Kalends of September. The memory of this translation, moreover, is recalled annually in the diocese of Wrocław, as we have from its Proper, on the 25th of August, namely on that day on which, according to the fragment of the Very Ancient Chronicle of Silesia Sommersberg, volume II, page 17., the body of St. Hedwig was raised.

[102] her cup preserved at Loreto: It is not established to me that the Relics of St. Hedwig were much dispersed: lighter particles were probably distributed, but the principal bones are still preserved today in the church of Trebnitz (now a parish church Schematismus des Bisthums Breslau, page 179.). From a letter given formerly by Father Christopher Gurius to Papebroch on the 22nd day of May 1674, a crystal cup is shown in the sacred house of Loreto, from which the Saint was accustomed to take the purification after holy communion. On the golden plate by which the lid of the cup is bound, these words are engraved: The cup of saint Hedwig. But these things by no means sufficed Papebroch; he wished, namely, that the origin and truth of this cup should be shown by some authentic instrument: and when some letters had been sent to and fro, there at length came forth the desired instrument, confirmed by the seal and subscription of the donor, which is of the following tenor: The present cup of St. Hedwig, duchess of Poland, obtained by many prayers of the Most Serene and Most Reverend Charles, archduke of Austria, grand master of the Order of Teutonic knights, Bishop of Brixen and of Wrocław, etc., from the dukes of Legnica, etc., and of Brieg, descending in direct line from the blood of St. Hedwig, afterwards acquired by me from the treasury of the same Most Serene archduke Charles, which the same Most Serene one most piously used only for the ablution after taking holy communion, I offer as a token of most due homage to the Great Mother, the Virgin of Loreto, in the year one thousand six hundred and fifty-nine, the most humble little client, Antonio Crosini, Bishop of Brixen, etc. All these things we have dug out of our domestic cabinets.

[103] churches erected in her honour The cult and veneration towards St. Hedwig are attested by churches erected under her invocation and patronage, such as at Berlin the principal catholic church, built in the century just past; at Sagan the abbatial church, consecrated in the year 1479 on the 25th day of April by Rudolf, bishop of Wrocław, in honour of the Holy Trinity, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of Saints John the Baptist, Hedwig and Augustine the bishop. But the chronographer of the abbots of Sagan, from whom we have extracted the above Stenzel, Scriptores, volume I, page 385., adds: It did not have Hedwig and Augustine in the old consecration, because I reckon the earlier consecration was performed before the times of Blessed Hedwig, or while she was still living, before our coming to Sagan. The church formerly called at Paris the church of St. Avoie, erected in the year 1288, bears the name of our Saint, by which it is indicated that her cult was widely propagated within a short space Saint-Victor, Tableau de Paris, volume III, page 318, Louvain edition 1830.. In the aforesaid convent of Sagan, Simon, who occupied the abbatial seat from the year 1451 to 1468, ordained that on every Thursday, in place of the ferial office, the office should be of St. Hedwig Stenzel, Scriptores, volume I, page 361.. Nor did that special cult of our Saint keep itself within the bishopric of Wrocław: for formerly in the diocese of Meissen the feast of St. Hedwig was celebrated with an Octave Daniel, Thesaurus hymnologicus, volume I, page 99., as is still observed today not only in the diocese of Wrocław but throughout the whole of Catholic Poland.

[104] and other monuments: In the papers of Andreas Stredonius, praised above at number 6, two things are reported which I have not found in others, and which show the popular fame of St. Hedwig. The aforesaid Stredonius writes these things: From the same monastery of Heinrichau Fr. Edmund Fontanus, formerly my disciple, writes me the following: in the village of Dobrzan there is a spring called St. Hedwig's to this day, which, miraculously produced by the prayer of St. Hedwig, has a wonderful clearness, wholesomeness and taste. There is a tradition among the citizens of Gliwice (Gleiwitz, in the district of Opole, the circle of Toszek?) in Upper Silesia that by the prayers of St. Hedwig serpents were driven from all the lands of that city; nor are they seen there today, yet in the vicinity of another jurisdiction a great frequency of them is seen. Of this last I am myself an eye-witness, who in a certain alder-grove saw that serpents occupied the half of a bridge which was outside the bounds of the people of Gliwice, and that the half which was of the jurisdiction of Gliwice was altogether empty of that pest. For the rest, the devotion of the Silesian people towards their holy patroness persists even today after so many vicissitudes of things and times: for in the year 1839, on the vigil of the feast of St. Hedwig, the 14th day of October, columns of pilgrims began to hasten to Trebnitz, which rose to fifteen thousand persons, among whom many came together from Poland, both Prussian and Russian. And although twenty-four presbyters sat at the tribunal of penance, satisfaction could not be given to all; nay, not a few were compelled to postpone the reception of the Sacraments until their return, chiefly because the number of Polish priests was unequal to the harvest Sion, 20th of November 1836, number 139, column 1347..

[105] the hymn of St. Hedwig. As a finishing touch we append a hymn which Hermann Daniel extracted from the Breviary of the Church of Meissen published in the year 1510 Thesaurus Hymnologicus, volume I, page 296.. We would gladly have brought forward two other hymns cited by the same Ibid., page 271, and volume II, page 189., but not copied out; but we lack the Breviaries from which they were extracted.

The jewel of the Church shines,

Hedwig, leader of Silesia,

Given to the light of grace

And the joy of Poland.

Her life shines with miracles,

Full of good works,

Manifold among the peoples

In the virtues of her merits.

In the years of childhood,

Subject to the fear of God,

She bears a heart of innocence

Given to devotion.

Imbued with sacred letters,

Though of tender age,

In the treasury of her breast

She lays up things new and old.

She presses on in prayers,

Ceases not to pour forth psalms,

For evils threatening

To groan by day and night.

May her illustrious merits

Implore pardon for us,

That our debts may be forgiven

Through the grace of Jesus Christ.

To God the Father be glory, etc.

Esse seems to be super fluum*.

* Gertrude, the Saint's daughter.

LIFE

By an anonymous nearly contemporary author.

From the edition of the Scriptores rerum Silesiacarum, volume I, of Gustav Adolf Stenzel, collated with a manuscript of our museum.

Hedwig, widow and duchess, at Trebnitz in Silesia. (S.)

BHL Number: 3766

BY AN ANONYMOUS NEARLY CONTEMPORARY AUTHOR.

PROLOGUE.

The author's purpose in writing. The begetter of eternal splendour and unfailing light, the Lord God Almighty, who in these last days shone upon the world in his same Son, has more clearly illumined the world, already clouded by the darkness of vices, with a certain new ray of his light, in that he showed it blessed Hedwig as a burning torch, and set her as a bright lamp upon the candlestick to give light by the most beautiful merits of virtues and examples of holy conduct to all those dwelling in the house of Holy Mother Church. For the Father of mercies himself, as he wonderfully exalted her in life with the privilege of sanctity, so also exalted her in death with inestimable beauty and the prodigies of miracles, as will be more fully known below. For to the glory of God and the edification of hearers and to stir up the devotion of the faithful, to the praise also of the Saint herself, there are set forth in what follows more seriously her meritorious works and virtuous exercises and miracles, which the Most High deigned to work on account of her merits, according as those who were the examiners of the aforesaid deputed by the Apostolic See, examining them diligently, most diligently wrote them down and faithfully presented what they had written to the supreme Pontiff. Which writings, preserved in the convent of Trebnitz ^a, when I had read them over more studiously, I often compared with those who had known the sayings and doings of this matter, and so, having certain material of proved truth, following the sequence in a simple style, I have endeavoured with what diligence I could to join together those things of the same kind of virtue or miracle which were recorded there more diffusely. Moreover, brother Engelbert, of the Cistercian Order ^b, set down in his compilation concerning this Saint certain noteworthy things, which I have added to the aforesaid, and, rubrics having been affixed, I have distinguished the single matters by certain titles and chapters, of which it will be treated afterwards, so that whatever anyone wishes to see concerning any matter set down here, he may be able to find more easily. It is treated, therefore, first, of her conduct in the age of childhood and in the time of matrimony and of her love of continence; secondly, of her humility; thirdly, of her patience; fourthly, of the austerity of her life; fifthly, of her prayer and devotion to God; sixthly, of her works of mercy and piety towards her neighbour; seventhly, of the miracles which she performed in her life; eighthly, of the spirit of prophecy which she had; ninthly, of her passing and the miracles done at the time of her death; tenthly, of the miracles which happened after her death; eleventhly, of her canonization and the miracles then done; twelfthly, of her translation and of those things which were done at the time of the translation, miracles and other solemnities ^c.

ANNOTATA.

Chapter I. Of the conduct of St. Hedwig in the age of childhood and in the time of matrimony, of her love of chastity and continence.

St. Hedwig, Hedwig, now blessed in heaven, proceeding on earth from a noble stock ^a, was indeed noble according to the origin of bodily propagation, but shining with the elegance of manners and strong in the beauty of honesty, she was far nobler in mind and was distinguished in soul by a much more laudable nobility. Indeed, the beauty of the graces and gifts divinely poured upon her magnified in her the loftiness of her race, and the magnificence of her birth rendered more gracious in her the nobility and beauty of mind exalted by virtues.

[2] born of her father Berthold, duke of Merania, She was in fact the daughter of the magnificent prince Berthold, margrave of Baden, count of Tyrol and duke of Merania ^b, and had a mother named Agnes, no less noble according to the dignity of the world, as proceeding from the stock of the margraves of the East, namely the daughter of Dedo, margrave of the East and count of Rochlitz, son of Conrad, margrave of Meissen and of Landsberg and of Lusatia. Whence the daughter herself, as the excellent and choice fruit of a most noble tree, did not lose through length of time the vigour of her goodness and the vigorous savour of her sweetness, nay, increased by divine blessings, she preserved it through the grace of consolation to be tasted by posterity in Christ. For from her childhood, bearing an aged heart, she endeavoured, by avoiding levities, to become accustomed to good manners and to flee youthful insolences. By cherishing also the cleanness of an innocent life she always gave diligent effort to honesty and discipline. In all these and her other works, besides the persons whom she had as governors deputed to her by her forebears for the formation of good manners, she had as her instructor the Holy Spirit, who from infancy taught her to fear God and to abstain from every sin, so that she kept her soul clean from every concupiscence. Whence she never mingled reprehensibly with those at play, nor did she show herself a partaker with those who walked in levities. For in the age of childhood, in the cloister of Kitzingen ^c, she learned sacred letters, in the study of which she both spent her time profitably in youth, and afterwards, in the understanding of them, drew abundantly the grace of inward consolation and devotion.

[3] she had several brothers and sisters, She had four full brothers and three full sisters, of whom one married Philip, king of France ^d, another was joined in marriage to Andrew, king of Hungary ^e, of whom was born that praiseworthy and now glorious in heaven, blessed Elizabeth, landgravine of Thuringia, whose most holy body rests at Marburg. The third was abbess of the nuns of the Order of Saint Benedict at Kitzingen, the aforesaid monastery of Franconia ^f. One of her brothers, Berthold by name, was patriarch of Aquileia; another, namely Ekbert, was bishop of Bamberg; the remaining two, namely Otto and Henry, given to secular service, succeeded their father in the lordship. And this handmaid of the Lord, Hedwig, being twelve years of age, was joined in matrimony to the magnificent prince Henry, duke of Silesia and Poland ^g. This noble man indeed, like another Sarah, she consented to receive in the fear of the Lord, not with lust.

[4] placed in matrimony, For in contracting that marriage she is believed to have fulfilled the will of her forebears rather than her own, as could be most sufficiently established after the fact, when she bound herself with so notable a thong of continence. For, bound by the conjugal bond, she endeavoured according to the doctrine of the Apostle to keep marriage honourable and the bed undefiled in all things, and to preserve the laws and rights of matrimony excellently. Hoping indeed to attain eternal salvation through the generation of children, yet desiring to please God by love of chastity, so far as was permitted for the time, with her husband's consent she bound herself by the law of the continent. For as soon as she perceived she had conceived, she reverently abstained thenceforth from her husband's bed and remained separated from intercourse with him until after the completion of childbirth. The observance of this holy law and honourable custom she began from the conception of her first offspring, with which she was pregnant when she was thirteen years and thirteen weeks old, nor did she cease to observe it until the time at which she ceased to bear children. For having been made the mother of three sons, namely Boleslaw, Conrad and Henry, and of three daughters, Agnes, Sophia and Gertrude ^h, she at once betook herself to the celibacy of full chastity. This manner too of being continent in matrimony, sanctioned by holy Mother Church, she taught to whomever she could. Above all she taught the lady Anna, her daughter-in-law ⁱ, out of special affection, to observe this law, and while she was instructing her in this she set herself before her as an example. O how happy are matrons still subjected to matrimonial bonds, if they try to imitate the example of this blessed woman, who not only, as is said before, endeavoured to live continently for the rest of the time once offspring had been conceived, but also by salutary counsels and exhortations bent her noble husband to this, that together with her he voluntarily observed continence every year through the whole of Advent and through Lent, on all the days of the Ember Seasons and on Fridays, on the vigils of the Saints and on their solemnities, and on Sundays. For she did not reckon that veneration shown to the Saints was pleasing, nor that a fast would be acceptable to God which is celebrated with carnal delights. Therefore she with her consort often for a month, and sometimes for six, sometimes indeed for eight weeks, although at their time they were joined together in one bed, abstained entirely from carnal intercourse.

[5] she brought up her children holily, From so holy a root, therefore, holy branches also came forth; from a good tree also good fruit was made. For the offspring which these blessed parents begot endeavoured to worship God and increased divine worship according to their strength. For their son, Duke Henry, succeeding his father in the lordship, was indeed a man devoted to God and a doer of good works. Who, as a faithful and vigorous soldier of Christ, constantly opposed himself to the Tartars for the people of God, and, his blood having been shed, underwent death in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and forty-one, on the fifth day before the Ides of April ^k. And their daughter, the lady Gertrude, following the footsteps of her pious parents, served the Lord not indeed in conjugal but rather in virginal purity within the Order of the Cistercians.

[6] and at length, with her husband's consent, she vowed continence, And because these happy spouses with devout mind, God teaching them, pressed on continually in such virtuous exercise of chastity and sanctified their bodies by cleanness of life, they at length merited to come to greater increments of divine grace, so that with one mind and equal consent, with a solemn episcopal blessing, they bound themselves to perpetual continence ^l. For, strengthened by the Spirit of the Lord, for about thirty years, divided only as to the bed, they led a celibate life wonderfully adorned with the beauty of chastity. And in all that time the handmaid of Christ took precaution with the utmost effort lest it should happen that the beauty of her chastity, which had then already become known to many and was frequently declared to many by quite evident signs, should be in any way obscured by a sinister opinion in the hearts of the weak, who sometimes easily take to themselves matter of scandal and, like the points of thorns, with the tongue of detraction lacerate the roses of a good work sprouting near them. For that reason she so avoided her husband's company and conversations that she neither approached him nor

spoke to him at all, except when she wished to further works of piety with him or to dispatch the affairs of religious or of wretched persons. Nor yet did she do this anywhere but in a public place or in church, many, or at least two, honourable persons being present and often hearing her words. Moreover, when he was placed in sickness she did not visit him except with the lady Anna, her daughter-in-law, and with other ladies. She too, when she was at Trebnitz, frequently had the convenience of her rest in the dormitory with the sisters, both on account of the sedulous zeal of devotion and on account of cherishing more cleanly the example of honesty; and the good repute which she diligently cultivated in herself she also preserved more studiously in others. For to religious coming to her she frequently provided a quiet and honourable lodging, where, staying outside the tumult of seculars, they could more easily avoid the wicked mouths of talkers.

[7] her household well ordered, The friend of Christ always endeavoured in her life to conduct herself, as most holily before God, so also most honourably before men. For she always strove to have an honourable household in her whole court, and especially the women bound to her special service, the chamberlains and other officials she had adorned with discipline and good manners. Detractors, hateful to God, she would not have as familiars; their disparaging speeches also, which kill two souls together, namely of the speaker and of the hearer, she abhorred as poison and the bite of a serpent and as an instrument of the devil.

[8] and the monastery of Trebnitz founded To live in the flesh beyond the flesh, because she believed it to be of great merit, and therefore the angelic life to be loved and chastity to be preserved, which she herself had always loved from her youth and loved most tenderly, she invited to it as many and whomever she could. When at length the monastery of Trebnitz had been built, she procured that many women and sacred virgins should be placed in it to serve the Lord for the crown of ineffable glory in chastity of heart and body. Among whom she also offered to God her daughter, the aforesaid Gertrude, afterwards abbess there. Many girls too, noble by birth, and some proceeding from simple lineage ^k, bereft of parents and destitute of means, she took into her care. Of these she shut some up in the monastery for the virginal life, but joined others in matrimony for the preservation of conjugal chastity, so that, thus faithfully serving Christ, the former might expect from the Lord the hundredfold, the latter the thirtyfold fruit. Moreover, she had with her some widows, giving themselves day and night to fasts and prayers, to gather the sixtyfold fruit.

[9] she provides for the salvation of all. Thus, therefore, this little handmaid of Christ devoted not only herself but also her consort to the divine service; thus the pious mother sweetly brought up the offspring she had borne to the praise of the Lord; thus the kindly lady desired the service of her household to be devoted and pleasing to God; thus the handmaid of God, by the beauty of her manners and the examples of honourable conduct, provoked all men, so far as could be effected through her, to the pursuit of a better life. For, filled with the charity of Christ, she longed that all should attain to his love and service. And since within she flourished with purity of conscience, and without shone more brightly with the splendour of exemplariness, the fame of her name grew daily, and, a good odour proceeding from the repute of her sanctity, all the neighbourhoods were filled with it. Whence not only for the worldly dignity in which she was strong, but even more for the merit of virtue in which she shone, she was held venerable both among religious and among secular persons, who, either seeing or understanding her good works, glorified the creator of all, who chose for himself such a handmaid, so illustrious in sanctity, and showed her to the world for its solace and help.

ANNOTATA.

Chap. II. Of the humility and patience of St. Hedwig.

Humble in her garments, Knowing, therefore, that the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, came into the world for this, that he might teach men on earth humility not only in word but also by example, Hedwig, the handmaid of Christ, humbled herself as much as she could in all things, and conformed herself to the manners of those women who, according to the Apostle, consider their holy conversation in fear, whose adorning is not outwardly the plaiting of hair, or the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel, but the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptibility of a quiet and meek spirit ^a. And therefore from her youth she did not wear garments of scarlet ^b and cloths superfluously costly or very splendid, although otherwise, when she was a young girl, she used sufficiently good garments. In which, however, she sought neither worldly pomp nor adornment of the body nor any softness, but attended only to the decency of her state. Under the more elegant apparel too, or in the modest outward adornment befitting her in which it then befell her for the time to appear among men, she by no means abandoned a devout and humble heart. On her head, therefore, no saffron veils, no crimped coverings were seen, and no golden necklaces set with gems surrounded her breast, nor did precious rings adorn her fingers. For with Esther she abominated every sign of pride or vainglory, and did not wear it even in the time of her youth.

[11] she inclined her husband to the same virtue, But after she had advanced somewhat in her days, and the purpose of continence had already been carried into effect, despising all the adornment of the world she entirely laid aside secular and coloured garments and clothed herself in grey cloth, but on solemnities she was clothed in simple camlet ^c. Desiring, moreover, to advance in the pursuit of devotion and humility after Christ, in fervour of spirit she went forth outside the camp, and transferring herself with a small household to Trebnitz, she served the Lord there beside the cloister of the ladies of the Cistercian Order, her husband being still alive and assenting to her and giving his consent in this, as in other good acts. Who governed the principality of Poland the more happily then, the more he, made not only a lover of the sanctity but also an imitator of the virtues of so holy a woman, his wife, walked as far as was possible to him in the paths of her chastity and humility which she herself had learned from Christ. For, the Lord inspiring and through the continual exhortations of the Saint herself, he had already become as it were a monk, not indeed by profession or habit, but by religious devotion of heart and humble spirit, which shone out in his works. For he wore a round tonsure and a beard, not indeed long, but becomingly fitted by a moderate trimming of the hair. On account of which, even to this day, when mention of him is made in any narrative, he is called Duke Henry With the Beard ^d. He, although he was a magnificent prince, nevertheless so condescended out of humility to the poor and simple persons that, if they sometimes brought him any gifts even of small value, he both received them gratefully and bowed humbly to them, indicating that it would be more pleasing to him when a poor man or a rustic presented him with a dish of eggs than if a rich man had offered greater gifts, thinking within himself as a pious man and saying: "Since this poor man has offered us out of regard of favour the food which he has withdrawn from himself, let us at least repay him with gifts of comfort, if we accept his gifts gratefully." Behold, there is no doubt that this blessed man belongs to this good woman, to whom, although she was lawfully subject to him, she became a mistress in virtues and religiousness.

[12] she dwells at Trebnitz, although not a nun, But while Blessed Hedwig was staying in the cloister of Trebnitz, she put on indeed of those sisters

the habit, but did not bind herself to the Order by vow, lest, bound by the obedience of profession, she should have to be thenceforth kept away from the works of piety and from consoling the poor. Her daughter, however, being in the same monastery of Trebnitz and in the Order, kept silent about these things for the time while her father was living; but when he was dead, she pressed her more seriously to be bound in that religion by the vow of obedience. To whom she answered: "Do you not know, daughter, of how great merit it is to bestow alms?" And thus in a certain manner she declined her daughter's insistence, not because she reckoned the merit of obedience a small thing, but because she desired for longer still to be the promoter and governor of the monastery of which she was the foundress, and wished for Christ to console the poor in the bowels of charity. Making her dwelling in the monastery, however, she led a life of rigidity stricter than all the sisters in keeping silence and in the other observances.

[13] yet docile to those who admonished her, Besides what has already been said of the meanness and simplicity of the garments of Blessed Hedwig herself, I do not think this is to be passed over, that she would by no means put on a new garment unless it had first been worn by some woman living with her and in part worn out. She also sometimes, for the sake of humility, wore some garment so long that in it, consumed with age, the threads stood out quite evidently. Whence at a certain time a certain sister familiar to her, when she saw her walking in a mantle so worn, said to her: "Lady! how long does it please you to wear this mantle? I will take it from you and give it to a needy poor person ^e." To whom she, as she was always gentle and humble in sweetness of heart, answered: "If you are scandalized at this, that I wear it too long, I will amend it the sooner." And at once, another mantle having been procured for her, she removed the old one from herself, in this one deed fulfilling a twofold office of humility, in that for Christ she by no means blushed to be covered with mean garments, and at the admonition of a simple sister she hastened to lay aside that contemptible garment which she was then wearing. By doing this too she taught by her example that a person ought to be open to persuasion and not obstinate in his own opinion.

[14] all the nuns first of all, This handmaid of Christ always thought humble things of herself, but lofty things of others. For in her own estimation she was nothing other than a sinner, although in truth, by the sincerity of her conscience, before God and his Angels she was a little vessel full of all sanctity, and before men by the exemplariness of her life she appeared like a luminous mirror. The sanctity, therefore, which she thought lacking in herself, she did not cease to embrace with a certain wonderful affection in others whom she believed good, and did not cease to pursue with most fervent devotion. For in the spirit of humility and in a contrite mind, the places in which she had seen religious persons or men good in her judgment stand or pray, when she found the opportunity, humbly falling on her knees she touched with her lips, kissing them. To the sisters too, when they were assembled at the hour of eating, coming to the table, she imprinted kisses on each of the sisters' seats in the choir at the stalls. Likewise, ascending to the dormitory, she kissed most humbly and devoutly all the stairs and steps by which the sisters passed, and moreover the footstools placed before the beds, and also the rods by which the disciplines were received. For she believed holy everything which the aforesaid nuns and the men serving the Lord touched, and therefore what they handled for use she touched reverently with kisses, that by the merits of the good and just persons whom she venerated in inanimate things she might merit both pardon of her own sins and greater grace. Nor could this daily exercise of humility be carried out without admirable inward sweetness. But in what way God, who has regard to the prayer of the humble, prevented her in the blessings of sweetness may be judged from the following example.

[15] whose footprints, One day one of the nuns in the monastery of Trebnitz, desiring to know in what manner the handmaid of Christ, remaining alone after the others in the church, exercised herself in the divine service, while the other sisters were at table in the community, secretly entered the choir and hid, and there saw her, after the kissing of each of the seats and of the places in which the sisters' feet had stood, going forward and prostrating herself and rendering thanks as usual to the Creator of all before the altar built there in honour of the glorious Virgin, above which there rose a cross of no small size, containing an expressed and venerable image of the Crucified. Where, while she tarried prostrate in prayer, as she was accustomed, the image already mentioned, loosing its right hand and arm from the wood of the cross and extending it, blessed her, saying with a sonorous voice: "Your prayer is heard, and what you ask you shall obtain." It is quite credible that she then asked of the Lord that he would cause the sisters also, at whose footprints she rather often humbled herself, to persevere in good works, and that the clemency of the Saviour would not deny her participation in their merits.

[16] nay, she even kissed filth. To those exercises of humility in which she knew herself to delight, she sedulously invited whomever she could by exhortations and examples. Whence often coming to the cloths on which the sisters, after they had washed themselves, wiped their hands, where in those cloths she saw the greater dirt gathered from the wiping already mentioned, there out of the sweetness of love and from the virtue of humility she pressed kisses more strongly, and with the same cloths, smeared with dirt of this kind, making the sign of the cross, she marked her eyes and breast as though with precious relics. Moreover, with the water in which the sisters themselves had cleansed their feet she frequently touched her eyes and rather often her whole face; nay, what is more to be wondered at, she washed her whole head and neck, and many times the faces and heads of her little grandchildren, still small, whom she had by her son, having firm hope and believing that the sanctity of the sisters, whom that water had touched, would profit both herself and the said children for salvation. Her daughter-in-law too, the lady Anna, she enticed by diligent and sedulous instruction to do similar things.

[17] then other poor persons, Most greatly stirred by the example of the humility of our Saviour, who washed the feet of his poor disciples, as she had learned from the Gospel, on bended knees she very often washed the feet of the poor with warm water, which, received from the servants, her waiting-women presented to her. And the feet having been washed and wiped with a linen cloth, she humbly kissed not only the feet but also their hands, and, alms having been given, she always endeavoured to send away the poor themselves consoled. On the Lord's Supper especially, for love of him who willed to be esteemed as a leper for us, she washed the feet of lepers, and clothed those same lepers whom she had washed with new garments. The poverty also of our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sake became needy, she embraced with such affection and venerated with such homage that she always wished to have the poor before her, especially while she was at table, and with humble heart, before she sat down at table, with her own hand and on bended knees she served food to them. Then, placing herself for refreshment, she took no drink unless that poor man had first drunk from her cup who seemed more deformed among the other poor. The places too in which the needy had sat, when it could be done more secretly, she touched with her lips, kissing them, and thus honoured Christ in the poor as in his special friends. She sometimes asked that fragments of bread from the table of the sisters, from the leavings for the poor, should be brought to her by some sister, for which scraps she gave whole loaves of fine flour ^f to the sister who brought these to her.

[18] and she honoured all religious most profoundly. She took care often to visit with beneficent piety the communities of religious who had possessions, and, making her stay outside the monastic enclosures, she guarded against every burden to them, nor did she suffer any of her people to touch their substance violently. And because she reckoned the food of religious persons as the food of holy Angels, the fragments of bread collected from the table of the monks and nuns she bought for a price from the beggars to whom they were given in alms, and before she took them as food she venerated them with many kisses. Not wishing also to be long without those things which were sweet to her from the poor's banquets, she had hired two poor women, who went to the gate of Leubus ^g in alternate weeks, and whatever of the community's bread and cheese was given them there, they brought to her for a delightful refreshment. Likewise, after the refreshment of religious whom she sometimes caused to sit at table before her, she kept with the utmost reverence the scrapings ^h of bread collected, as Relics of Saints, for her food. For she desired, after the example of poor Lazarus, to be refreshed sparingly with the morsels of beggars rather than to be filled with dainty breads or delicate foods, attending to the word of that woman of Canaan of great faith, who said that the whelps also eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table ⁱ. All the poor, and especially religious, because she reckoned them her masters, preferred to her not indeed in riches but in sanctity, therefore she delighted to eat of the leavings of their foods. With the whelps of Christ too, that is, the truly humble and the very poor and those despised by the world, because she endeavoured to conform herself as far as she could, therefore also from those whom she fed the more carefully she rather often begged thus, as is said before. The humility which this handmaid of God had studiously learned in her life, persevering in it to the end, she by no means abandoned in death either. For about the end of her life, when her burial was being treated of, she asked humbly to be buried in the common cemetery of the sisters, or in a place in the church which she reckoned more humble, as will be shown more fully below, in the treatise on the spirit of prophecy, in the last chapter ^k. Whence, both living and dying, she strove to walk after Christ, who says: Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart ^l.

[19] Patiently too the troubles caused by others, Patience too, the companion and friend of humility, supremely necessary to all, that in it they may possess their soul according to the word of the Lord, she endeavoured most diligently to preserve, never being angry with anyone or answering harshly, but addressing all kindly with consoling words, she showed herself affable to all, always, as was well fitting, with religious maturity joined. For whoever had not taken care to avoid bringing upon her by whatever chance something disturbing or productive of trouble heard nothing else from her but this or a similar word, uttered, however, with gentleness: "Why have you done this? God forgive you!" Such were her reproaches to those who troubled her, such her taunts; in such a way did she avenge herself on those who troubled her. It happened on one occasion that one of her chamberlains ^m, named Chualizlaus, afterwards a lay brother in the Order of Preachers, had lost three beautiful silver cups of hers, whom she never reproached nor showed signs of indignation, nor said anything else to him than: "Go and search more diligently, whether perchance you may be able to find the vessels which, guarding them carelessly, you have lost." And this very thing she uttered with such modesty that the man who had committed the negligence already mentioned could not be troubled, as he himself afterwards confessed.

[20] and calamities In causes of great disturbance, according to man, she always showed a manly and constant spirit and a cheerful countenance, showing that through patience

every trouble is to be overcome. For having heard the news of the captivity and the wounds by which her husband, Duke Henry, was grievously wounded when he was taken by Conrad, duke of Kujavia ⁿ, she answered with all gentleness and a tranquil mind: "I hope that the Lord will soon free him and that he will receive full healing of his wounds," which also came to pass. For when no one could induce the aforesaid detainer, though many negotiations had been held and suitable offers had intervened, to release the captive duke, the counsel was found that a strong band of his peoples should free him by warlike arms. But the handmaid of Christ, shuddering at the slaughter of Christians wishing to fight among themselves and at the blood to be shed, exposed herself for all and went in person into the presence of her husband's aforesaid detainer. He, seeing the handmaid of God, as though suddenly frightened at the sight of an angelic countenance and seized with fear, altogether laid aside the ferocity of mind which had before been inflexible, entered into concord, and released the duke ^o. Thus the friend of the Almighty, because in herself by virtuous effort she had most fully overcome the motions of impatience and rancour, restrained them also in others by a wonderful power. Other examples of her patience still occur, not to be passed over in silence, for the sake of our edification and her praise.

[21] and she bore the death of her own. For when the already mentioned Duke Henry, her husband, had died, who died about the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and XXXVII [p], while all the sisters at Trebnitz wept inconsolably for the loss of so great and such a patron and founder of the monastery, so that they seemed almost to faint for tears and many of them were as it were lifeless, she, appearing among them with dry eyes, reproved the softness of their womanly hearts, saying: "Why are you troubled? Do you wish things contrary to the divine will to be done? This is not expedient for you, dearest ones, since the Creator can and ought to do with his creature, without our weariness, what has pleased his clemency; and his working about us and concerning us ought to be our chief consolation, especially since we are his handiwork." Speaking these things and things like them, she endeavoured to restrain the sisters' tears and to mitigate their grievous troubles. Moreover she consoled them in the cause of her own sorrow, not that she loved the death of her husband, whom she loved in the Lord, as being a virtuous man and useful to the people, but because she strove to subject herself in all things to the divine will, and wished to show the sisters examples of constancy and patience in the time of her tribulation. Similarly, when she heard that her son, Duke Henry, had been killed in the battle with the Tartars [q], no tears bursting forth and no signs of grief shown, she consoled her daughter, the abbess at Trebnitz, and her daughter-in-law, the wife of the same slain son, who were weeping and as it were dying for sorrow, and said: "It is the will of God, and what God wills and what pleases the Lord our God ought to please us." In that very hour too her spirit exulted in the Lord, and, raising her eyes and hands to heaven, she said: "I give thee thanks, O Lord, that thou hadst given me such a son, who while he lived always loved me and held me in great reverence, and never troubled me in anything. Whom, although I would very gladly have him with me on earth, yet I greatly rejoice for him that through the shedding of his blood he is already joined to thee, his Creator, in heaven. Whose soul I commend the more diligently to thee, the Lord God." By these gifts of humility and patience, in which, the Lord granting it, she was gracious, giving examples to her neighbours, she strengthened them not only in prosperity but also in adversity. For by her humility she taught that prosperity should not exalt anyone, and by her patience that adversity should not cast a person down too low.

ANNOTATA.

a. I Peter III. 3.

i. Matthew XV. 27.

l. Matthew XI. 29.

p. By the consent of all, the biographer falls short by a whole year in indicating the death of Henry I the Bearded, who died in the year 1238. See what was said at number 68 of the preliminary Commentary.

q. Of the killing of Henry II, which took place on the 8th of April 1241, we have treated at length at number 73 and following of the preliminary Commentary.

Chap. III. Of the austerity of the life of St. Hedwig.

The Saint's constant fasts, That she might live to Christ, who died for all, Blessed Hedwig continually mortified the members of her body upon the earth with scourges of pains, taking up the cross of daily chastisement, and, walking after Christ with manly step, she did not fear to become for love of him as a little sheep for the slaughter, who out of exceeding love willed to be crucified for all. For in her flesh she slaughtered vices with the sword of affliction, curbed bestial motions, tamed the wantonness of the outward senses, and disposed the inward man to more abundant grace and the progress of virtues. For she observed a daily fast, except on Sundays and certain principal festivals, on which she sometimes took refreshment twice. From the eating of meat and from all food fattened with the fat of meat she abstained altogether for about forty years, never acquiescing in anyone's prayers or reproofs so as to violate this good custom. For the lord Ekbert, bishop of Bamberg, her full brother ^a, whom she revered and loved as it was fitting to love a brother, being indignant, once reproved her for not eating food of this kind; yet she would not, for the sake of any person however dear to her, omit the good purpose and holy work which she had long since begun for the love of God and intended with God's help to complete.

[23] abstinence from meat, While her husband was still living, before the wonderful religiousness of her abstinence had fully come to notice, she ate more sparingly on the days on which others used meat than on fast days, because by a holy pretence she deceived those serving her. For by shaping and rolling the morsels of meat this way and that on the dish and touching them as if she were eating, she acted so cautiously that they could not recognize her as abstaining, whence foods suitable for a fast were not prepared for her either. She rose, therefore, from the meal, often empty in body, but full in mind of spiritual joy and joyful in God. While, therefore, she was thus perseveringly avoiding fleshly food, the lord William of Modena ^b, coming through Poland as legate of the apostolic See, enjoined her by command, when she was then sick, to be refreshed with meat. And she indeed fulfilled the precept of the one commanding, but nevertheless she said that she was more burdened in mind by the eating of meat than she was bodily tormented by that sufficiently grave sickness with which she was then labouring. Understanding, moreover, this woman taught by God and illumined by supernal light, that discretion is the charioteer of the virtues, and that the oblation of good works would not be acceptable to God if it lacked the salt of discretion, she applied fitting moderations in her chastisements, and as much as she could gave diligent effort both to wear down the ass of the soul, namely her body, by scourging it fairly harshly, and to sustain it according to its strength by feeding it modestly, lest perchance, if she burdened it indiscreetly and too much, she should compel it to fall under its lord's load before she let it, bearing the weight of the day and the heat, arrive at the time of remuneration ordained by the Lord.

[24] and on certain days from milk foods; For this cause without doubt she had at first so distinguished the days of the week in abstaining, and had so fitted foods for herself, that on Sunday and on Tuesday and Thursday she ate fish and milk foods, but on Saturday and Monday dry legumes, and on Wednesday and Friday only bread and water.

When she had observed this form of abstinence for some time, having afterwards become more robust in spirit in the service of the Lord, she ate every day only dry legumes with coarse rye bread, continually drinking boiled and cooled water, except on Sundays and certain great solemnities, on which, compelled by the diocesan bishop and by her confessors, she used fish and milk foods twice and then drank beer, though sometimes scarcely induced to this by the prayers of the ladies living with her. Many days in the Lord's Advent and in the greater Lent ^c, and the vigils of many Saints, men and women, and especially of the Holy Apostles, and Friday, she always fasted on bread and water. But not even of that thin nourishment did she then furnish her weak little body with sufficiency, especially since she took only three morsels, and on the aforesaid day rather often ate bread mixed with ashes. Which fast she observed most strictly, until weakness began notably to prevail in her; from then on, using legumes and pottages boiled in beer, she tempered this excessive rigour of abstinence. When she was sometimes asked why she kept so many days and vigils of the Saints with so strict a fast, she answered: "The Saints are necessary to us, and therefore, that they may come to our help and meet us at the hour of death, we ought deservedly to venerate them. Moreover, it is established that by bodily fasting vices are suppressed, minds are raised to heavenly things, and virtues and eternal rewards ^d are granted by God; also I reckon it sufficiently necessary and useful that the flesh be macerated by abstinence." Certain young men, sons of nobles living at her court, sometimes said: "God keep us from such a lordship as this lady of ours has, who eats only of bread and water." This indeed they said, not because they themselves suffered any want, but because they wondered at their lady's so strict abstinence.

[25] water, sometimes changed into wine She was once accused before her husband of her continual drinking of water, on account of which he, indignant, reckoning this an excessive indiscretion and the cause of the infirmities which she rather frequently suffered, and wishing to restrain her, came to the place where she was sitting to eat at table, and entering unexpectedly, approached suddenly, and taking the cup set before her with water, drank from it; and perceiving the savour of good wine in that which had been pure water, being angry, he said to the accuser: "Your eyes ought now to be torn out for your lie:" for he did not know that this had been done by the Lord and was wonderful in the eyes of the persons serving there, who knew that they had poured in and served pure water to their lady. Of which water, presently made wine, those persons also, wishing after the duke to try the truth of the matter, tasted, and perceiving the miracle done on account of the merits of St. Hedwig, praised the Lord. One of the persons then present there and drinking of the wine miraculously made was Adelheid, widow of Theoderic of Janonicz ^e, a knight, a woman indeed fervent in good works, who had twice visited the thresholds of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul ^f. Whence her testimony concerning the aforesaid miracle was the more efficacious, the more her life was known to be adorned with religious acts. By this wonderful work, therefore, God both restrained the informers against his handmaid and strengthened her devotion more firmly.

[26] Besides what has already been said of Blessed Hedwig's continual and very strict fasting, this also makes her admirable to all, converted, she uses it; even if not imitable, that, always eating little, she took the refreshment of her body most temperately, so much so that even very many wondered how a woman of so great abstinence did not die of hunger. But to herself it seemed to suffice, and it could suffice excellently, since the power of the Most High strengthened her. Whence to Master Giles, archdeacon of Wrocław, a man indeed of great austerity, who rebuked her for such abstinence and so sparing food, she answered: "What suffices me, I eat." For she understood that nourishment is to be taken as medicine; therefore, taking what sufficed for the necessity of sustaining nature, she guarded above all against superfluity.

[27] her little body To Christ, stripped for us on the cross, although she could not be conformed in total denudation, yet she tried most earnestly to imitate him, as far as she was able, in the fewness and scarcity of garments; and therefore she scarcely retained those coverings of the body which nature, deformed by sin, could not do without for covering itself. Having let go, therefore, the manifold garments in which she abounded, and having abandoned pelisses and furs, with only one tunic and a simple mantle, winter and summer, in cold and heat, she covered her lean little body, so wasted by fasts that under a skin squalid and pale, bristling with disciplines and colds, only withered bones seemed to remain. And because she burned inwardly with the fervour of charity, she did not esteem the outward chills, although the women about her often saw her wholly frozen, especially in the time of the harsher winter. To whom also, when she was asked by them to indulge herself a little, she answered: "I will do it when it is opportune;" and so nevertheless, persevering, she remained in prayer. Nor is it a wonder if the handmaid of God, going half-naked and unshod in the chills of winter, while others well clothed seemed to faint, could persist so long in prayer, since her heart so grew hot within her and the divine fire so blazed up in her meditation that thence a certain flaming force, bursting out, mitigated the impressions of cold received in the body not only for herself but also for another.

[28] she macerates by want of garments, For it happened at a certain winter time that, while she clung for a long time to the exercise of her devotion, one maid who was waiting for her, excessively chilled, was compelled to tell her that she could no longer bear the harshness of the cold which she then felt. And she, withdrawing to one side, ordered her to stand in that place in which she herself had stood with bare feet. When the attendant had done so, at once, the intolerable cold having been driven out, she was relieved by a pleasing warmth. She herself also, a delicate woman, walked the difficult ways of God, for, following Christ, she went with bare steps in frosts and snows. She always had with her, however, simple shoes without felt ^g and without socks, which, carrying them continually under her armpits, she put on only when she wished to meet venerable persons; and when they went away, she at once took them off. In her works, because she desired to please God alone, who sees in secret, and took care to avoid human praise, lest she be detected walking frequently with bare feet, going to church she sometimes used shoes, but on arriving at it, presently, her feet bared, sitting thereafter on the bare pavement, she persevered in prayers. Thus she prudently set the mantle of concealment against the eyes of onlookers, especially while her husband was still living. Whom in the beginning, when she began to do these good things, she not undeservedly feared with reverence, fearing lest perhaps he should forbid her the good work, suffering at first something human, which afterwards, from becoming accustomed to it, he would overlook in her and permit, having become more devoted to God.

[29] by going unshod, Whence it happened one day that she was walking as usual without shoes, and by an unexpected event the lord duke, her husband, came abruptly to meet her, and at so pressed a time that she could not put on the shoes, if she had any with her then. But what she could not do by herself, he for whose love she walked with bare feet deigned miraculously to supply. For she suddenly appeared before her husband shod, and so escaped his indignation and reproach. It happened sometimes through forgetfulness or through some negligence that those shoes which she carried with her fell from under her arm, and the maids following her, or other members of the household, finding them, returned them to her. Her confessors rather often exhorted her to use shoes, and the lord Gunther, the abbot ^h, then her confessor, offered her new shoes and enjoined her by obedience to wear them. Which she, receiving them gratefully, wore indeed not on her feet, but, as is said before, under her armpits. When the circle of the year was completed, the abbot charged her with disobedience because she had not worn the shoes. But she produced the shoes, as she had received them, not worn but fresh, saying in a humble voice: "Nay, father, I was obedient; behold, these are the shoes which you gave me, and I have frequently worn them." Likewise, when after long maceration she was now very weak, the lady Anna, her daughter-in-law, asked brother Herbord of the Order of Friars Minor, then her confessor, to compel her by command to put on and wear shoes. She, having received the command about putting on and wearing shoes, put woollen footlets on her feet, but carried the shoes as usual under her arm, until, coming to the aforesaid brother, her confessor, she obtained by the insistence of her prayers that he would permit her to persevere in her accustomed going barefoot to the end of her life. She rather often had muddy feet, which, however, she rarely allowed to be washed.

[30] whence her feet and hands Her heels, with which, bared, she wore down the ground, were thick and hard, having many and such great cracks that a large straw could be placed in them, nay, what is more, a finger could be inserted, according to what was ascertained from Juliana, a sister of the monastery of Trebnitz, who had looked closely at those cracks, as she afterwards asserted before the examiners. For at a certain time on the Lord's Supper, the lady Gertrude, the abbess, St. Hedwig's daughter, while celebrating the Mandatum she was washing the sisters' feet, and so, after the washing, passing from each of those she had washed, had come to her mother, who was present there at the Mandatum, she wished to wash her on bended knees like the other sisters. But the mother humbly declining this, the aforesaid abbess nevertheless would not rise until she had reverently bestowed the benefit of washing on her mother's feet. Whence, the daughter persevering and continuing her pious obstinacy, at length the most humble mother, overcome by the insistence of her prayers, stretched out her feet to be washed. Then the said sister Juliana, who was then holding the basin with water, saw cracks of the aforesaid size in the feet of Blessed Hedwig, from which blood, drawn out by the force of the cold, rather often flowed. This blood, without her knowing it, her household, following her footsteps, many times found and observed fresh in the mud and in the snow.

[31] were frozen, The women serving her familiarly also saw how that blood, bursting out, clung to her soles. For one day, when, wearied after prayer, she had turned aside for the sake of rest to the warming-room, she fell asleep there; and sister Jutta of the house of Trebnitz, who was then serving her, came upon her, and seeing the clotted blood which had flowed from the aforesaid cracks clinging to the feet of the sleeper, which projected a little beyond her garment, wondering at the austerity of penance which she had observed in the holy handmaid of God, she showed this very sign of austerity to others, though cautiously. However great the harshness of the cold, she always held the psalter for reading, and the light, with bare hands. In praying too she rather frequently leaned on the ground with the bare knuckles of her hands, on account of which her hands too had many cracks,

from which drops of blood often flowed. Which marks of sanctity, although she tried to hide them with diligence, it nevertheless often befell the maids serving her to see when they offered her water for washing her hands. Nor could that long be hidden from all which God at length willed to be made manifest to his glory.

[32] with garments of hair, She wore next to her body a hard hair-shirt woven of horsehair. To which hair-shirt she had sewn sleeves of white cloth, thus wishing piously to deceive the eyes of onlookers, lest the rougher garment lying hidden within should be seen by them. She also wore a knotted girdle, twisted of horsehair, bound tight about her loins, whose roughness had so ulcerated her flesh that it had to be drawn out from her body by the women of her household and the pus from the now putrefied flesh dried with softer cloths. A certain religious man of the Order of Templars, with simple and devout heart, offered to the lady herself, her daughter-in-law the lady Anna being present, a girdle made of similar work, diligently shut in a little bag. The said lady Anna, out of the confidence of special familiarity, untied and opened the little bag offered to the lady, and finding in it so cruel an instrument for lacerating frail flesh, becoming vehemently impatient, she attacked with invective words the man who had presented the girdle and censured him, because he had presumed to present such gifts to such a lady. Which the handmaid of God hearing and understanding what had been done, as she was always gentle, restrained her daughter-in-law with a kindly voice, saying: "Cease, daughter, to be indignant and to reprove the man, for what he has done is the divine good pleasure and the will of God. For if it did not please the Lord that I should use this girdle salutarily, he would not have ordained it to be presented to me by a man as a gift." For that girdle which she had before worn upon her loins, gnawing her body for a long time, was already worn out; therefore she accepted the new one with joy as sent her by the Lord. The lady Anna, considering that this Blessed woman was already at that time very greatly bereft of strength from long affliction, and that, if any strength still remained in her, it would happen to be entirely enfeebled by such a kind of torment, pressed with prayers brother Herbord, the aforesaid confessor of hers, to make her conscience uneasy about her indiscretion and most strictly to forbid her this machine of torture, and to compel her, the hair-shirt cast off and the girdle of hair laid aside, to use a gentler tunic. When the confessor, asked to do this, endeavoured perhaps to bend her by counsels, she said sadly: "God forgive my daughter," giving to understand that her daughter-in-law had revealed her secret. Yet she did not lay aside the hard garment which she had assumed, but, chastising herself in it to the end, she died in it ⁱ.

[33] by lying on the ground, For that she might be rich in the fruits of salvation, she continually broke up the clod of the body and diligently worked the field of the body, acquiescing in no one's counsels or prayers when she perceived hindrances in them. On account of which her son, Duke Henry, compassionating her, as was fitting, his beloved mother, often said, as though complaining: "I cannot by any supplication induce my mother to be willing to act more gently in afflictive works. For she could truly say with the Apostle: I can do all things in him who strengthens me" ^k; because the strength which feminine infirmity denied her, divine power wonderfully fostered in her. In the bed prepared for her to rest according to ducal decency she did not lay herself down, but, when sleep overcame her after long vigils of prayers in the evening, she rested either on wooden planks or on a pavement covered with a hide. But if, with her body now weak and sick or excessively wearied, she sometimes wished to act more indulgently, she placed herself for a time on straw covered with felt, or on a sack, that she might be able to rest. But on a mattress ^l she never permitted her limbs to rest, however sick she was. For once, when she was sick, a mattress had been spread under her, which, as soon as she perceived it, she ordered to be removed.

[34] by vigils Beyond human strength she pressed on with sacred vigils, for she rose for Matins however early, and often before the bell was rung, nor did she afterwards return to bed to relieve herself with the benefit of sleep, but remaining wakeful in prayers she meditated at night with her own heart and swept her spirit, not only with poured-out tears, but she also most sharply afflicted her body with the strokes of rods ^m. For during the sisters' Matins, entering the chapter-house, she disciplined herself so much that drops of blood remaining from her body on the hide were seen by those who came after. Nor was she content with the blows which she inflicted on herself with her own hands, but she even induced some women of her household to this, that they should often beat her to the shedding of blood, as they afterwards narrated with tears. For the lady Demunda, being once asked why she wept, answered: "How shall I not weep, since I am compelled to scourge until it sheds blood a person in whom there are only dry bones covered with skin?" For by words of this kind she gave to understand that she had afflicted with scourges, in the manner aforesaid and at her command, her lady, Blessed Hedwig, to whom she herself was always most familiar, especially in Lent, and on the vigils of the Saints and the Ember days, and on Fridays specially for the memory of the Lord's Passion. Sister Victoria too of the house of Trebnitz, compelled by her command and constrained by the insistence of her prayers, very often scourged her in a like manner, as she afterwards narrated before the examiners.

[35] and by scourgings. Thus this heavenly husbandwoman, dwelling in mind on high in the cultivation of the spirit, tore up the soil of the flesh daily, only solemn days excepted, nor did she cease even in sicknesses to order herself to be scourged. This Saint indeed strove so to hide from others these hard scourgings, done to her in secret, that they could not be made manifest, but yet they could not be altogether concealed, especially since the heavy blows, resounding far, thundered in the ears of the waiting-women waiting outside. Therefore neither doors closed more diligently nor guards sufficiently set at the entrance could prevent, while these things were being done, the benefit of this chastisement from being betrayed. And because it cannot be explained in brief words how assiduously this handmaid of Christ crucified her flesh with its vices and concupiscences, let the words of the lady Anna, her daughter-in-law, conclude this treatise on the austerity of her life, who spoke thus: "Though I have heard the Lives of various Saints, I have never understood anything of such great harshness about them, but that I have seen something greater or similar in this woman."

ANNOTATA.

k. Philippians IV 13.

Chap. IV. Of the prayer and devotion of St. Hedwig.

In assiduous prayer The friend of God knew that man, placed in the body, is absent from the Lord; lest she should be without divine consolation in this exile, she always tried to show herself present to the Lord in spirit and mind, and with all her heart she longed for the presence of the Beloved, who consoles in a wonderful way and knows how to console, that she might enjoy his secret address, enjoy the sweetness of love and the effect of salutary grace, and taste with the palate of the heart the savour of his wonderful sweetness. And that this might be done more secretly, carried on more quietly, come about more surely and happen often, she explored the suitability of times, sought the fitness of places, and varied in diverse ways the modes of seeking the Beloved himself. And because she had already learned by certain experience that every time is suitable for seeking him, and that he frequently appears to those who watch, and shows himself first to those who seek him with desire, she watched very much, as is said before, and, meditating and praying, continually went about seeking him whom her soul loved. Her heart was burning, whence she could not rest for the love of God, whom she loved and desired to have present, as the hart desires the fountains of waters.

[37] day and night Continuing days with nights, therefore, and joining night to day, she persevered in sacred watches, awaiting the coming of the comforter, that she might quickly open to him when he came and knocked at the door of the heart. For from Compline until the silence of deep night she persisted at length in prayers, that, when sleep is wont to take hold of idle persons, she might hear the voice of the Beloved knocking and sweetly addressing her. She might hear, I say, that word hidden from ages and far removed from the tumults of the world,

she might hear indeed that most sweet word which overflows with delights and abounds in salutary mysteries. Because she desired to enjoy the sweetness of this word, she watched anxiously, that while the others slept her ear might as it were furtively receive the veins of his whisper. And the Beloved rendered her this return, that he did not pass by her keeping watch in so vigilant a guard, nor turn aside from her, but stood and spoke words of love and so inflamed her heart that in the flame of love she recognized him present and understood him whom she loved to be there in his transforming power. Who is there now among all of us so watchful and observant of the time of the Lord's visitation, and so diligently exploring the coming Bridegroom through each of his moments, that when he has come and knocked he at once opens to him, as did she, who slumbered a little, slept a little, when after long vigils sleep rushing upon her overwhelmed her? For how often did certain ladies of the household staying with her, rising well refreshed by sleep, find her still watching and praying in her chamber before her bed and conversing with him who is all desirable. And after she had been relieved by a little sleep, she rose again, either observing the time of midnight or at least anticipating the dawn, that when the morning stars praised the Lord and all the sons of God shouted for joy, she too might pay devout praises to God.

[38] she persevered in prayer, For, instructed by God, she knew that the sun is to be anticipated for receiving the blessing of the Lord and for gathering the manna of heavenly grace; therefore she persevered in the praises of God through the day, not ceasing from divine colloquies and prayer unless she had to eat or to hear other things about God, or if she wished to apply herself to works of piety. Nor indeed did she then cease from prayers, since she did not cease from doing good. While she took nourishment of the body too, she did not abandon the divine colloquy; for because she was well lettered and understood the Scriptures, reading was frequently done to her at table. To which sacred reading she often attended so eagerly that, holding a raised morsel in her hands, she did not put it to her mouth, or, forgetful of chewing, held it placed in her mouth and shed tears, so that she could truly say with the psalmist ^a: "How sweet are thy words to my palate, more than honey to my mouth." For she had a livelier taste in the refreshment of the mind than of the belly. Thus this Saint blessed the Lord at all times, and his praise was always in her mouth.

[39] often heaped with heavenly She considered also that every place is suitable for blessing God, whence in every place of his dominion her soul resounded the blessing and praise of the Lord. Yet, observing that more secret places and those dedicated to God are more inductive of compunction for praying, she frequented them more willingly, that, the sight of others avoided, transcending more familiarly by the ladder of devotion the wall of the flesh and reaching with her mind to the Beloved, she might be joined to him more fittingly in spirit and fervour of soul. The Beloved too repaid her this return, that, while she embraced him the more eagerly with the arm of devotion and the glue of love, he sometimes preserved her by a wonderful power from disturbance when some chance came upon her.

[40] graces; For it happened at a certain time, while she was praying thus withdrawn in a certain dwelling, that one of her servants, named Boguslaus of Sauon ^b, to whom she had committed specially the care of the kitchen for the poor, wished to take from the same house the pot in which water was boiled for her as usual for drinking; and when he approached the place, he saw her set in prayer and surrounded by so great a light that, terrified and driven by no small fear, he suddenly drew back from the house, nor thereafter dared to approach, but rather hastened to withdraw; but called back by the lady, having taken the vessel, he went away with trembling, so that in that visible light and in the fear which fell into the man's heart it might be perfectly given to understand that she had even then approached in mind to him who dwells in light inaccessible, and had then been specially illumined by the light of him who enlightens every man coming into this world. Whence, the divine power forbidding it, she was not permitted to be distracted by any outward disturbance as long as it pleased her; or, God disposing it, she was to enjoy the sleep and rest of contemplation and to linger in the little bed of the heart in the consolations of the Beloved. Was not that most sweet word of the Bridegroom then fulfilled in her? "Stir not up nor make the beloved awake, till she please" ^c.

[41] wherefore secret In churches too, when it befell her to be present at the divine offices, she hid herself from others under certain veils of hangings, praying and weeping so abundantly that the lady Anna, her daughter-in-law, when she had to receive from her the kiss of peace during Mass, saw her eyes as it were bloodied with tears and her face watered with weeping. She also frequently saw her shining in prayer, with a snowy or a rosy countenance, and as it were changed into an angelic aspect for the jubilation in which she was. For she could not always avoid nor altogether escape the gaze of the already mentioned lady Anna, because among all the women she was most familiar to her and stood nearest to her, especially in church. Whence the lady Anna herself rather often perceived the delights which the handmaid of Christ had in spiritual joy. For the already mentioned lady Anna and brother Herbord, her confessor, frequently saw her rapt out of devotion into such an ecstasy of mind that she was insensible. The lord Cosmas too, an honourable knight, assiduous in the service of the same lady, was accustomed to say: "Many times, when my lady blessed Hedwig was at prayer, it happened that I came before her about some affairs, and I saw her so intent on her prayers and withdrawn from her senses that she did not see me standing before her, until after a long delay she came back to herself." Her mind rose from things known to things unknown and transferred itself from earthly things to heavenly.

[42] for the most part more secret places, even Passing from visible things to invisible, in beautiful things she recognized the most beautiful, and in creatures she could not sufficiently wonder at the magnificence of the creator. She raised her eyes to the heavens, accordingly, many times, that, the glory of the stars and the beauty of heaven having been seen, her mind might be more vividly enticed to the love of the heavenly homeland. Whence it came about that sometimes from the contemplation of the stars and of the higher bodies she directed the eye of contemplation to the throne of the supreme majesty, and received the ray of the divine splendour within in such fullness that it became manifest outwardly too, when her body, surrounded by clear light, was seen raised from the earth into the air, according to what some have noted. And thus that outward and visible light declared the presence of the eternal light shining in her soul, and the raising of the body the elevation of the mind tending towards God. During the divine office she granted no one an opportunity of speaking to her, except perhaps in an unforeseen case, or in a moment of unavoidable necessity, reckoning it exceedingly unbecoming and unworthy to intersperse human words among the divine utterances, where an urgent and reasonable cause did not opportunely require it, since indeed a person ought not to permit the solace which the soul can have in God to be hindered by man. And although this Blessed woman hid herself the more diligently, lest the secret which she had in common with the Lord should be divulged, should in any way become manifest or known to men, yet it was rather frequently disclosed through the groans and sighs which she could not contain within herself, overcome by the force of love and stirred by the sweetness of devotion.

[43] in churches, she sought: Although she desired and chose secret places for praying, so far as was fitting, in order that she might be able to drink more eagerly, without hindrance, the sweetness which, the Lord pouring it out, she was accustomed to taste, yet she would not hear the public divine office in her house or in her chamber, as princes and magnates sometimes are wont, but always in church she had Matins, Masses, Vespers and the other praises of God solemnly sung before her with chant ^d. The morning signal having been given, therefore, she at once hastened to church with her household joined to her. Neither by mud, nor snows, nor cold, nor rains, nor any harshness or inclemency of the air, nor by any occasion, unless perhaps she was actually sick, could she be detained from going to church, however far it was distant from her lodging, to hear the divine office there. As many priests as she could have to read Masses, she was present most devoutly at all of them, praying meanwhile either prostrate with her whole body, or kneeling on her knees, or humbly leaning on her elbows upon the ground. Often too, so kneeling then in prayers, out of devotion and with humble heart, she touched the dust of the earth, kissing it. Whatever presbyters came to her court, whether secular or religious, could scarcely ever escape having to read Mass before her. And if sometimes through the carelessness of the presbyters a large number was lacking, they were called from wherever they could be had to supply the fewness of Masses, which she could not bear without displeasure. For as the chaplains and servants were burdened by the multitude of Masses, so she was burdened with weariness if their multitude failed her. Whence a certain cleric composed these verses about her:

With a single Mass the duchess is not content;

As many presbyters as there are, so many Masses must be had.

[44] she heard very many Masses most devoutly, One day, when she desired to delight in several Masses, she sent her chaplain, Martin by name, afterwards a canon of Wrocław, to call any presbyter to read her a Mass. He, compelled by the command, which it was not fitting for him to contradict, went, though unwilling, to execute the command, and, taking with him a certain bald lay brother who chanced to meet him, who had then come to the duke's court to dispatch some business, he presented him to the lady. And she, as she was of commendable simplicity, considering not the lay brother from his habit but only the baldness, and thinking that he was a presbyter, asked him suppliantly that he would deign to read a Mass for her. When he, astonished, had answered that he was neither a presbyter nor imbued with letters, the lady, perceiving the deception, humbly asked the man's pardon, showing that she had done this not with the intention of mocking, but through ignorance; and to the chaplain also she said with the mildness of gentleness: "God spare you, that you have so deceived me." For with such impatience she was accustomed to reprove those who caused her trouble or shame, as has already been shown above, namely in the treatise on her patience.

[45] and priests with the highest With how great devotion she was present at the divine offices, and especially at the celebrations of Masses, is shown not only by her tears and bodily prostrations, as is said before, but also very many religious works and virtuous exercises indicated this. For at all the Masses which she heard she either offered in person or sent her offering, and asked of the priest himself who had read the Mass that his hands be laid on her head and that she be sprinkled with holy water, undoubtingly believing that by this she received some special grace from God and was relieved of her infirmities, which also rather often happened, so that

she herself afterwards disclosed to those of her household. Brother Herbord, who had been her confessor, said of her: "Of how great devotion and faith Blessed Hedwig was concerning the office of the Mass and towards the most high Sacrament of the Lord's body, no man could recount."

[46] with honour Considering, moreover, that presbyters are of such great dignity that they handle the Lord of heaven and earth in the Sacrament of the altar, and that they daily confer those Sacraments by which, the divine power assisting, the soul of the faithful is sanctified and restored to cleanness, she held priests and all the clergy, whether secular or religious, in great reverence, and exalted them with no small honours, so much so that she honoured with gifts even those who for some gain pretended to be priests, as though they were true presbyters. She would not sit at table unless the priest who had celebrated Mass had first reclined at it.

[47] and with confidence she revered: She feared lightnings and thunders very greatly, because by these commotions of the elements she recalled to memory the judgment of the last day and the sword of divine vengeance, and, remembering, she trembled all over, and, as though at waves swelling over her, with Blessed Job she always feared God. Whence she did not cease from trembling until some priest, being called and coming, laid his sacred hands on her head as a shield of the Lord's protection. Under the shelter of these, as though secure of escaping the danger, she persevered in genuflections and prayers through the whole space of the storm. But when tranquillity had been restored after the bad weather, she pressed kisses on the said hands in thanksgiving. Which she believed could with power resist the storm, because they are consecrated for this, that they may reconcile the wrath of God. She was moved by a certain special affection of love towards those whom she knew to be diligently present at the celebrations of Masses. Whence there is no doubt that she loved the more those who were ready to celebrate those Masses often and the more devoutly.

[48] an outstanding venerator of the Saints too, When she wished to approach to receive the Sacrament of the Lord's body, her face was flooded with so great a stream of tears, and she exercised herself then specially in so many prayers, genuflections and prostrations of the body, that the fervour of her devotion not undeservedly moved the onlookers efficaciously to devotion. She had very many images and Relics of the Saints, to which she showed fitting reverence, and caused them to be carried before her to church and to be placed in the place where she prayed, that at the sight of them she might more vividly recall to memory the merits of the Saints whom she loved, and through their suffrages prepare herself the more for the fire of devotion. The Mother of the Lord indeed, among the other Saints, because she embraced her with greater love, as was fitting, she therefore always carried with her a small image of her, which she also often took into her hands and carried, that out of love she might look at it more often and in looking might be able the more devoutly to stir herself up further to the love of the glorious Virgin. When she sometimes blessed the sick with this image, they were at once cured, so that thus by the power of miracles it was proved and became known to all to what height of merits she had already attained who out of the fervour of charity sedulously carried with her this image of the Mother of the Son of God.

[49] she adorned altars: With how great devotion the Passion also of our Lord Jesus Christ was turned over in her heart may be gathered in some measure from this, that she did not neglect to venerate even the least signs representing the mystery of the crucifixion of Christ. For wherever she saw on the ground straws figuring a cross, adoring on bended knees and taking them up and kissing them, she laid them back in such a place where they could not be trodden on. Because she loved the beauty of the house of God, she conferred precious ornaments and paraments on churches and altars, and she also procured and prepared at her own expense priestly and levitical vestments and those of the ministers of the altar of this kind, both by herself and through other women staying with her, who knew how to work finely in gold and silk. Thus she frequented the sacred mysteries with others, as is said before; thus she furthered the divine ministries; thus with the faithful she wore the thresholds of the house of the Lord; thus with moderation she endeavoured, in the presence of men, to exercise the zeal of her devotion.

[50] other testimonies of her But the divine offices being finished, all who had been present returning at a suitable time to their own places, that they might attend to the refreshment of the body and provide for outward things, she, remaining in the church with a few waiting-women, disposed herself the more diligently to take the inward banquets and to seek the spiritual delights in the house of the Lord, desiring with renewed taste to enjoy still more fully the sweetness of that divine consolation by whose savour she had already some times merited to be sweetened. And because, the others being then absent, finding herself solitary and at peace, she could be free more liberally and was able to give herself more to the diverse ways of seeking the Beloved, praying she went round each of the altars, and, beating her breast, poured out groans and sighs, and, raising her eyes to heaven together with her heart and hands, standing she offered suppliant prayers to the Lord, and falling to the ground at the feet of the Lord Jesus she humbly prostrated herself with the Magdalene. But although she could no longer kiss bodily the footsteps of our Saviour, yet in their place she very often kissed the ground, or frequently and humbly touched with her lips the dusty pavement and watered the earth with tears, that she might both show to the Beloved the fervour of love with which she burned and could not hide, and obtain pardon of sins and more abundant grace. Recognizing herself as dust and ashes, she boldly put her mouth in the dust, having hope and confidence that the Beloved would at length give her the kiss of eternal peace. On account of which, delighting not a little in prostrations of this kind, she often lay so long before the Lord stretched out at length that her little body, so weak, could in no way have sustained it, had it not been strengthened by the fervour of devotion and the fortitude of the spirit of the Lord.

[51] of her devotion On one occasion sister Gaudentia, wishing to consider more curiously the devotion of the lady herself and her manner of praying, absented herself from the community's dinner, and entering the church saw her prostrate in prayer with her whole body for so long that, waiting for her thus, she completed half the psalter in reading it over. For the greater fatigue of her body too, and on account of the admirable fervour of divine love which always drove her to arduous things, sometimes, while she lay prostrate on the ground in prayer, she raised her breast and head to a book placed before her, in which she read written prayers. Rising at length, with multiplied genuflections she honoured him who for us was mocked with bended knees. She was never seen to sit in prayers, but after she had stood a little while, suddenly springing up she fell on her bare knees. Whence projecting and hard callouses had grown on her knees to the size of two eggs, or, as others who saw them report, to the quantity of two fists, which swelled more in winter time. She hid this treasure, however, with all her strength, and it was not known while she lived except by a very few women serving her. With these insignia of charity the friend of God appeared before the Beloved, with these pearls adorned she shone; always carrying with her these tokens of love, namely the callouses on her knees, the cracks in her hands and feet, and in her other limbs the bruises of blows, she presented herself to the gaze of the Beloved; with such canticles of gladness, with these songs of joyfulness, namely sighs and groans, she soothed the supreme king; on this ten-stringed psaltery, on this sweet-sounding harp, namely devout psalmody and intent supplication, she sang continually to the lovable Bridegroom; with such dancing of the heart, with these gesticulations of the body, namely genuflections and prostrations, she played before the throne of God and of the Lamb, and thus with her whole heart she praised the Lord.

[52] are reported. In such a manner every day, even while her husband was still living, she continued the divine praises, so that from the morning hour she persevered praying in the church until after midday, condescending to the weariness of the waiting-women expecting her rather than satisfying her own desire, she came to her lodging to take that little nourishment of the body of which it has been spoken above. For the sweetness of that supernal banquet, to which she clung with her whole mind, had so changed the taste of her heart that the savour of bodily food delighted her very little. Whence, intent almost daily on the dishes of her contemplation and refreshed with the wine of inward consolation, she scarcely took care to take bodily food about the evening hour. With so eager a desire and so great a fervour of love was this handmaid of Christ borne towards God, that she tried not only to offer herself to him through the fire of devotion, but also exhorted whomever else she could to serve him devoutly and faithfully. And therefore, both by herself and through her ministerial whom she had deputed for this, she instructed simple people frequenting her court to confess and to pray, and in those things which pertain to the salvation of souls. Among the other women serving her she had a laundress, an aged woman, altogether ignorant of the Lord's prayer, whom she herself instructed in the Our Father with such diligence that she did not let her go from her even at night for ten weeks, but compelled her to stay and sleep before her bed in the chamber in which she herself stayed, that perhaps the words of the sacred prayer which she had inculcated in her by day might sometimes induce her to ruminate them in the night, and so she might commit them more firmly to memory. Her husband too, that he might be able to heap up for himself continually by virtuous exercise the best fruit of salvation, and above all might anxiously stir himself to the watchfulness of devotion, she taught many prayers. For she always had this in desire, that he whom she loved most among men might also serve the Lord his God with a devout heart.

ANNOTATA.

a. Psalm CXVIII. 103.

c. Canticle II. 7.

Chap. V. Of the charity of St. Hedwig towards her neighbour.

The monastery of Trebnitz, founded by her husband, The gift of piety and mercy had filled the heart of the handmaid of Christ with such abundance that she was always most ready, in affection and likewise in effect, for the glory of God and of his Saints and for the relief of her neighbours. That word too of our Saviour ^a, "Be merciful," she held written indelibly in her heart and diligently fulfilled in deed. This noble offshoot had an inborn clemency, which the piety of Jesus Christ increased, at the instigation of whose grace she endeavoured that her hand should urgently work whatever it could in good works, and what she could not accomplish by herself, she carried out by invoking the help of others. Among the other works of mercy she reckoned it a work of the greatest piety to further the salvation of souls, and therefore by her counsels and exhortations she induced her husband to have built at his own expense the monastery of Trebnitz, of the nuns of the Cistercian Order. The expenses of whose building, according to what was ascertained from the procurators of the work, rose to about thirty thousand marks. For the walls alone, besides the roof, which, made of lead over the whole cloister, remains to this day, are reckoned to have cost 20 thousand marks. And the aforesaid temple was founded

and the cloister, to the honour of Almighty God and of the glorious Virgin Mary and of the Blessed Apostle Bartholomew, in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and three ^b, and dedicated in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and nineteen. And meanwhile, while the building of that convent was being done, she permitted no one condemned to the punishment of death for any crime in the judgment of the prince or of the court to perish, but, his life being granted him, she caused him to serve in the same structure until the time ordained accordingly for the amendment of the crime. Whence, according as each such person had offended more or less, bound over to the work, he rendered his service. The monastery having been built, Duke Henry himself, at the counsel of his holy consort, endowed and enriched it with copious revenues, which would suffice for all the necessary expenses for a thousand persons and for continual hospitality, wishing to merit by his alms and desiring to be made worthy to hear the voice of the Lord saying at the last examination: "I was a stranger and you took me in" ^c.

[54] the Saint also endows it from her own, Blessed Hedwig herself also conferred on the same monastery the goods of her dower, namely Savon ^d, with the adjacent vills, about four hundred mansi of the best soil. And from the city and diocese of Bamberg she called ladies of the Cistercian Order, whom she placed in the aforesaid cloister ^e. In which, as time went on, a hundred ladies dwelt enclosed to serve the Lord; nay, in the same today one hundred and twenty ladies are said to dwell. The first abbess there too was the lady Petrissa, the mistress of the childhood of Blessed Hedwig herself, whom she had summoned from Bamberg together with the ladies of the aforesaid Order. And although the sisters themselves were most sufficiently provided for in the things which were necessary to them for food and clothing and divine worship, yet the affection of piety did not rest in her, but that she added many things and provided for them in necessities of this kind, especially when she reckoned that they sometimes suffered a lack in such things as they needed for use. For certain other religious of the Order of Templars she obtained from her husband the gift of certain great estates which are called Olsnicz ^f, in the best soil of the land, where, as time went on, many and great vills have been settled. On religious she bestowed many benefits and honoured them very greatly, wishing by the honour with which she exalted them for Christ's sake in her own regard to make them honourable in the eyes of others also. For when they came to her, rising to them and receiving them gratefully, she placed them beside her at table. And that she might preserve their good fame from detractors, she not only caused them to be treated honourably before her, but also provided them with honourable lodgings, servants and companions as long as they wished to stay, and sent them all necessaries, and diligently furthered their affairs with the duke and dispatched them the more quickly. And when they wished to go away, she caused bread, fish and other foods of religious to be secretly put in their bags, that they might have something to eat on the way. Where too she had seen them stand, there after their departure, bending her knees as at the footsteps of Christ, she adored God, whom she had received in them.

[55] munificent to other monasteries also, Moreover, she gave and sent large alms to various monasteries, as to Leubus ^g, to Heinrichau ^h, at Wrocław to St. Vincent ⁱ, to St. Mary ^k, to the Friars Minor and Preachers, and to many other persons too who bore in religious habit the sign of Jesus Christ; and she did not cease to do good to very many wretched persons too, as though she always read set before her eyes and fulfilled in deed that word of the Gospel: "What you did to one of my least ones, you did to me," and so on. Hermits or women recluses, wherever she knew of them or could reach them, she endeavoured to console in person with benefits, but those at a distance she provided for through messengers in garments and foods and other necessities. She had a special care of lepers, for love of him who willed to become as a leper for us. Whence certain leper women living together near the town which is called Neumarkt ^l she had so received into her care that she sent them several times in the week money, meat and game, and provided for them largely in garments and other necessaries of life, and cared for them in all things as special daughters.

[56] the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, With a wonderful tenderness of compassion she condescended to those afflicted with any bodily trouble whatever, and her mind melted towards the poor and the sick, to whom she showed both affection and a hand of help. If she saw any lack, any want in anyone, she supplied it with the sweetness of a pious heart. She went round accordingly, while her waiting-women were sleeping, among the maids, and looked over their footwear more diligently, and if she found any break in them, reproving their neglect, she ordered it to be mended the more quickly. When some sister in the monastery was lying ill, she came in person every day to her little bed, and, her knees bent before her, comforted her with consoling words, always giving her some opportune help. For she never withdrew from any sick person unless she had first, a gift having been offered, consoled him. The sick too of her household ^m she visited in her own person, and sent physicians to them and procured medicines for them, and was solicitous for them as a mother. Allured by the sweetness of that address of the Lord: "I was sick and you visited me" ⁿ, she neglected to visit no sick person whom she could learn of, and especially no poor one, provided the possibility was present. Going too on the road to more distant places, if she learned of a sick person, she went to him, neglecting her journey. And to the sick whom she could not visit on account of too great distance she sent messengers with gifts, and the more wretched anyone was among the sick, the ampler benefits of consolation he received through her. Women lying in childbirth, especially the poor, she visited when she could do this in any way, and ministered necessaries to them. The imprisoned, although she could not visit them in her own person, she nevertheless did not neglect to visit with great benefits. For, inflamed with the desire of hearing the voice of the Lord saying in the judgment: "He was in prison and you came to me" ^o, since she could not go to them herself, she sent them by her messengers food and drink and sufficient covering, lest they should be harmed by the cold. And that they might not be too much burdened by vermin, she sufficiently provided them with changes of clothing and with linen garments, and with candles, that by the benefit of light they might lessen for themselves the horrors and darkness of the prison, taking precaution with all the diligence she could lest any danger should threaten them from any lack.

[57] nay, she helps enemies; The handmaid of the Lord also ascended a step of greater perfection on the ladder above all of charity, when she did not permit even the enemies and adversaries of her husband, whom it sometimes befell to be placed in prisons, to be without the aforesaid benefits, but ministered all necessaries to them largely, fulfilling in deed that which is written: "If thy enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink" [p]. And after all the benefits which she bestowed on those shut up in prisons or otherwise made captive, she added this, that she very often freed them by her intercessions from their bonds and restored them to the solace of liberty. Likewise those who had incurred the indignation of the duke her husband she did not cease to recall to his favour. For on bended knees and with tears poured out she humbled herself before him, interceding for them so long until she understood herself to be heard. To the troubled and afflicted, if the possibility was in any way present, she gave effective help. She never failed those weeping in consolation, nor ever withdrew opportune help from the needy. For those who were burdened for debts, or were detained shut up, and those oppressed by debt, she redeemed and relieved with her own money; those too condemned to death, or to be afflicted with other kinds of torments for their demerits, she quite often rescued by her intercession.

[58] she frees a cleric to be punished with death, A certain cleric, a Frenchman by nation, was to be punished with death by sentence of the judge for the crime of sacrilege which he had committed. But the pious lady, understanding that a cleric, chosen by the lot of the Lord, had been condemned to so wretched a punishment, the bowels of her mercy were the more moved on account of the clergy, whom she reckoned most worthy of all veneration; she pressed the one who had the power with prayers, nor did she cease from supplications until she kept that cleric unharmed, rescued from the death to be inflicted on him. She was the mother of all the poor, and was above all the greatest consoler of widows and orphans. Whose causes and affairs, when it was necessary, she furthered before the duke, and acted for them as a most faithful advocate. Many girls too, bereft of parents and friends, gathered with her, she treated with a pious affection of compassion and cherished in Christ, providing for each, as it seemed to her according to God better expedient, by handing them over either to matrimony or to religion. The poor, therefore, because they continually felt her benefits, followed her wherever she went as a mother; for there always lay before her in church a heap of pennies, which were distributed to the needy, and she herself rather often paid them out with her own hand to the poor. No one of the household presumed to drive back the needy running after her, although many attached to her service, wearied by their excessive multitude, were often affected with sufficiently great weariness.

[59] helping largely other poor persons, especially clerics, Concerning this, on one occasion, while she was tarrying in prayer before the altar which she had erected in her chamber, the beggars, waiting outside as usual to receive alms, cried out, saying: "Today the lady is hidden from us; today the consoler of the poor has not shown us her face, because we have not yet received her benefit." Which one of her household presently, as she had heard it, recounted to her. And she at once said to the one telling her: "Go quickly, take the box in which coins are laid up for the poor, and give to each as the Lord shall inspire you." For thus she was accustomed to dispense alms through others whenever she could not distribute them in person, and therefore she reproved herself for negligence, because she had omitted then to commit this dispensation. To needy clerics, as being more given over to divine worship and as those who ought, by cleanness of life, to draw nearer to Christ above other people, she bestowed specially many benefits. On account of which, following her, they came to her sometimes to more distant places. For from Wrocław as far as Rokitnica, crossing nearly thirteen miles [q], they carried back from her gifts in silver and garments and received other necessaries of life. The lord Razlaus, a presbyter and a mature man, canon of Gniezno and of Włocławek, being a witness of the works of piety of the already mentioned blessed Hedwig, setting himself forth as an example, said: "I was a poor scholar, studying at Wrocław, and having heard of the benefits which the handmaid of Christ, while she lived, bestowed for the love of God on the needy, I went after her with companions to the places where she was staying, at Lesnicz [r] and Rokitnica, three times, and as often I and the other companions who had come with me, having received half a ferto of silver [s], returned from her consoled, and always at the court

of hers, as often as I entered, I found a copious multitude of poor." To those wishing to go to the thresholds of the Saints, and to those signed with the cross and other pilgrims, she ministered large aids, that by furthering them on the way of eternal salvation she might merit to be made a sharer in their merits.

[60] scarcely the hundredth part of her revenues Scarcely ever did anyone asking alms of her go away unheard. For, as Master Hermann, canon of Głogów and parish priest at Suidenicz [t], said, of the copious revenues which she had she retained scarcely a hundredth part for her own and her household's necessity, and paid out all the rest for the use of churches and for the uses of the poor. And when her own means were failing in the work of piety, she had recourse to her husband, asking that by ministering necessaries to the needy he would supply her place. She had a certain great grange of four ploughs, which was called Zeuina [u], from which very much corn and things of this kind which pertain to food were had in abundance. And a certain time of grievous dearth coming upon them, the handmaid of God herself caused it to be proclaimed through the market-places that all the needy who wished to receive alms for God's sake should come to the said grange. When, therefore, the needy had gathered there in no small number, she caused corn to be distributed to them, according as it sufficed each for the sustenance of nature. And when the corn failed, she spent on them all the meat that was had there. The meat too being consumed, she ordered cheeses to be given them, and, these failing, she gave fat and salt for seasoning vegetables, and whatever else fit for eating could be found and had she gave them. Thus as a faithful and prudent dispenser she gave the Lord's household food in due season. And this rule she both observed herself and taught her husband to keep, that when she was doing good to many at the same time she should give attention to equality, lest, on occasion of a benefit unequally dispensed, a seed of envy should spring up among those receiving.

[61] she reserves for herself, to all, as far as she can This handmaid of God had also at her court special sick poor, 13 in number, whom, in memory of Christ and his 12 Apostles, she ordered to be conveyed in carts when she went from place to place, and for them, when she had arrived at the lodging, she first provided for their comfort, and always caused them to recline at table before her, and before she sat down at table she went round and ministered to them, setting food before each on bended knees. Afterwards, sitting down to eat, she herself, content with dry foods, divided among them and other poor the best dishes with meat and other more savoury foods offered to her. On account of which, the sons of the nobles, the prince's courtiers, seeing these things, sometimes said that they would rather be beggars, to be refreshed from the lady's dishes, than eat at the prince's table. Likewise she sent them the best drink served to her. And when the chaplains or other members of the household were sometimes indignant and said: "Lady, let the drink which is set before you stand before you, for the poor are provided for as is expedient," she answered: "I offer them my cup for this reason, because I know that they will not be given of so good a drink." Everything she had before her, even if it was a single apple, she divided with the poor. She was moved too with such affection towards these poor that, had it been becoming and could it have been done without the murmuring of detractors, she would most gladly have eaten from the dish with each one of them. And for that multitude of the needy which had not been placed before her table, she had a special kitchen and servants specially deputed for them, by whom the necessaries of food were furnished them morning and evening, according to the requirement of the time.

[62] doing good Behold the handmaid of God, how truly poor she was in spirit, who amid the abundance of worldly things and in the delights of banquets so wished to be in want for Christ's sake that she was hungry and thirsty and naked in the cold. Yet she reckoned it a great banquet for herself when she sumptuously refreshed the bowels of the poor, and grew warmer through divine love when she covered the bodies of the needy with garments. This is, therefore, that valiant woman who opened her hand to the needy and stretched out her palms to the poor, who indeed for so great an office of piety shall laugh in the last day. Moreover, this happy woman, desiring to obey in all things the Lord saying in the Gospel: "Give and it shall be given to you, forgive and you shall be forgiven" [w], not only gave and spent on pious uses what she had, but also liberally forgave what was owed her by her subjects. For to her tributaries [y] she made the greatest remission of debts, so much so that one of her chaplains, Otto by name, exclaimed on one occasion in her presence and said: "Lady! you remit so much to your rustics that we who serve you have nothing wherewith we can be sustained." But she answered from a pious heart: "Fear not, God will well be able to provide for you." And because she received either nothing at all or very little from her rent-payers, her scribes said ironically: "We shall have nothing of the goods of our lady except what she remits."

[63] in all humility. When some had been punished by her judges for their excesses with a pecuniary penalty, she remitted it almost wholly, so that sometimes in one day she remitted about 30 marks of such fines to her people of Savon and Javor [x]. And when she could not otherwise free her rent-payers and other poor from the invasions of the judges and other ministerials, she redeemed their vexations with her own money. She had as notary a prudent and honourable man, the lord Ludolf, whom she often asked with tears to deal mercifully with the people and not to burden them by importunately exacting the rents owed. And lest it should happen that the people were too much harried by her judges, she often wished to be present at the courts in person, and then she caused the judgment to be exercised not by the chamberlain or by her judge, but by one of the chaplains, so that thus the poor might be treated more gently. What more? This fountain of piety was so common and so diffusive of its sweetness that everyone who approached her, having enjoyed her sweetness, went away consoled. For to all who had recourse to her, if sometimes she could not bestow the effect of the work according to the affection of her heart, turning to the grace of the Almighty she obtained by divine miracle that what the pious desires of men about her longed to have accomplished should be done, as will be evident from some things which now follow.

ANNOTATA.

a. Luke VI 36.

c. Matthew XXV, 35.

n. Matthew XXV 35.

o. Matthew XXV 36.

p. Romans XII 20.

q. Rochetnicz, if the manner of writing be attended to, must be interpreted as Rokitnice, a vill of Upper Silesia, in the district of Opole, the circle of Beuthen: but that this interpretation be admitted is prevented both by the fact that this vill never belonged to Henry the Bearded, and above all by the fact that this vill is distant from Wrocław not 13 miles but at least 26. There is also another vill, Rogytnicz, called by another name Schönwald, and given by Henry the Bearded to the nuns of Trebnitz, but this is only 8 miles from Wrocław. And hence it comes about that some hold that Rochlitz is here indicated, in the district of Liegnitz and the circle of Goldberg; and that indeed quite probably; for both the distance fits excellently, and there existed not so long ago the ruins of a church once erected in honour of St. Hedwig, perhaps because she was accustomed to stay there, as is evident also from number 68.

r. Lesnicz, today Lissa, in the district of Wrocław, the circle of Neumarkt.

s. The ferto is, according to Gunther, the fourth part of a mark. Du Cange under the word Ferto, whence still today the English Farthing.

t. I should believe that by Suidenicz here Schweinitz is rather to be understood than Schweidnitz, although the latter comes closer literally to the text of the biographer: for since Hermann was at the same time canon of Głogów and parish priest at Suidenicz, a place not much distant from Głogów had to be sought (9 miles), whereas Schweidnitz is a vill five times more distant.

u. The most celebrated Stenzel doubts whether Zevina is the proper name of a place unknown to him, or rather a common noun, badly written for Dziedzina, a grange, a hereditary possession Scriptores, volume II, page 35, note 2..

w. Luke VI 38.

y. Namely those who had to pay an annual rent.

x. There is a twofold Javor, or Javer, in Silesia, one in the district of Liegnitz, the other in that of Wrocław: the former indeed does not seem to have belonged to the right of St. Hedwig; the latter afterwards belonged to the Order of Malta; for it may be that our Saint had some goods in those parts.

Chap. VI. Of the miracles of St. Hedwig in her life.

She performs many miracles while living: The soul of this beloved and chosen one of God, because of the Saviour

clemency had filled her with such grace that she was borne upward towards God by continual devotion and was incessantly moved towards her neighbour by beneficent piety, while she was still in the mortal body certain outward indications and signs made manifest that familiarity and grace of friendship by which she was joined to the Lord; for on account of the love of her and her merits God did certain miraculous and wonderful works. Many things too hidden from the eyes and hearts of the living were divinely disclosed to her before they happened, so that thus, strong through signs and prodigies with apostolic power, and through the revelation of future events and hidden acts, she might be most certainly proved to be filled with the prophetic spirit.

[65] she frees a nun from a fish-bone; The lady Razlava, a nun in the monastery of Trebnitz, was familiar to Blessed Hedwig, and not undeservedly, because she herself had brought her up from childhood and had placed her in the aforesaid monastery, of which, as time went on, she was sacristan, and then abbess in the cloister which is called Ouenzko [a]. While she was one day sitting to eat at the table of Blessed Hedwig, a bone of a fish of which she was then eating stuck so firmly in her throat that she could be freed from it neither by swallowing nor by casting it up. Whence, tormented not a little, she at length rose from the table, to see whether perchance in private, by provoking vomiting, she could cast out the bone, from which, as it stuck longer, she felt danger to threaten her. But when by such effort she made no progress at all, nor felt relief, necessity compelling, she returned with confidence to the lady, still sitting at table, and boldly indicated to her the pain which she had perhaps before hidden from her for shame, hoping to be freed by her merits. She, compassionating her pain with her accustomed piety, blessed her in the name of God, and behold, as soon as the sign of the Cross was made, the heavenly physician was present, and, answering both to the merit of the one signing and to the faith of the one suffering, he delivered the sister from torment and at the same time from the danger of death, so that, the sisters who were present seeing it, namely Victoria and Wenceslava, afterwards prioress at Trebnitz, who was then reading to the lady at table, the said sister Razlava wholly spat out, bloodied, the bone which had been gripping her throat most atrociously.

[66] she cures the eyes of two women The already mentioned lady sister Razlava, weeping much for her full brother who had died, had contracted in her eye a certain white spot that impeded the sight and was not a little wearisome to her. Laden therefore with such a burden, she quite prudently thought of relief. For, having recourse at once to her lady, by whose benefit she was in the cloister, she set forth to her the impediment of the eye, by which she could be held back in the service of Jesus Christ, to whom she had been given over through her. When she, full of piety and faith, saw this, she said: "Go, take my Psalter, and with it make the sign of the Cross over your eye overshadowed by the spot, and you will be healed." The sister obeyed the one commanding, believing the lady's word, knowing that it is written: That all things are possible to him that believeth ^b; and having taken the Psalter, as she had been commanded, she made the sign of the Cross, and at once escaped the white spot with which she was burdened.

[67] she cures; Another sister of the monastery of Trebnitz, Gaudentia by name, from weeping had incurred in both eyes so grave a white spot that she could not drive it away by applying many medicines. For the spot had entirely covered one of her eyes, so that she could see nothing with it, but in the pupil of the other eye some part had remained not covered by the white spot. With that eye, therefore, she could see something, but so diminished that she could not fully recognize persons. Juliana, a sister of the same monastery, wishing out of charity to help her with medicine, put into her eyes an eye-salve which had profited many having a similar infection of the eyes, but it did nothing in them. Wherefore, using prudent counsel, since she saw that she could not be helped by human aid, she betook herself to divine help, and hoping to obtain health through the merits of Blessed Hedwig, she went round, while the monastery was solitary, searching, and, considering diligently with that dim-sighted eye, noted the place where Blessed Hedwig herself was accustomed to pray in a certain corner of the church. And, exploring the changes of the times, she came when the lady was alone, and as she rose from prayer she falls down before her feet, asking suppliantly that she would mark her infected eyes with the sign of the Cross. But she, seeing and hearing that there was asked of her that which was an indication of sanctity and a declaration of divine power and surpassed her own merits, was struck dumb out of humility and refused to do it, saying to the sister who asked: "God spare you, because, since I am a human being and a fragile earthen pot, you ask of me a thing of the highest power. Cease, then, for you strive in vain, seeking thus the benefit of health, which you will not be able to obtain from God through me." The sister nevertheless pressed that she would give her the desired blessing, nor did she cease until she, not knowing obstinacy and ignorant of contention, overcome by piety, made the sign of the Cross over her, saying: "The Lord bless you, dearest sister." And thus, what is very wonderful to hear, the dark spot which had occupied her eyes for ten weeks being driven away, she at once received clear sight.

[68] she frees a woman from blindness; At a certain time, when she was at Rokitnica and was tarrying there praying in the church as usual, one of her waiting-women, named Catherine, for the relief of the weariness contracted from the long waiting, or for the cause of some other necessity, went off to her lodging, and at a suitable hour returned to accompany the lady. But on returning she found two German women with her, of whom she had long known one and knew that she had been blind; but now she saw her seeing and heard her clearly giving thanks to God and to the handmaid of God, the lady Hedwig, because she had without doubt recovered the light of her eyes by her merits, and that therefore she was deservedly to be venerated by all as a Saint. At the voice of this woman the lady blushed, and, grieving that so great a treasure, which she always strove with the utmost effort to hide, should thus be set in public, she said to the woman who was spreading abroad the praises of her sanctity: "Not I, but the Lord has given you light and made you see." And she fled as far as she could from the face of her words, showing that she by no means took delight in those commendatory speeches; she, however, did not cease to extol her sanctity with her voice. But Blessed Hedwig, noticing that she could not restrain her from this commendation by simple prohibition, considered whether perchance she could quiet her with gifts, and, pouring out the coins laid up in the box for the poor, gave them to her. Receiving which, she went away rejoicing at once in the light of her eyes and in the gift. With this new miracle, therefore, the Lord honoured the house of his majesty, which this blessed woman frequented so fervently and inhabited so sedulously.

[69] she rescues from death two already hanged; A certain poor man had stolen from his neighbour a ham of a pig, that is, half a bacon ^c, and, caught in the very theft and led before the duke, the Saint's husband, he was ordered to be punished without delay by hanging. But the kinsmen of the thief who was to be hanged, recalling that the piety of the lady Hedwig, the duchess, was great towards the wretched, coming before her, asked that she would deign to intercede for the life of the man about to be killed. She, hearing and granting the prayers of the suppliants, went suppliantly to her husband, asking that for so small a thing a man's life should not be taken away. When her husband answered her that he believed him already hanged, but if he were alive he would give him to her, she at once sent a certain knight, named Henry Cattus, to free the man. He, going swiftly and finding him already hanging on the gallows, drew his sword and cut the rope, and so he who had been hanged came unharmed to the lady and fell down before her feet, giving her thanks for his liberation. This was testified at the Roman curia before the examiners by the lord Nicholas of Wirbina ^d, who had been of the household of the lady herself; he was also present when the lady sent the aforesaid knight and when the thief, returned in health from the gibbet, gave thanks to the lady.

[70] from death; A miracle similar to the aforesaid I have found noted in certain writings, which I set down for this reason, because I think it to be another from those which are narrated there. A certain criminal, a public enemy of the duke and an adversary of the land, was proscribed and at length detained. Whom the duke ordered to be dragged into prison on account of the darkness of night coming on, so that, all delay removed, on the morning of the following day he should be punished with the death due, before his detention, fame betraying it, should come to the notice of the lady Hedwig herself, his wife. For the duke wished by thus hastening to take care lest she should free the malefactor by her intercessions as usual. The executioners carry out the duke's command the more quickly, the more fully they know his will about what was to be done, and, when the day had dawned, leaving him hanged on the gibbet, they return to their own places. But when the handmaid of God was returning late, as she was accustomed, from church, the duke came to meet her. And she, who had already learned of the deed, first reproved him for his cruelty, and afterwards suppliantly besought him that he would give her the man already condemned by sentence of death. But he, presuming the malefactor to be certainly dead, as having been strangled at dawn, having delayed for some time the solace of granting her request, at length said: "This one, like the others, I give you." Having summoned his procurator, therefore, he charged him the more diligently to go swiftly to the place of punishment and present the man to her, recalled, unharmed. But the servant, while he alleged on the contrary that it would happen that labour would be spent in vain in executing this command, unless perhaps she wished the corpse of the dead man to be brought to her, especially since the malefactor, hanged in the morning, would without doubt be already dead, the authority of the one commanding nevertheless prevailed. Whom, because it was not permitted to oppose, he thought to bring the execrable corpse, that so he might mock the lady as for a superfluous command; and having yoked a cart, going and arriving at the gibbet, he cut the rope by which the wretch hung for his demerit, and, finding him whom he believed lifeless to be alive, to the stupefaction of many who had been present at his torment, he brought him without injury into the presence of the lady. No one doubts that the divine power preserved the aforesaid malefactors from death among the hands of their torturers for this reason, that both it might show to the faithful the merits of its handmaid, and might grant to those sinners, on account of the justice of the one interceding, time for doing penance. From that time the prince commanded that wherever she should thereafter pass by public places of custody, the prisons and workhouses should be opened at once, and those bound, rescued out of reverence for her from captivity and from their chains, should rejoice, restored to full liberty.

[71] she heals a woman's hand; A certain woman near Leen ^e, while on a Sunday she was grinding her corn in a mill which in the vernacular is called a Quirna, by divine vengeance the stick with which she turned the mill stuck so strongly to her hand that even with the help of her husband she could not remove it. When, therefore, all help and counsel failed her, the aforesaid husband cut off the wood both below and above the woman's hand, and led her to the handmaid of God, setting forth to her wholly what had happened, and showed, by the part of the stick which the woman held inseparably

clinging to her hand, the truth of the case which he set forth to her. She therefore, consoling her clemently, offered prayer to the Lord for her in secret, and, approaching, opened her hand and freed it from the wood in which it had been entangled, asking and charging her not to make the deed in any way manifest. But that could not lie hidden which God, for his glory, did not will to be concealed.

[72] she preserves her book unharmed by fire. Another miracle also occurs, which I think is not to be covered with silence, but rather to be revealed to the glory of God, who wrought it. It happened one night that Blessed Hedwig herself, wearied from vigils and prayers, had been overcome by the violence of sleep, and behold, the light which, lit near the book, she had held for reading while awake, slipping from the hands of the sleeper, fell burning entirely upon the book. Hear a wonder! The candle, clinging to the book, burned and was consumed along the length of the whole book, and yet it neither consumed nor spoiled the volume. Which, having been ascertained by Demunda, of the lady's household, and by other waiting-women, afterwards came to the notice of others, that the Lord of majesty might truly be shown to all as praiseworthy, who by his wonderful power kept unharmed from the fire the book of his devout handmaid, as once he preserved the burning bush unconsumed. With many other glorious works too the Lord made this his Saint wonderful in her life, of which some have already been expressed above, namely that water was changed into wine, and that she suddenly appeared shod before her husband, as is written in the treatise on the austerity of her life (chap. IV) ^f; likewise that heavenly light terrified her ministerial, and that with the image of the Blessed Virgin she cured many (chap. V) ^g, as has been set down in the treatise on her prayer.

[73] She foretells various things, But because this Saint, while she lived, was very admirable not only for wonderful operation but also for illustrious knowledge, therefore after the miracles which this handmaid of Christ performed in her life, some things are not undeservedly explained in which she is declared to have had the spirit of revelation and prophecy. For, irradiated with the light of the supernal brightness, she discerned with the clear gaze of the mind things which yet she did not see with bodily eyes; many things also, to be accomplished after long times, she knew by the benefit of heavenly light. Some of which, when she foretold them and they came about as she had foretold, the minds of the hearers were turned to stupefaction, wondering at the grace of the gifts divinely conferred on the handmaid of God. The brightness of the true light also began quite early to shine in her, so that from her youth even into old age and decrepitude and to the completion of her days she foreknew and foretold many future events.

[74] the mortality of men, For at a certain time, while she was still young, on the day of the Lord's nativity, someone came who said before her as she sat at table that a cherry tree standing in the garden was adorned with fresh flowers. Hearing which, she sent to consider whether the aforesaid flowers were sprouting in the lower or in the upper part of the tree. He who had been sent reported the tree flowering on its lower branches. And she said: "It is a sign of a mortality to come, for many poor people will die this year." And so, as she had foretold, it altogether came about.

[75] the death of her husband and of a waiting-woman, She forewarned her consort not to go out of the castle of Legnica, but to make his stay in it for a long time, and that he should know, she foreknowing it, that as soon as he withdrew from it he would not long remain in this life. And he, believing her words, stayed three years in the same. At length, withdrawing thence and arriving at Lesnicz ^h, he took to his bed there and departed from this world within eight days, in the year of the Lord one thousand CCXXXVII ⁱ, and was buried in the monastery of Trebnitz. There was a certain woman named Catherine, a Prussian by nation ^k, but raised from holy baptism by the handmaid of God herself and nourished, and joined in matrimony to an honourable man, named Boguslaus of Sauon. To this woman, because she was specially of her service *, she foretold many future things, and also often declared to her the things which this Catherine was turning over in her thoughts. Whence once, when she was thinking of certain things of the present life, sighing she answered, saying: "O Catherine! why are you vainly occupied with present things, since you are going to die suddenly?" Hearing which, the woman was terrified and fear fell upon her, knowing that the word in the mouth of this lady was certainly true. Seeing her, therefore, so vehemently troubled, she said: "Do not be sad, Catherine, because you will indeed die, but you will live again, and this shall be a sign to you. Behold, you will conceive and bear a daughter, who will die, and you will depart after her." This woman was not yet pregnant, but, as time went on, a daughter having been born, as had been foretold her, she died; and the mother herself too, overwhelmed by a severe sickness, was held for dead for three days. But she was not given over to burial, because a very little of the vital spirit seemed to have remained in her; whence she did not feel even the fire applied to her body as a test of life. At length she was restored, as is piously believed, through the merits of Blessed Hedwig, to her former health, that in this both the prophetic spirit which the Blessed one had in her might be manifested, and the divine power, which, assisting her merits, restored life to a woman devoted and familiar to her. Blessed Hedwig also had a procuratrix very familiar and pleasing to her, who was called by her proper name Demunda. Of her, in her absence, but with the aforesaid Catherine present, she said with great compassion: "Demunda will depart from this life by a hateful death." The mournful event, alas! proved the sad prophecy. For the woman survived some years after the happy passing of the Saint, but at length departed from this life by a sudden death.

[76] the slaying of her son, Three years before Duke Henry, the son of Blessed Hedwig, was slain, the mother herself said to a certain sister of the Cistercian Order at Trebnitz, Adelheid by name: "Be mindful of my son, because he will not pass from this world after the manner of those lying in bed." When the sister, astonished and terrified, answered her, saying: "God forbid, lady; he is your only son, therefore you fear lest perhaps it should so happen to him; cast away this fear;" she said on the contrary: "I do not fear, but I know most certainly that he will fall by slaying." But by whom he was to be slain she kept silent, it is thought for this cause, lest perhaps, if she had proclaimed the coming of the Tartars, people, too much terrified or made faint-hearted, should have flown to the refuge of flight before the time. And when three years had been completed, as she had foretold, the Tartar fury, invading the parts of Silesia, so prevailed that the lady Hedwig herself, with her daughter and the wife of her son, the lady Anna, to avoid the danger transferred herself to the castle which is called Crossen ^l. And while she was staying there, one night, having called her secretary, she said to her by her proper name: "Demunda! you must know that I have now lost my son. My only son, like a little bird swiftly fleeing, has gone from me; I shall not see him any more in this life." For that son, who was his father's successor in the lordship, having gathered an army, had gone out to meet the Tartars to fight with them, and was slain in the same battle, in the year of the Lord one thousand CCXLI, as was said in the beginning; but rumour had not yet carried his death to the more remote places. But Demunda, wishing to console the lady and desiring to repel with a truthful answer the word which she thought she had spoken from mere opinion, said: "Lady, no messenger has yet come and nothing has been heard of the things you say; wherefore abandon this opinion and do not believe yourself in this matter." But she: "It is as I have said; but take care with the utmost diligence not to disclose it to anyone, that this sad report may not reach my daughter-in-law and my daughter." For she thought, because she was speaking alone to her alone in the nocturnal silence in the closed room, that no human being was present listening to their mutual conversation. But sister Pinnosa, resting in the same chamber, who was thought to be asleep, heard the words of those conversing. And while they kept silence, as the lady had ordered, after three days, a messenger coming and spreading abroad what had happened, it was ascertained that the duke had fallen in battle with many on the same day on which his mother had foretold it.

[77] the malice of her grandson Boleslaw She not only foretold the death of bodies, but also foretold dangers of souls and of property. For on one occasion, in the hearing of the lady Anna, her daughter-in-law, she spoke with sorrowful voice concerning her grandson Duke Boleslaw ^m, the son of the same lady, who was then absent: "Woe, woe to you, Boleslaw, how great evils you will yet bring upon your land!" This was indeed fulfilled, according to what some declare, when the same Duke Boleslaw alienated the key of the land, namely the castle and territory of Lebus ⁿ, and when through the many battles which he stirred up in his times he was the cause not only of loss of property, but also of death to very many. Whence, almost at the beginning of his lordship, when he had taken the principality in the land of Silesia, on account of the evils at once arising the people began to groan, since through his army about eight hundred persons of both sexes perished by fire in the church and in the cemetery of Neumarkt, and many other dangers happened at various times in Poland through his tyranny.

[78] To the lord Luthold too, her chaplain and procurator, this handmaid of God said: "I have compassion on you, lord Luthold, the evils impending on her procurator and on others, because my grandson, Duke Boleslaw, will do you many evils; he will despoil you and all yours of all your goods." But the same Luthold, because he was then in great favour with the duke, as though indignant at the lady's word, answered: "Would that you, lady, could always have peace; I and mine shall always fare well with Boleslaw, my lord." But she, looking at him, said: "I indeed shall have peace, but what I have already said will happen to you." To the same Duke Boleslaw, when the lady ^o joined to him in matrimony, the daughter of the count of Anhalt, had been brought, and Blessed Hedwig, first receiving her, looked at her, she at once foretold that she would have to suffer very many evils from her husband. Moreover, that the aforesaid Boleslaw would violently drag out of that monastery the two full sisters of his whom he had in the cloister of Trebnitz, given over to the Lord, she likewise recounted before it happened. And these things, each of them, came about as she had foretold. One, however, of his sisters taken from the cloister, namely the lady Agnes, returned to the monastery and ended her life in the Order.

[79] the apostasy of a Friar Minor: A certain man, Frederick by name, the son of Sophia [p], had professed the observance of the Order of Friars Minor. But because, according to the truth of the Gospel, not all who are called by the Lord are chosen, nay, what is very terrible, of the great number of those called scarcely a few obtain the benefit of election, so that he who stands may fear lest perhaps he fall, and see how he walks cautiously: this Frederick, what

he would be, one of those falling, Blessed Hedwig showed before the lady Anna, her daughter-in-law, and Gothlinda, her waiting-woman, in these words, saying: "I have much compassion on the lady Sophia, because, alas, her son, by apostatizing, will abandon his Order which he has professed." Which that wretched man fulfilled, as the lady had foretold, when the course of ten years had been completed.

[80] she reveals a sister's fault: Sister Razlava, of whom mention was made above, on one occasion, carrying a hedgehog in her sleeve, hidden under her cloak, came in to Blessed Hedwig. The lady, looking at her, reproved her, saying: "Why, daughter, do you carry an unclean thing with you?" And she, having forgotten the beast which lay hidden in her sleeve, and withdrawing with a blush, began to think what this unclean thing was of which the lady had made mention. And it occurred to her mind whether perhaps she had displeasure about the hedgehog which she was carrying with her under her mantle, and at once throwing it away she returned to the lady. To whom she said: "So, daughter, so you ought to have come to me the first time. Take care not to bring such an unseemly thing hereafter."

[81] She foresees that St. Stanislaus will be canonized. Juliana, a sister of the house of Trebnitz, one day, the signal having been given to come to choir to pay the divine praises, was hurrying with swift step, lest she should neglect the fitting time of entering, and so, hastening, she passed by a certain place in the church of Saint Bartholomew, where the altar of blessed Stanislaus, Martyr and bishop, is now placed, making no special reverence there, because she did not know any cause for making it, since that place had not yet been specially marked with any title of veneration. The lady, therefore, called her back as she hastened thus, and, showing her the place, said: "Daughter Juliana! this place is assigned to a certain great Saint, in whose honour an altar would at length be built in it; therefore, as often as you pass by here, be not slow to show reverence." But while she was saying and teaching these things, not only to the already mentioned sister Juliana but also to the lady Catherine, her familiar waiting-woman, nothing had yet been heard of the canonization of Saint Stanislaus [q]. But after the death of the Saint herself, fourteen years having passed, an altar having been built in the same place to the glory of God and the honour of Saint Stanislaus, what had been prophesied by her was fulfilled.

[82] and the poverty of her waiting-woman This Catherine, a Prussian by nation, of whom mention was made a little before, she exhorted to learn to spin gold and to work in orphrey [r], foretelling to her that such work would be very useful to her in the future. The humble handmaid acquiesced in the counsel of the lady, who out of love counselled her useful things, and learned the said craft. By which, after the death of the lady herself, all her goods having been lost three times, she acquired an abundance of goods; and she was not only rich in temporal things but also in virtues, and a woman of good fame, receiving this twofold reward for faithful service, that, clinging to a virtuous lady, she both laid hold on the path of her virtue and nevertheless abounded in transitory goods.

[83] she foretells her own death, But lest this handmaid of God, who foretold many future things to many and knew death to be impending over others, should seem ignorant of her own departure from this world, the Lord revealing it to her, she said to certain of her household that she knew the burden of her body, weighing down the soul with many failings, was soon to be laid down. Whence on one occasion, when a certain noble and honourable woman, named Myleisa, whom she loved not a little, had come to visit her, that she might repay her love, and, having enjoyed her solace after a fitting stay, was arranging to return to her own place, she called her and said: "Myleisa, my beloved, come to me and receive the kiss of my mouth. For I tell you that, after you have gone away from here now, you will not see me any more in this mortal life." Without doubt she, weeping, having received the kiss from the lady, went away, nor did she see her again, because soon after her departure the lady, seized with sickness, departing rested in peace.

[84] wherefore she summons a faithful handmaid, Foreknowing, therefore, by the prophetic spirit that the dissolution of her body was impending, and understanding that the sickness was near from which she was to pass from this world, while still being healthy, she sent a messenger and ordered the lady Catherine, her godmother mentioned above, to come to her, charging her through the messenger not to delay, but to come quickly and serve her in her impending sickness. She, as a faithful little handmaid, hastened to the service of the lady; finding her, however, healthy, she nevertheless remained with her and ministered to her sedulously in all things. And one day, when the lady had entered a certain chamber, this Catherine saw three demons in human form, with a very great din, rushing upon the lady herself and atrociously scourging her, and heard them saying with fury: "Why are you so holy? Why are you occupied with so many works of sanctity?" Sustaining therefore these fights and onsets of the demons, and fortifying herself with trembling with the sign of the Cross, she escaped them unharmed. And when she came out of the place of the struggle, the devout handmaid, following the lady's footsteps and compassionating her, multiplied the blessing of the Lord upon her, making the sign of the Cross rather often behind her back. Which indeed the lady, her face turned away, did not see with bodily eyes; but, feeling the power of the Cross of Christ, turning round she said: "Catherine, always mark me with this sign." For this sign has a wonderful efficacy from the Lord's passion.

[85] and she has herself anointed with the sacred oil, At a certain time, before she fell into the sickness in which, however, she also died, having called to her brother Matthew of the Cistercian Order, whom she then had as confessor, she suppliantly asked of him the sacrament of extreme unction. Which the sisters perceiving were very greatly troubled and at the same time terrified, because by so evident a sign it was sufficiently given them to understand that the time was now approaching for her to depart from this life, especially since they knew that she, who was strong in the prophetic spirit and the grace of God, would by no means do this superfluously. They grieved, therefore, and were troubled not a little, nor undeservedly, because they feared to lose the mother who cherished and loved them in Christ. But sister Adelheid, specially familiar to her, approaching, said: "Lady, why do you shake our hearts by asking for the sacred anointing, since you are healthy, and no signs of death appear in you? Moreover, a sick person is not helped with such a remedy unless there is fear of his danger." To whom she answered: "I know, dearest Adelheid, I know that it is so, and you set forth well the custom of the Church; but there is something which it befits you to consider about these things. For since a person departing is fortified by the sacrament of extreme unction as with spiritual arms against spiritual wickednesses, therefore a fortification of this kind is to be received by the faithful with the utmost devotion. But I, although I still go about unharmed, shall nevertheless suddenly be counted among the sick, and I fear that, the pains of sicknesses growing strong, I may not be able then to receive that salutary help with such fervour of devotion as befits a soul which must hasten to the Lord." Her desire, therefore, was satisfied, and she was anointed with holy oil, and after no long time she fell into the bed of sickness, nor did she afterwards repeat this sacrament. This deed is recited as admirable rather than imitable, to which the spirit of the Lord gave efficacy by revelation, and concerning which holy devotion, as is piously believed, dispensed [s].

[86] she recognizes those visiting her even without seeing them But after she began to lie ill and to be wearied by languors, her daughter, then abbess of Trebnitz, strictly forbade all the sisters and others ministering to her to burden her or to permit her to be burdened with any narratives whatever. Yet many things were disclosed to her by divine inspiration which she neither learned nor heard from man, and she recognized those coming in to her whom, lying with her face turned away, she did not see, and indicated their presence even by expressing their name. Whence, the sisters having returned to the cloister after the assault of the Tartars, she ordered sister Wenceslava, afterwards prioress at Trebnitz, of whose return she had as yet heard nothing, to come to her [t]. Moreover, the ladies guarding and ministering to her in her sickness, fearing lest perhaps she should die in the absence of the lady Anna, her daughter-in-law, who was then with the king of Bohemia, her brother, endeavoured to signify her languor to her quickly. But she forbade it, saying: "Fear not, nor labour to send to my daughter Anna. For I shall not die before she comes." And so it came about. And when she had returned, she said: "Did I not tell you that I would not die before my daughter's return?"

[87] she rebukes a disobedient sister At the same time, as she was thus lying in the bed of sickness, two sisters of the house of Trebnitz, namely Pinnosa and Benedicta, came to her for the sake of visiting her. And she, when she had looked at Pinnosa standing nearer, touched her with a little fan woven of palms which she was then holding in her hand, saying: "That you have come here without the abbess's leave, it does not now avail you to deny, if you should wish to. Go, therefore, and seek pardon for your negligence, and, leave having been asked and obtained, return to me when you will." The sister was astonished, and although she greatly feared the abbess, yet, hastening to fulfil the lady's command, she went off quickly and, accusing herself, set forth to the abbess what she had done, and by her permission visited the lady again. But the lady herself, lying down, had turned her face away from the door, nor did she see Pinnosa coming with fleshly eyes; yet she knew her present in spirit and, reproaching her, said: "Go out, transgressor of your Order, go out!" But she, falling down, asked her pardon. Which granting at once, she said to her: "Henceforth, daughter, do nothing without leave, since the yoke of holy obedience is very meritorious."

[88] she uncovers a nun's sins, While the handmaid of God herself was already labouring in that sickness of which she died, Eugenia, a sister of the house of Trebnitz, calling by her proper name her own sister whom she had in the same house and Order, said: "Sister Gaudentia! let us go to visit this holy lady, our mother, and keep the vigils of this coming night at her bed." But she answered: "This indeed I would gladly do, but I do not presume, for I fear that, if I appear before her, she will reproach me with my sins, as she recited to sister Pinnosa the fault of disobedience, and as she reproved sister Razlava for the beast which she carried secretly under her cloak," as has been said above in this same distinction, namely the eighth: of the first it is treated in the immediately preceding chapter, of the second in the eleventh chapter [u]. But Eugenia, not admitting this excuse, at length by her insistence overcame Gaudentia, so that she hastened together with her to the lady. Proceeding, therefore, together, they arrived at the house in which the lady lay sick, where Eugenia going in, but Gaudentia, terrified, standing at the door, remained outside. Wonderful indeed: she had perceived neither by sight nor by hearing anything of the coming of her who, outwardly, from fear

had stopped, but foreknowing this in spirit, she said to the sister who had entered: "Eugenia, go and say to Gaudentia, who is standing outside before the chamber, on the part of God and of me: You have committed this sin and that," expressing the offences in which she had offended, "wherefore run back quickly to the lamentation of penance and wipe away the stains of offences which you have contracted." Eugenia did as had been commanded her by the lady; and Gaudentia, receiving the message, as soon as she heard that the truth was uncovered to her, being not a little terrified, went and blotted out her stumbling-blocks by confession, and thus cleansed and free from the filth of sins, as often as she wished afterwards she went in to the lady securely.

[89] she foresees her future glory. As the sickness gradually grew stronger, the lady Gertrude, abbess of Trebnitz, her daughter, asked her where she would choose her burial. And she, who had long since fled all pomp, answered out of sincere humility: "I desire to be buried in the common cemetery." But understanding that her daughter did not consent to this, she asked suppliantly to be buried in the chapter-house of the sisters. Her daughter not consenting to this either, but saying: "We shall place you, mother, in the church, in my father's tomb," she said: "If I must be buried in the church, I adjure you by God and beseech you, daughter, not to place my body in the tomb of your father, from whose bed I was disjoined for many years. For I do not wish to be joined, dead, to a dead man from whom, out of love of chastity, as far as the bed is concerned, I was long separated while I lived." But her daughter saying: "I will have you buried, then, mother, with your son, my brother [w]," she answered: "I wish to have companionship with no one in the tomb; but if you have altogether decided to bury me in the church, I counsel you to bury me before the altar of Blessed John the Evangelist." For in the church of Blessed Bartholomew, before the already mentioned altar, certain children lay buried, her little grandchildren, whose innocence she loved, and whose burial also she humbly wished to follow, because she knew that the Lord had said in the Gospel [y]: "Unless you become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." But when her daughter said: "We shall place you, mother, before the altar of Blessed Peter, that we may always have your tomb before our eyes," she, illumined by the prophetic spirit, said: "If you do this, you will repent of it shortly on account of the burdens which will come upon you there from my burial." And as she had foretold, so it came about, for the sisters, from the multitude of persons visiting her tomb, are rather often disturbed in their rest. Thus this happy and blessed woman, illumined by divine irradiations, taught the determined truth concerning future contingents, hidden from human senses. For what could not be known by human investigation, the true light, with whom she was familiar, uncovered to her, although she did not publish outwardly all the things which she knew inwardly, irradiated by the divine light. The abbess too, her daughter, took care by forbidding, as far as she discreetly could, that she should not be burdened, especially in her sickness, by revealing to others the things manifested to her.

ANNOTATA.

b. Mark IX. 22.

p. That Sophia seems to have been of the leading women, since St. Hedwig calls her lady: but nothing occurs by which her family may be illustrated.

q. The canonization of St. Stanislaus, bishop of Cracow and Martyr, whose feast is celebrated on the 7th of May, was performed by Innocent IV in the year 1253, and so ten whole years after the death of St. Hedwig.

r. Aurifrigium, or Aurifrisium (compare Du Cange at this word), is taken for a golden fringe or golden border: sometimes also, as here, it is interpreted as every kind of embroidered work. Thence is derived the French word Orfroy, which today indeed signifies the broad band which adorns the choir-cope in front, but behind ends in the hood.

s. We have treated at number 80 of the preliminary Commentary of this Sacrament, which is to be administered to the sick alone, being bestowed on St. Hedwig while, as it seemed, still healthy.

t. From this text it is clear that the sickness of St. Hedwig was long, since all fear of the Tartars had vanished two years before: nor will anyone suspect that the nuns were exiled from the monastery without necessity for so long a time, 1241–1243.

u. Namely with us, numbers 80 and 87 of the Life.

w. The abbess Gertrude speaks of Conrad the Curly, as was related at number 56 of the preliminary Commentary. For Henry II, Gertrude's other brother, was buried in the church of St. James, afterwards of St. Vincent, of the Friars Minor, as we said at number 77 of the preliminary Commentary.

y. Matthew XVIII. 3.

familiaris* familiar.

Chap. VII. Of the Miracles done at the time of the death of St. Hedwig.

In her sickness by various As the term approached in which, after the consummation of her good labours, Blessed Hedwig was to receive from the Lord the glorious fruit, God himself showed her certain preludes of that eternal joyfulness and gladdened her soul with his consolations, lest that prophetic word, "Consolation is hidden from my eyes" [a], verified in sinners departing from the world, should have place in her. For he sent to her citizens of the supernal homeland, who, as already experienced, could more fully instruct her about the joyfulness of the supernal citizens and invite her to that prepared, ineffable banquet. For on the solemnity of the day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin ^b, all the sisters and others who ministered to her in her sickness having gone out to sing or to listen to the canticle of Vespers, Catherine alone, her godmother, had remained with her. She saw certain persons and figures shining with light coming in to the lady, and as they came she heard her saying: "Welcome, my lady Saint Mary Magdalene, Saint Catherine, Saint Thecla, Saint Ursula," and she named many other female Saints, whose names Catherine, who was present, did not retain. She heard her too speaking with them in Latin, and, so far as she could notice and gather by probable conjectures, conferring about the hour of her passing. And when Vespers were finished, that vision departed with the light.

[91] she is visited by Saints; On the day too of Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist ^c, when the sisters of the house of Trebnitz were assembled as usual at chapter, two of them, namely Pinnosa and Benedicta, came to visit her in her languor. To whom, being present, she said: "Bend your knees and pray." And when they asked her why they should do this, she added in answer: "Do you not see Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Catherine?" She also named a certain holy Martyr, whose name, because it was unusual, slipped from their memory, and above all because sister Benedicta was ignorant of letters, she could not retain that name. Thus the Lord relieved his chosen and beloved one in the pains of her infirmities by the frequent company of the Saints, before he transferred her to the fullness of joys. And when God willed to put an end to her fatigues and to release her from labour, which yet she did not feel for love, he transferred her most holy soul from the prison of the flesh into the abyss of eternal brightness, where she will see with blessed * eyes for ages of ages the supreme King and our Lord Jesus Christ, for whose love she despised the kingdom of the world and all the adornment of the age, in whom she believed, whom she loved ^d. And Blessed Hedwig passed from this world in the year of the Lord one thousand CCXLIII ^e, on the Ides of the month of October, about the hour of Vespers, so that at that very hour at which she was accustomed in her daily fast to be bodily refreshed with dry food, she might be transferred to the delights of heaven and to the sabbath of unending rest, to be celebrated with all the Saints.

[92] in death the Saint's body shines; And when the body was now lifeless, while the lady Wenceslava, prioress of the house of Trebnitz, coming with some sisters, arranged according to the custom of cloistered women to wash the body, Blessed Hedwig herself was found to have a most hard hair-shirt next to the flesh and a girdle twisted of horsehair. When she had been stripped of these, signs of the future glory began to appear in her. For the colour of her body, which from frequent fasting and continual chastisement was pale or saffron, and her skin, drawn over with certain wrinklings, and her whole body, which, scorched by the heat and cold of penance, inclined to blackness, began in the eyes of all who looked upon her to shine like snow and to represent the whiteness of light. Moreover, her formerly, from infirmity, grey-green

but in death whitening face, and her cheeks suffused with redness and her lips glowing, showing these to the onlookers, she seemed a certain most beautiful image, having no signs of a dead person. Her feet too, formerly often squalid, were then seen bright as milk, signifying to all by the outward whitening that by divine help, through manifold blows and pressures, she had already been reformed to the state of innocence and was secure of the robe of immortality to be possessed eternally. Then too those meritorious insignia which she had hidden with the utmost diligence while she lived, namely the callouses on her knees, appeared and were handled more openly by the women standing round, and turned those who looked on them to admiration and jubilation, when they saw in so excellent a woman the marks of so excessive a fervour in the service of the supreme king. For, as sister Jutta testified, who had seen it present, the aforesaid callouses were so great that they were equal to two fists, and one was set upon the other. In the hardness of the callouses too there were then seen ruptures and certain little cavities filled with sandy dust. For her knees, bare in prayer, rather often pressed upon the bare pavement, had drawn in little grains of sand from the ground, which, received within the little chinks of the cracks, the aforesaid callouses, projecting more evidently, still held.

[93] nuns are cured, one from a swollen hand The body having been washed and fitted upon the bier, as was fitting, the sisters of the house of Trebnitz, presently running up with great desire and eagerness of mind, each seized whatever she could take of the Relics of the body. For some cut off the nails of her fingers, others of her feet, and some the hair of her holy head. At length that inestimable treasure, carried with due solemnity to the church, remained there three days unburied, many keeping vigil and praying beside the body, and all praising God for all the things which they had seen and heard, and for the great works which the divine clemency was doing through the merits of its Saint, the body not yet being buried. For a certain sister of the house of Trebnitz, Jutta by name, having a hand dangerously swollen and livid from a blood-letting, since she had no other remedy, invoked the patronage of Blessed Hedwig, hoping to be freed from danger by her merits. Approaching, therefore, with confidence, she applied her sick hand as near as she could to the holy body placed on the bier. And when she had come near and touched the hair-shirt in which the body lay wrapped, she perceived a wonderful fragrance of odour, and suddenly her hand received full health.

[94] another from thirst: Martha, a sister of the house of Trebnitz, suffered a dryness of the mouth, tongue and breast. From which dryness she continually sustained so great a thirst for two years and more that many times, when Matins was being rung, she had to drink. And sometimes, when nothing else to drink came to hand, entering the church she drank holy water. For which extraordinary drinking the sisters murmured against her, and she was blamed in chapter by the abbess, who said that this fault proceeded rather from perverse habit than inhered in her from sickness, and that therefore by abstinence she could well drive it from herself if she would. But she, wearied by an almost inextinguishable thirst, although corrected with shame, publicly and secretly, could not correct this defect, which inhered in her not, as others supposed, from depraved habit, but from the vice of disease and of the already mentioned affliction. But when the body of Blessed Hedwig, washed on the day of her death, as is said before, was being carried to the church, sister Martha, suffering the said thirst, approached with confidence the place of the washing, and, not undeservedly presuming on the merits of St. Hedwig, made a prayer, saying in this manner: "My lady, Blessed Hedwig, free me from this affliction and from the reproach which I suffer by reason of the thirst which I sustain." The prayer completed, she approached the basin full of the water in which the holy body had been washed, which she found left there, all being absent, the funeral having now been carried away, and washed her mouth and neck and throat, and was suddenly so relieved that she felt thereafter no unnatural or inordinate thirst.

[95] a wonderful whiteness and odour from her body. On the third day, before the body of Blessed Hedwig was given over to burial, her daughter, the abbess of Trebnitz, told sister Wenceslava, afterwards prioress there, to take off the veil with which the Saint's head was covered and to veil the said head with another veil put over it. For that veil which she ordered to be removed had been St. Elizabeth's ^f, of whom St. Hedwig had been the maternal aunt, and therefore this Blessed woman, as long as she lived, held it in great reverence and, for love of her, preserved it the more studiously. For this cause too without doubt her aforesaid daughter wished to keep the said veil, that in that veil she might cherish the memory both of her mother and of her mother's sister, and might not lose a perpetual memorial of love. The sister, therefore, approaching the bier and hastening to accomplish the command of the abbess, and the face of the Saint having been uncovered, saw her lying with open mouth, and perceived a most sweet odour emanating from that mouth. Her body too, which before, while it was being washed, showed a milky or snowy colour, she then saw suffused with a much greater whiteness. And thus the dowry of brightness and the robe of glory seemed then in a certain manner to shine back in her.

ANNOTATA.

a. Hosea XIII, 14.

videt* sees.

Chap. VIII. Of the miracles after the death of St. Hedwig.

Cures of various diseases obtained at the tomb of St. Hedwig: But lest the power of that inestimable pearl and the preciousness of the treasure hidden in the field of the sepulchre should be unknown to men, the Lord deigned to make it manifest by the might of his power. For, the body having been buried with fitting celebration, Blessed Hedwig at once began to shine with many and great miracles, by which the clemency of the Saviour consoled far and wide his faithful who with devotion invoked the help of this Saint, according to what is declared in what follows. There are recited, therefore: First, miracles concerning the sick restored to health. Second, concerning those cured in the head and eyes. Third, concerning the blind given light. Fourth, concerning the deaf restored in hearing. Fifth, concerning the dumb relieved in speech. Sixth, concerning those freed from affliction of the hands. Seventh, concerning those healed of pain of the feet. Eighth, concerning those cured of affliction of the hands and feet together. Ninth, concerning the contracted. Tenth, concerning the hunchbacked. Eleventh, concerning paralytics. Twelfth, concerning the quartan-fevered. Thirteenth, concerning epileptics. Fourteenth, concerning demoniacs. Fifteenth, concerning the dysenteric. Sixteenth, concerning the quinsied. Seventeenth, concerning those afflicted with fistulas. Eighteenth, concerning those rescued from the danger of death. Nineteenth, concerning the dead raised [a].

[97] the son of the lord of Borech is healed, ^b A certain boy, Dominic by name, son of Witoslaus, a knight of Borech ^c, seven years old, was lying ill with a grave sickness. And the infirmity increasing, he was at length brought to this, that by human judgment the certainty of death was then already threatening him closely. For his hands and feet were deadened, his eyes too, turned awry, could not be closed, only a slight rattle still sounded in his throat, his breast being wholly and enormously raised, as it is wont to be raised in the dead. The mother, therefore, considering her son thus approaching death, said to the boy's father, namely her husband, who himself also was then lying in bed: "Our son takes leave of you and departs; we no longer have our son." The father, hearing this, with raised hands and with weeping, cried out, saying: "My lady, Blessed Hedwig, I served you and you loved me while you lived; do me now this grace, that through your intercession I may keep my son alive. Restore to me, lady, my son healthy, and let this be to me from your liberality a principal and special recompense for my labour." Very wonderful: the faithful servant recounts his faithful service to his lady in hope of obtaining grace; the lady, as though not forgetful of the faithful service rendered her, does not put off the remuneration nor delay to grant the things asked. For suddenly, while the father was completing the words of the prayer, the son, who was thought to be already breathing out his spirit, turning himself, began to look at his father and to console him with his gaze. The raising of the breast visibly receded, and the signs of death quickly vanished, and the boy himself, who from the sickness was as it were wholly dried up, inasmuch as he had languished from the feast of Saint Michael until the day next following the feast of Saint Martin ^d, no crisis or other natural change having taken place in him, on the third day went out of the bed of sickness healthy and unharmed. The boy's father also, reciting this miracle before the inquisitors at the time of the examination of the miracles, could scarcely narrate it for tears and sobs.

[98] the son of Amilius of Wrocław, The boy Walter, son of a rich man, Amilius, a citizen of Wrocław, was so injured by the fall of his nurse that no medicine could drive away the vehement fracture of the loins and the swelling which he had incurred from that injury. Whence his mother, the lady Berchta, in hope of a cure, caused him to be cut by a surgeon. But not even by this was he restored to soundness; nay, he was made more sick. The woman, therefore, seeing that every human remedy was absent for restoring her son's health, God inspiring her, devised a principal antidote of health, and this to be obtained from the most high physician through the intercession of Blessed Hedwig. Trusting therefore in the merits of this Saint, the woman devoutly vowed to bring back her son, mortally sick, to her tomb, hoping not to be defrauded of her desire. The vow having been thus made, she took care to pay quickly what she had vowed, many, however, counselling her not to take the boy, whom they then thought as it were near death, soon to be buried. And when he had been brought to Trebnitz, near the tomb of the Saint, the lint which by reason of the cure had been pushed into the wounded flesh having been drawn out of the wound, the mother placed her son on the Saint's tomb, with a candle which she had prepared to his length, another offering having been added, many being present; and standing close by, she prayed, saying thus: "My lady, Blessed Hedwig, heal my son, or make him die before he goes away from your tomb." This was now the mother's own desire, on account of the weariness which she had of her son's too prolonged languor; for he had been sick from the feast of Saint Vincent the bishop preceding the feast of the Nativity of Blessed John the Baptist until the vigil of Blessed Bartholomew

the Apostle ^e. For then the same sick boy was brought to the Saint's mausoleum: and behold, what is very wonderful and no less delightful, the mother, prayer having been made, received back altogether healthy the son whom she had placed on the tomb as about soon to die, in the judgment of many; the wound of the incision too, from which the mother herself had drawn the lint, as is said before, was found closed over and so consolidated that only a small scar seemed to remain as a sign of the former wound. This boy, thus restored to health through the merits of St. Hedwig, lived unharmed for many years, and at the time of the examination of the miracles he was presented healthy to the examiners themselves for searching out the full truth of this miracle.

[99] Peter, a familiar of Duke Henry, A certain Peter, of the household and familiarity of Duke Henry, seized with a grave sickness on the feast of the Lord's Nativity, lay ill for many days, wearied by the stings of pains. When he was pressed more vehemently by these, remembering the sanctity of Blessed Hedwig and trusting in her suffrages, he said: "Blessed Hedwig, prolong my life still by your intercessions." While, therefore, on the vigil of Saint Silvester, Pope and Confessor ^f, he was pouring out this prayer more devoutly on his pallet, invoking the Saint's patronage, he heard a voice saying to him several times: "Rise, rise! why do you lie there?" Having heard the voice, at once overcome by sleep, he did not fulfil the command of the one bidding him; but awaking after the slumber, he at once rose healthy, announcing that he had been freed from his pains by the divine mercy through the merits of St. Hedwig.

[100] Elizabeth, a girl of six years, Elizabeth, a girl of six years, daughter of Mechtild, wife of Hermann Cranzo, a citizen of Wrocław, from the prolongation of sickness had her little body so dried up that all her limbs were of much less size than an age of so much time required. The mother, knowing that no remedy could now be applied more efficaciously to her wretched daughter, whose strength and vigour the persevering languor had laid waste, than the divine compassion, having made a vow, went to Blessed Hedwig's mausoleum, carrying with her there her sick daughter. Laying her down near the tomb, she prayed, saying these words: "Lord Jesus, through the merits of Blessed Hedwig I invoke thy mercy; heal my languishing daughter lying prostrate here." And behold, the merciful and compassionate Lord, who is near to all who call upon him in truth, being invoked suddenly showed the benefit of his compassion, and restored fully to health the girl, dried up by continual languors for half a year, so that she, who had been as it were already withered, at once resumed through the help of Blessed Hedwig the growth of her body.

[101] Hermann, a Cistercian: Brother Hermann, a presbyter of the house of Leubus ^g of the Cistercian Order, at a certain time was gravely sick at Leubus, so that both he himself and the other brethren thought he would die in this sickness. While, thus weighed down by languor, he was suffering on one occasion a certain ecstatic transport, he heard a voice saying to him: "Go to Trebnitz to the tomb of St. Hedwig and you will be healed." From that hour the brother began to recover and to be better. But, health having been obtained, he neglected to fulfil the admonition made to him about visiting the Saint's tomb, and relapsing, as one ungrateful for the benefit, he began to be pressed by greater goads of infirmities than before. But the vexation inflicted giving him understanding, returning to his heart, he not undeservedly judged that the divine admonition despised was the cause of the relapse and of the increased scourge. More quickly, therefore, he asked and obtained from the father of the monastery, the lord Louis, then abbot of Leubus ^h, leave to go to the tomb of St. Hedwig, as had been revealed to him by the Lord, and, with two brethren assigned to him as companions, namely Nicholas, a lay brother, and Berthold, a presbyter, carried in a cart, arriving there all languid, leaning on the tomb itself, because he was weak, he invoked the Lord for the recovery of his health, certainly through the merits of St. Hedwig. Presently, while the servant of God was thus confidently persisting in prayers, he was present who truly promised, saying ⁱ: "Whatever you ask praying, believe that you shall receive," and consoled his servant before he raised himself to depart from the tomb, restoring to him the desired health of body. For at once, when he had prayed, he broke into a salutary sweat, and, conducted to the lodging, that same night he recovered from that sickness which he had suffered from the vigil of the Assumption of the glorious Virgin until near the festival of the Blessed Archangel Michael; and so, restored to his former health through the intercession of Blessed Hedwig, he returned shortly to his community. From the already mentioned monastery of Leubus many other brethren were cured by God through the suffrages of St. Hedwig, of whom one out of many was brother Godfrey, prior of the same house.

[102] a girl who had lied about her virginity loses her hair: Blessed Hedwig by her intercessions with God deigned to procure not only the health of bodies but also of minds, and to put to flight the sadnesses of hearts, as clearly appears in the things which follow. A certain young girl, secular in heart and dress, pretended before men, out of shame, to have the virginal chastity which she had lost before God. Coming, however, to the tomb of Blessed Hedwig, when she wished to lay down there, as a sign of integrity, the veil with which she had covered her head, she laid down at the same time her hair falling off, and so remained with her head made bald. And because she would not acknowledge her defect, but rather wished to glory vainly in the virginal state from which she had fallen by an unhappy chance, her ignominy was revealed before all, that, returning to her heart, she might afterwards be made humble in her own eyes, who before delighted to be proud with the foolish virgins, lacking not only the oil of charity but also the beauty of chastity. A certain man, Clement by name, of Orinicum, asserted before the examiners at the Roman curia that he had seen the aforesaid hair, although he had not then been present when it slipped from the head of the said maiden. A similar deed is read of Saint Stanislaus ^k, that through his Saints, men and women, the Lord may prove how great a crime it is to wish to overshadow a fault with a lie.

[103] a lost boy is found: A certain smith lived at Wrocław, having a son of three years, whom at the time of the fair, on the feast of Saint John the Baptist, vagrant women had furtively taken from him. While, therefore, going round through the streets and squares, he had sought him for three days with grief and had in no way found him, he made a vow, saying thus: "Blessed Hedwig, make me have my boy again, and I will offer you a measure of corn ^l according to the heaviness of the weight which the same boy shall show when placed in the balance." These words having been uttered with intention, at once a certain woman was present, telling him to come and receive the lost boy, and showed him the place in which with joy he found him, shown to him through the suffrages of St. Hedwig.

[104] Michael from pain of the head, A certain man, Michael by name, devout and fearing God, having in the monastery of Trebnitz a sister who was called Gaudentia, oppressed by a grave pain of the head, lay ill continually for the space of one year. He, with all the zeal of devotion he could, invoked the help of Blessed Hedwig, that the Lord would deign, by her intervening suffrage, to free him from such and so great a torment. At length Blessed Hedwig appeared to him as he slept, and said to him in a dream: "If you desire to be cured, go in person to my tomb and you will receive health." The man, awakened, hastened to carry out waking the counsel of salvation which he had received sleeping, and, reaching the place of the tomb, at once threw himself to prayer. To whom, as he thus prayed for the health of his head, a certain man appearing clothed in a white garment said: "Thus you ought to pray and with these words invoke God through the merits of Blessed Hedwig: Grant us, we beseech thee, Almighty God, ever to glory in thee, and mercifully grant that we, who devoutly recall the merits of Saint Hedwig, helped by her aid may feel thy grace." This sick man was so little lettered that he could not in any way have retained this prayer, just as he could not have composed it, had it not been inculcated in his memory by a wonderful power. Taught by God, therefore, he retained the prayer and, perfectly cured, returned with joy from the tomb to his own home. Before he went away, however, coming to his aforesaid sister Gaudentia, he recounted to her and to other sisters of the cloister both the process of his cure and the sequence of the prayer which he had learned. Whence sister Gozlava, out of veneration and remembrance of the miracle, wrote down the said prayer from the mouth of the man to whom it had happened, and left it in writing to posterity.

[105] Siffrid from pain of the eyes Siffrid, a citizen and brother of the judge of the city of Wrocław, had incurred a vehement pain of the eyes, which did not allow him to see even a little. Master Hermann the surgeon having been called, therefore, while he stood by, prepared to cut away from the eyes themselves the superfluous flesh which had grown out, he who was suffering, considering that pain was to be added to pain, and not presuming that he, already suffering so great a kind of torment, could sustain at all another new torture coming upon him, leaving aside the remedy of cure which could perhaps be applied to him by human industry, betook himself to invoke the help of St. Hedwig, who had previously freed him from another infirmity, and, having made a vow to visit the tomb of this Saint, he hastened as quickly as possible in a cart at night-time, because his sick eyes could not bear the light of day, and arriving there, prayed, saying thus: "Saint Hedwig, bring me help, that I may be able to escape the vehemence of this pain, your aid mediating." The prayer completed, the man, who, scarcely seeing, had come led, suddenly healed, on the following morning returned to his home seeing well.

[106] Boguslava from pain of the head A noble woman, Boguslava, wife of the lord Simon, castellan of Gniezno, had so vehement a pain of the head that she could neither eat nor drink well, nor sleep. Pillows, however delicate, or soft cushions which she put under her head, she could not bear, nor find rest on them for her pains; whence she had consequently incurred such a darkness of the eyes that she could not see her own hand. When she was not helped at all by eye-salves or other medicines applied to her as a remedy, she vowed that she would visit the tomb of St. Hedwig, if perchance the Lord would deign through the merits of this Saint to free her from the huge pain by which she was held. The vow having been thus made, her husband sent her with a fitting company to visit the Saint's thresholds, saying while he placed her in the vehicle: "Whether you live or fail by dying on this road, I commit you to the Lord and to St. Hedwig." And behold, as soon as she was placed in the cart she at once felt lighter in her head, the darkness still remaining in her eyes. But when, conducted, she had arrived at the tomb of St. Hedwig, she prayed, saying in this manner: "My lady Saint Mary, hear me and command your handmaid St. Hedwig to free me; and you, Blessed Hedwig, help me, your unworthy handmaid." The prayer completed, before she withdrew from the tomb, in the presence of the knights and of the household which had come with her, and also of many sisters of the house of Trebnitz who were standing there, the woman fully escaped the pain of the head and the darkness of the eyes, so that she both saw clearly and no

longer felt pain of the head thereafter. And thus she, who for two years had been cruelly afflicted with the aforesaid torments, restored quickly to health on the day of Saint Catherine ^m, returned joyfully to her own home. The examiners of the miracles themselves also testified that they afterwards saw the already mentioned woman and that she had clear eyes.

[107] Vitoslava is cured of bloodied eyes. A certain girl named Vitoslava, daughter of Clement, a knight, had her eyes wholly corrupted and stuck together, from which blood frequently flowed, nor could she for pain bear any light. And because this girl in her infancy had been restored to life at the invocation of the name of Blessed Hedwig, as will be said afterwards when the dead raised are treated of, in the third miracle ⁿ, her parents, remembering the benefit first granted them, in hope of grace and of removing the pain, brought her to the tomb of St. Hedwig. And hastening thither, when they had arrived at the place from which the monastery in which the most holy body is buried could already be seen, stopping there a little and setting the girl down from the cart to the ground, they invoked without doubt the divine clemency, according to the commendable custom of many who, when they approach the thresholds of St. Hedwig, as soon as they see the church of the Blessed Apostle Bartholomew, show reverence on bended knees. Presently, therefore, the kindly Lord, invoked through the Saint's merits, was present, and in the same place restores to the aforesaid little girl the clearness of her eyes. Who, having received from the Lord the grace of seeing, at once, in childish fashion, because it was summer time, rising up, plucked the flowers standing near in the field, and was brought back with praise of God and proclamation of the sanctity of St. Hedwig and also with the joy of her friends.

[108] Sight restored to Wenceslaus, Wenceslaus, son of Bratheco of Solnic, sick unto death, lost on the feast of Pentecost, in that sickness, the light of his eyes. And after the feast of Saint Michael ^o, having been brought to the tomb of St. Hedwig by his grandmother, named Sulislava, three times, when he had come to it the third time, he invoked the help of this Saint thus: "Kindly lady, Blessed Hedwig, help me who am afflicted, as you have been wont mercifully to come to the help of every unhappy person." And so praying he slumbered a little, and was suddenly awakened as though terrified, and, the drowsiness shaken off, God having mercy and the suffrage of Blessed Hedwig intervening, he recovered the sight of which he had been deprived for almost a year, and returned to his home seeing well.

[109] to a youth of Oels, A certain youth, wholly blind, from the market village which is called Olsnicz [p], had gone down with his father to Trebnitz, to invoke there with all the diligence he could the mercy of God at the tomb of St. Hedwig for the restoration of the light of his eyes. And since they were poor, they were gathered into the hospital over which brother Giselbert, then sacristan of Trebnitz, presided. Whom the same brother, within the three weeks during which they stayed there, often heard invoking the patronage of Blessed Hedwig for the restoration of sight. And on the day of Saint George the Martyr [q], about the Saint's tomb, many being present, this poor youth, who had been brought wholly blind, was consoled by the Lord through the help of St. Hedwig with clear light of the eyes. For the said brother Giselbert, bearing witness of this blind man given light, said: "Him whom I had before seen wholly blind, I afterwards saw adorned with a beautiful power of sight."

[110] to Razlava of Thomaskirch, Razlava, daughter of Bogdan of Thomaskirch [r], had through pain of the eyes wholly lost her sight, so that she could in no way go forth without a guide. For flesh had grown out of her eyes, whose superfluity took away her light totally. And for recovering the light of the eyes which she had lost, her mother fasted continuously for six days in honour of St. Hedwig, and, the said fast being completed, the mother herself on the day of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle brought her blind daughter to the Saint's tomb, and placing her upon it and standing beside it, she besought the Lord with tears through the merits of St. Hedwig for her illumination. The mother praying for her daughter was heard, therefore, and lights were given back to her so clear that her eyes seemed like two shining stars. And thus the daughter returned with her mother from the tomb to her own home, adorned through the divine goodness with most clear eyes, who for two years had been oppressed by the darkness of blindness.

[111] to Elizabeth of Altaripa, The girl Elizabeth, daughter of Frederick, drawing her origin from Altaripa [s], was blind. Her mother vowed to bring her to Trebnitz to the tomb of St. Hedwig, if perchance, invoking the merciful Lord through the intercession of the already mentioned Saint, she could obtain by devout supplications the restoration of her daughter's sight. The conveyance having been fitted out, therefore, while the woman was preparing herself to carry out the vow, an honourable man, Conrad, then judge at Altaripa, the paternal uncle of the same girl who was blind, came and said: "It would be much more useful if you kept at home these horses which you are taking on this road and yoked them to the plough to till the fields. For what can this labour profit her, who is altogether blind? You are making expenses for this journey in vain and wearying yourselves superfluously." The devout woman nevertheless did not delay to fulfil her promise, and, arriving at the monastery of Trebnitz, she first placed the blind daughter she had brought upon the altar of the Blessed Apostle Bartholomew, and because she did not find there the grace which she sought, she then carried her upon the mausoleum of St. Hedwig and with devotion invoked her help there. Which done, at once the girl, who had remained blinded more than half a year, the merits of Blessed Hedwig assisting, appeared enlightened by the Lord with seeing eyes.

[112] to Sdislava of Trebnitz, Sdislava, wife of Pribislaus of Trebnitz, being at a certain time at Wrocław, drawing water from a certain ancient well, washed her face and eyes, and from that washing, made blind, she remained in that blindness for a whole year. Her husband, therefore, having conceived disgust at this and despising her, wished to put her away, and thought to take to himself another woman as wife in fact, because he could not in law. But the lord Berthold, then parish priest at Trebnitz, forbade this, as ought to be done. And when on the feast of the Lord's Circumcision the aforesaid woman, struck with blindness, had arrived at the tomb of St. Hedwig, a guide going before her, she prayed there with tears thus: "Blessed Hedwig, help me, that I may be able to escape this blindness by which I am held and see the light of heaven." Presently the woman obtained what she devoutly asked, and she who had been brought blind by another, having received from the Lord Jesus Christ, through the merits of St. Hedwig, the benefit of light, returned with joy to her home seeing by herself.

[113] to the girl Elizabeth of Wrocław. A certain girl of six years, Elizabeth by name, daughter of Mechtild, wife of Hermann Cranzo, a citizen of Wrocław, of whom it was spoken above [t] when those cured of sicknesses were treated of, was wholly deprived of the light of her eyes. Her mother, therefore, vowed to the Lord God that she would go with her daughter as speedily as she could to the tomb of Blessed Hedwig, barefoot and in a hair-shirt, provided he would deign to free the same daughter from the misery of blindness. At length about the feast of Pentecost she set out on the journey, but, wearied from the journey and wishing to rest a little under a certain tree and to refresh her daughter, she caused the cart in which the same girl was being carried to stop. And behold, suddenly, in that same place of rest, the girl, placed on the ground, appeared with beautiful, dry and clear eyes, and she who for four weeks had seen nothing at all, now enlightened by God through the intervention of St. Hedwig, saw clearly, according to what the examiners themselves afterwards testified they had seen.

[114] Hearing is restored to Juliana, a nun of Trebnitz; Sister Juliana of the house of Trebnitz had incurred deafness, from which she could not be freed by human help. Remembering, however, that Christ is the best medicine and physician, presuming not on her own but on the merits of the Saints, and especially on the merits of the sanctity of Blessed Hedwig, she approached the tomb of the same Saint, and laying her head upon it asked doubtless for relief. And while she thus clung to the mausoleum, as it were a certain fiery pebble, as it seemed to her, quickly entered her ears, and thus the sister, devoted to God and to Blessed Hedwig, escaped on the holy day of Pentecost the deafness which she had contracted on the feast of the Lord's Epiphany of the same year, the Lord permitting. And although the already mentioned sister Juliana was alone at the tomb of St. Hedwig when this miracle happened to her, nor could anyone bear her witness at what time the Lord deigned to cure her, yet the congregation of the sisters of the same community, which had long known her deafness, in no way doubted that the sense of hearing had been restored to her by the Lord through the suffrages of St. Hedwig. For the immense goodness of God, which on that very day, appearing in fiery tongues to the Apostles as they prayed, bestowed the fire of love, cleansed its handmaid, intent more secretly on prayers, from the defect of deafness by a fiery pebble. There was also another woman, named Snegula, likewise deaf, of whose cure it is explained in the following rubric, in the second chapter [u].

[115] speech to the dumb; to Maguscha, Maguscha, wife of Andrew of Michowicz [w], had for three years and a half wholly lost the function of her tongue and the use of her feet, so that she had her tongue so convulsed that little of it appeared in her mouth; she also had no feeling and motion of her feet at all. Her mother, therefore, trusting that her daughter could be freed by the Lord from those sicknesses through the merits of St. Hedwig, vowed a vow that she would visit the tomb of this Saint together with her daughter, which she also did. Arriving too at Trebnitz, remaining there four weeks continuously, this Maguscha visited the Saint's mausoleum daily by creeping. At length in a vision a certain shining and beautiful lady said to her: "Why do you lie there? Run to the church!" And she at once, as she could, by crawling entered the minster more quickly and came to the aforesaid tomb. But because she could not speak with her tongue, she prayed with devout affection of heart that health of tongue and feet might be given her by the Lord. And at once, the bond of her tongue being loosed, she spoke; the use of her feet also being restored to her, she who had come dragging herself over the ground returned, on the Saturday within the octave of Pentecost, walking and praising God, to her former dwelling.

[116] and to Snegula of Wrocław. Snegula, wife of Adam of Wrocław, while on one occasion on the day of Saint Lawrence the Martyr [y] she was gathering hazel-nuts in the wood, was suddenly struck with paralysis in tongue, hands and feet; moreover she then lost the sense of hearing. Oppressed, therefore, with these pains, she lay ill for a year, so that she could not move herself from place to place without the support of others, nor take food unless held out to her by others' hands. But the lord Berthold, then parish priest of Trebnitz, who had ministered the sacraments of the church to this woman, counselled that she be carried to the tomb of St. Hedwig in hope

of obtaining health through the merits of this Saint, since other antidotes of cure seemed altogether to fail her. Having heard this pious and sound counsel, the mother of the same Snegula, Beliza by name, with another religious woman, named Jutta, carried her daughter in a single litter to the tomb of St. Hedwig, and repeated rather often their turns of carrying her. And in the time of Lent, on the Sunday on which is sung at the introit of the Mass, Rejoice, O Jerusalem, and the rest, the daughter having been carried and laid at the tomb, the mother prayed, saying thus, and suppliantly invoked the Saint of God: "Lady Saint Hedwig, deign to be present to my daughter." And while she persevered in prayer so long, until, the divine offices completed, people were being driven out of the church for closing the doors of the temple, the mother took hold of her invalid daughter to carry her out and go home with her. Who suddenly, voice and speech being restored to her by the Lord, cried out and said: "Mother, mother, you are killing me, because you do not know that it is going well with me." Then, rising, free from all the sickness by which she had long been held, and cured of deafness through the suffrages of St. Hedwig, she returned home without a porter: three years also being afterwards completed, she was joined to a husband in matrimony.

[117] The hands are cured of Peter of Sokolnicz, Peter of Sokolnicz [x] kept sheep and his other cattle together in one house. And one day he saw among the already mentioned sheep one weak sheep, and thought it had been trampled by the other cattle and so deprived of strength; whence, killing it, he ate it with his household, and from that meat both he himself and all who had eaten of it were most dangerously sick. For some were convulsed, others contracted, and some, and especially three children, died from that eating of meat. Peter himself indeed escaped the sickness which he had incurred, but was so convulsed and contracted in both hands that the fingers of his hands, curved, clung to the joints which are between the hand and the arm, wherefore he had to be fed by the hands of others. Remembering, however, the clemency of Blessed Hedwig, the fame of whose sanctity, already then spread round about, drew very many to invoke her, he invoked her help and vowed a vow, saying with devout heart: "Blessed Hedwig, give me back the necessary use of my hands, and I will go to your tomb toiling on my feet." And that he might not be defrauded of his desire, he endeavoured to escape every obstacle resisting grace. Whence, approaching a mature man, the lord Michael, parish priest of Costhomloth [z], he uncovered to him not only the languors of his body but also of his heart, making him the confession of his sins, reciting to him more seriously the event of the deed, according as it had happened, and, having received his blessing, he set out on the journey to fulfil his vow. While, therefore, he was on the way, his hands, which had been contracted for four weeks, were suddenly stretched out, and, when he at length reached the tomb, they were restored to full health.

[118] of Simon of Wrocław, Simon, a citizen of Wrocław, had a son named Simon, having hands swollen with inflammation and hanging down from the elbows below, so that he could neither raise them nor apply them in any way to his mouth; wherefore he had to be fed by the hands of others. And when very many medicines had been applied to him and he had been cut by surgeons by reason of cure, and they had profited him in nothing, but he was always worse, his mother, the lady Christina, having made a vow, took care to bring him to the tomb of St. Hedwig, and there both she herself and two other honourable matrons, her kinswomen, namely Bertradis and Christina, who had come there together, said with living voice: "Blessed Hedwig, heal this boy, or, if this does not please you, act with God that he may die here quickly, before we return home." For they reckoned that it would be more convenient to be redeemed from vexations by his death than to be occupied longer with his languor. Whose prayers God hearing through the intervention of St. Hedwig, at once healed the boy in his hands on the day of Saint Callistus, who had begun to be sick from the feast of the Blessed Apostle James [aa] of the same year. And so, healed, he was brought back to Wrocław with the joy and solace of his friends.

[119] of a Pomeranian woman A certain little woman of fairly great age, from the land of Pomerania [bb], had for more than thirteen years a hand withered and contracted and so clinging and pressed strongly to her thigh that it could in no way be removed from it. Having heard the fame of the miracles of Blessed Hedwig, she arrived at Trebnitz with many people who had likewise set out from Pomerania to visit the thresholds of the aforesaid St. Hedwig. Before all of whom, by the power of Almighty God, her hand was loosed from her thigh and healed, while she made a prayer at the Saint's tomb. Brother Lambinus of the Order of Preachers, therefore, who was at that time at Trebnitz, approaching, diligently investigated the kind of sickness and the manner of cure, that, the truth having been known, he might be able to bear witness more securely concerning the miracle done. And those people who had come with the sick woman, more than twenty in number, said with living voice: "We know this woman, that, as she asserts, she formerly had her hand contracted and joined to her thigh, and now we see it healed." The little woman herself too said to the Friar as he examined each thing more studiously: "That I have been miraculously cured can be sufficiently established to you by evident signs, for my hand, formerly withered and contracted, is still more slender than my other hand, and the place of the thigh to which the hand clung contains a little hollow and has skin unlike in colour to the other skin of my body. These things I show you, if it pleases you to look." But the aforesaid Friar, for the sake of decency, would not see the sign left on the thigh, believing that to be true which many who had seen it asserted; but having looked at her hand, he let her go. And when after thanksgivings she had returned to Pomerania, some, taking her, led her before the duke of Pomerania, who was then in the castle of Swetensis [cc], and said to him: "Lord, this woman was born here, and we have known by what bond of affliction she was bound for many years, and now she is healthy, and healed, as she asserts, by the merits of Blessed Hedwig." And so declaring, they recounted her affliction in order, and showed the father of the woman, who was standing present, and who said of the things which they recited concerning the sickness and cure of his daughter that all were undoubtedly true. The duke, therefore, hearing both from her and from others that she had been freed from such a sickness through the merits of St. Hedwig, bursting into tears, said in the presence of many knights and very many others who had gathered there: "Lord my God, I have greatly sinned against thee, because I did not merit to see this Saint while she lived in the mortal body, although I was often in Poland while she was still living."

[120] of Adelheid, a widow, Adelheid, widow of Volkmar of Legnica, was vexed with such pain of the right hand and of the whole right arm from the shoulder to the fingers that she could neither veil herself, nor lift anything with her hand, nor raise the arm itself. Bogdanca, her maidservant, put her veil on her when there was need, and ministered to her sedulously in other things according to need. But when she had applied many remedies for the sake of cure and profited nothing, she turned to invoke the help of Blessed Hedwig, in these words: "Blessed Hedwig! you loved me while you lived; deal mercifully with me now and restore to me my arm and my hand." And she asked Henco the shield-maker [dd] to form for her a likeness in wax of the hand and arm up to the elbow, to be offered at the tomb of St. Hedwig out of reverence for her. The likeness having been formed, the woman joined to her arm the wax expressing the image of her hand and arm, and at once she was easier, and the pain ceased which she had suffered continuously for six weeks.

[121] and of the little boy Pribco. Pribco, a boy of seven years, had a hand withered and so broken from sickness that the rupture of the bone appeared outside. Although no hope, or a slight one, was held of his healing, yet his grandmother and Radic of Pelazcovicz, a kinsman of the same boy, carried the said boy on the feast of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle to the tomb of St. Hedwig, invoking the clemency of the Lord, that he would deign to grant him health through the merits of his Saint. The prayer completed, the boy having been left beside the mausoleum, the aforesaid bearers, wishing to withdraw from the church, went forward a little; but, hearing a commotion, suddenly returning, they found the boy, who had sustained the aforesaid infirmity for four years, restored to full health. Of affliction of the hands many others too were cured, namely Godfrey, look for the second miracle concerning paralytics [ee]; likewise Bratumila, look for the third miracle concerning demoniacs [ff]; likewise Sdeslava, look for the fourth miracle concerning paralytics; likewise Stronislava, look for the second miracle concerning those afflicted with fistulas [gg].

[122] Freed from infirmity of the feet, Albert of Prusicz. Henry, son of Albert, judge of Prusicz [hh], from his birth until his eighth year had shins so slender that they scarcely seemed to extend to the size of a small pipe on which one plays, and he lacked the function not only of his feet but also of his loins, whence for excessive weakness he could neither stand nor walk nor sit. Sometimes, however, when he desired to be moved from place to place, he crept, helping himself with his hand. His mother, named Beatrix, an honourable matron indeed, anxious to have her son's health again, vowed to the Blessed Virgin Mary that as long as she lived she would keep Saturday with fasting in her honour, if she would deign to cure her son. This vow having been made, although she studied to fulfil it with much diligence, yet she did not merit to be heard according to her desire, God providing something better in this, that so both the deferred desires might grow and the glory of Blessed Hedwig might appear more evidently in an open miracle. Nor yet did the devout woman lose that service which she devoutly rendered to the glorious Virgin herself, because the Blessed Virgin, by prolonging her desire and not at once granting her prayers, wished also to make her devoted to Blessed Hedwig, which thus came about. For she was admonished in a dream to carry her weak son to the tomb of St. Hedwig and devoutly invoke the help of the same Saint for his health. The woman did as she had been taught by the divine oracle, and, carrying the boy to the mausoleum, prayed, saying thus: "Blessed Hedwig, deign to heal my boy, and if you heal him, I vow and promise you that I will have him imbued with letters and given over perpetually to your service." While the anxious mother was thus pouring out prayers for her son, the lady Petronilla, abbess at Trebnitz [ii], and the lord Berthold, parish priest of Trebnitz, who had baptized the same boy, and many others being present, the boy, suddenly raising himself, leaned on the tomb, and standing

upright he takes an egg placed there before him, and rejoicing went round the tomb. And the lady Petronilla, then keeper of the tomb, taking another painted egg and throwing it before the boy, pushed it further from the tomb, for which the little boy likewise went to take it, and walking returned to his mother. On account of being unaccustomed to walking, however, and because of the excessive slenderness of his shins, he was not yet able to sustain his little body perfectly. But healed through the merits of St. Hedwig within the week of Easter, on the Wednesday, he returned unharmed with his mother to the lodging, and his shins thereafter took growth according to due proportion. The whole boy too, who in seven years had scarcely come to the stature of a boy of two years, within two years grew so much that in size he was equal to a boy of nine years of age, being healthy and agile, the Lord granting it.

[123] Jutta of Wrocław, Jutta, wife of James, a citizen of Wrocław, a native of Bautzen in the diocese of Meissen, had her feet so contracted by gout that she could not stretch them out. And because for this cause she had to lie continually, both her thighs had putrefied and were full of worms, from which no small matter of stench was spread through her whole little house. And she was carried by her husband or by others wherever necessity required. A vow having been made, however, that she would reach the tomb of Blessed Hedwig, her husband, having placed her in a vehicle, brought her all the way there, where she also poured out this prayer, saying suppliantly: "Saint Hedwig, help me, who am afflicted, that I may escape the affliction of my feet, so that I may be able to go walking among people. Blessed Hedwig, I beseech you by your sanctity and your most abundant piety, that you deign to heal me of this sickness." The prayer completed, on the day of Bartholomew the Apostle the woman rose from the tomb fully healthy, and, leaving the conveyance in which she had come to the Saint's tomb, she returned on foot to Wrocław, and she who for a whole year had lacked the power of walking came walking to her own dwelling.

[124] Cuno the Frenchman, of Wrocław, Cuno the Frenchman, a citizen of Wrocław, had a daughter named Margaret, who from her youth had feet and shins so soft that they were thought to be without bones. Another trouble also came upon her, for when she was two and a half years of age, a huge hump grew on her, occupying her whole breast. Weighed down, therefore, by these defects of nature, during the whole time of her life she could neither stand nor sit, but lay continually, and when her mother tried to set her on her feet, she gnashed her teeth for pain. For which cause her mother herself, named Catherine, rather often, when she looked at her, struck by the dart of compassion, poured out tears. Trusting, however, in the suffrage of St. Hedwig, she vowed conditionally, saying: "Blessed Hedwig, if you obtain health for my daughter and free me from such great labour of body and from anxiety of spirit, I will fast on the vigil of your festival every year as long as this my daughter survives." The vow having been made, the husband with his wife, taking their daughter, hastened to the tomb of St. Hedwig. And the mother, kindled with a greater fervour of devotion, although she was pregnant, carried the said daughter, placed on her shoulders, going on the journey. And arriving at the tomb they laid the girl down there, the father withdrawing further on account of the multitude of women present there, with whom he did not wish to press. The mother stayed by her daughter and invoked Blessed Hedwig, saying thus: "My lady Blessed Hedwig, by your great power which you have, and by the merits with which you are endowed before God, give back gladness to me, a sinner, by healing my daughter." While she was thus praying urgently with tears, the girl herself, suddenly leaning on the tomb, rose and walked without difficulty before all the multitude gathered there.

[125] Rudger the German, Rudger, a German native of the diocese of Meissen, had feet contracted and withered to such a degree that he felt neither touch nor cold. On account of lack of means and of strength, therefore, abandoned by all his friends, creeping hither and thither, he begged for four years. But a certain man, out of regard of piety, brought him to the tomb of St. Hedwig. Where, when he had tarried some while and prayed that health might be given back to him by the Lord through the merits of St. Hedwig, and yet his prayer was not heard, returning to the vill from which he had come, near Striegau, called Pascuroue [kk], he did not cease to invoke the help of Blessed Hedwig. One night, therefore, after prayer had been made, the sinews of his feet and the feet themselves began to stretch out and to feel touch, and the man was healed and his walking was restored to him on the seventh day after he had returned from the tomb.

[126] the boy John of Beroldivilla The boy John, drawing his origin from Beroldivilla [ll], having contracted feet, could nowhere go forth from place to place. His mother, therefore, named Helwiga, brought him in a cart to Trebnitz, and, having at length taken him from the vehicle, carried him on her shoulders as far as the tomb of St. Hedwig, and placing him upon it, standing near, she prayed and vowed, saying these words: "Saint Hedwig, I vow to you that I will always live in widowhood; only heal my son." At length she said to her son: "Move yourself, son, and rise!" He answering said: "I cannot, because my legs hurt." Yet he rose quickly, and, as though they were breaking, his sinews made a creaking sound while he raised himself to go. And so that boy, the lord Giselbert, sacristan of Trebnitz, and many others being present, was healed of that affliction which he had sustained in his feet from his birth to his fifth year. Who afterwards, sent to school, learned letters, and his mother, discharging her vow, remained in widowhood.

[127] Bratumila, from the duchy of Opole Bratumila, a girl drawing her origin from Croscina [mm], a vill of the duchy of Opole, wholly lacked the function of her feet, because from the loins downward her whole body was totally consumed by a certain dryness. Therefore also, necessity compelling, she could not be moved from place to place unless she was carried by someone. But as the fame of the miracles grew which the clemency of the Saviour deigned to work through Blessed Hedwig, on the counsel of people who loved God, the parents of this girl brought her in a suitable conveyance to the tomb of the already mentioned Saint, where, the grace of Christ having been invoked, the girl was healed through the merits of St. Hedwig, not indeed entirely, but only from the feet up to the knees. Who, being thus brought back, could at length move herself, creeping on her knees, wherever she wished. God indeed was able at once to restore to the girl entire health, but he arranged to defer it for this, that, desire being delayed, prayer might be multiplied, and so at length, granting the prayers of the petitioners, he might by a new miracle make the sanctity of Blessed Hedwig more abundantly manifest. Whence, the circle of a year having revolved after the aforesaid girl had been cured in part, she is brought again by her parents to the tomb of St. Hedwig, and it is more devoutly asked of God that she be fully healed. And God, whose property it is to have mercy on those who ask, mercifully was present through the merits of St. Hedwig and freed the girl entirely from her afflictions, so that, leaping up, she walked, she who from her birth up to her seventh year inclusive had never been able to move her feet for walking.

[128] and Miloslava of Legnica. Miloslava, a girl from the castellany of Legnica [nn], having a large body and yellow hair and great tresses, but lame feet and shins, so that she was not moved where she wished except by creeping: she, coming to the tomb of St. Hedwig at Trebnitz, crept there very often, and, tarrying there a long time, waited for health to be given her by God through the intercession of this Saint. Seeing whom crawling there and awaiting divine help, the lord Gaudentius, parish priest of Sadalno [oo], said: "Blessed Hedwig, if you heal this girl, I will henceforth believe of your miracles that they are done in truth by the merit of your sanctity." But when she had tarried long beside the tomb, and the health she longed for was not given her after a long time, the lady Petronilla, then keeper of the tomb of St. Hedwig, afterwards abbess of the monastery of Trebnitz [pp], being indignant, ordered her to withdraw from the tomb, saying: "You see that God does not deign to help you; wherefore do not henceforth make delays waiting here, lest you bring greater shame upon us, while you roll about here in the eyes of all, frustrated, as it seems, of your desire." But she, although she suffered a repulse in such a manner, nevertheless remained, awaiting divine consolation and seeking from the Lord the grace of health. And because she remained to seek, it came about that she found. For on the day of Saint Callistus, Pope and Martyr [qq], when it was the anniversary of Blessed Hedwig, the said girl, who had come to Trebnitz on the feast of Saint James the Apostle preceding [rr] in the same year, was freed from the inability to walk which she had sustained from her birth for twenty years, and in the presence of the lady Gertrude, abbess of Trebnitz, and of the sisters Razlava, the aforesaid Petronilla, and many others also being present and seeing, she rose healthy, and went away praising God. Which miracle having been seen, brother Giselbert, sacristan of Trebnitz, caused the Te Deum laudamus to be solemnly sung. Of affliction of the feet many others were cured through the help of St. Hedwig, namely Siffrid, look for the first miracle concerning paralytics [ss]; likewise Maguscha, look for the first miracle concerning the dumb [tt]; likewise Adelheid, look for the second miracle concerning the hunchbacked [uu]; likewise Lawrence, look for the first miracle concerning those afflicted with fistulas [ww].

[129] Hands and feet together are healed, of Wencemil, Wencemil of Mechouice [yy], a youth about eighteen years old, was totally contracted in hands and feet, so that he always had to lie, nor could he be fed except by the hands of others. This trouble he sustained from Quinquagesima until the next following feast of Blessed Bartholomew; for on that very festival, brought by his father in a cart, he arrived at Trebnitz, hoping, the suffrage of St. Hedwig intervening, to be made free from the aforesaid trouble. But the Lord deferred his cure for a little, that by the very delay it might be proved whether his devotion was continual, or whether the hope which he had of the merits of St. Hedwig was efficaciously persevering and true. Whence on the following day, when he had not received the grace of health at the tomb, the father placed his son again in the cart and hastened to his own home. Yet the sick man did not cease to invoke the Lord and his Saint, although he was going on in the conveyance. And behold, before he had gone out of the enclosures of the court of the cloister, the church of Saint Bartholomew still being in sight, the cart in which the sick man was sitting and invoking the Lord and St. Hedwig is overturned by chance, and the languishing man, falling to the ground, is wholly freed from his languors, and rose healthy in hands and feet, except that in one foot and hand some remnants of the languor remained as a sign of the past infirmity.

[130] and of Nicholas, of the Order of Preachers. Brother Nicholas of the Order of Preachers, when at a certain time he was at Bresno [xx], of the diocese of Gniezno

diocese, to exercise the office of preaching there, he was sleeping one night, and his companion, named Richard, in a certain heated room [zz], where in the fireplace a fire had been laid for them. And behold, a brand, kindled by the fire, falling, set alight the straw spread on the floor, and the flame, growing strong, was rapidly invading the whole of that house in which they were resting, to consume it. While, therefore, the Friars saw themselves placed in danger, the aforesaid brother Nicholas, entering the flame, put out the burning straw with his bare hands and feet. But the fire having been put out, the burning left no small pain in those limbs with which he had touched the flame in putting it out. To escape which, he prayed suppliantly to the Blessed Virgin, saluting her three times; Blessed Hedwig too, of whom he had heard so * many miracles, he invoked, bending his knees three times, saying thus: "Blessed Hedwig, free me from this pain which I suffer." The prayer made, he lay down again to rest, and, having large blisters on his hands and feet, he fell asleep, and, waking after sleep, he felt no pain, but was as healthy as if he had never been burned. This deed happened in the year of the Lord 1263, in Lent. Many others too were cured through the merits of St. Hedwig of affliction of the feet and hands, namely Snegula, look for the second miracle concerning the dumb [aaa]; likewise Nenkerus, look for the third miracle concerning paralytics [bbb]; likewise Idka, look for the first miracle concerning the dysenteric [ccc].

[131] The contracted are cured, Sestremil of Wrocław, Sestremil, living at Wrocław, was wholly contracted, for gout had broken the spine of his back and had made him wholly unable to walk. His wife, Crisca, and another woman, named Sczarnucha, carried him daily before the doors of the church of the Friars Preachers, that he might receive alms from passers-by, because he was poor; to other places too they carried him at a suitable time according to his need. At length, God inspiring him, he vowed a vow, saying thus: "Blessed Hedwig, even if I can do it no other way, I will yet visit your tomb by creeping and dragging myself with my hands; and do you deign to free me from this inability, or at least deign to do me this grace, that I may be able to draw my legs and feet to myself." For the aforesaid feet with the legs were withered and as inflexible as wood, and unless they were arranged towards him by another, when they lay stretched out he could not draw them back to himself. He raised himself, therefore, the vow having been made, to accomplish as he could what he had promised, and on the Tuesday before the feast of the Rogations, going out from Wrocław by crawling, he arrived on the following Friday at Wesna [ddd], a place not fully a mile distant from Trebnitz. In that very place, or on the nearest hill, from which could be seen the church of Blessed Bartholomew, in which the body of St. Hedwig rests buried, he received full health. And going on, he visited the tomb of St. Hedwig, and giving thanks to God, returning on the third day to Wrocław, he turned to admiration the minds of many who had formerly known him contracted and wretched, and, recognizing in what had happened the divine mercy and the merits of the already mentioned Saint, they blessed the Lord for the miracle done.

[132] a Pomeranian woman, A certain woman, living at Swece [eee] of the diocese of Włocławek and in the land of Pomerania, was so enormously bent and contracted that when she had to go anywhere she almost touched her own knees with her breast. She, a vow having been made, raised herself to visit the thresholds of St. Hedwig about the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and, supported by a staff, went forward scarcely half a mile in a day. And so, advancing little by little, when she had come beyond Milicz [fff] and there still remained for her four miles to go to Trebnitz, the merit of Blessed Hedwig helping her, she was made upright by the Lord and fully healed. She went on, therefore, joyful and praising, and, as she had promised, visited the tomb of St. Hedwig with thanksgiving, and returned to her home at Swecz from which she had gone out, carrying with her the gift of full health, which she had lacked for more than a year. The Lord also added another miracle to the already mentioned miracle. For the aforesaid woman, after she was healed and returned to the parts where she was known, appeared much more beautiful than she had been before she fell into the aforesaid sickness. And because the same woman had before been seen wholly languishing, not only by the common people but also by the duke of Pomerania himself, Świętopełk, and by his son [ggg], and also by the palatine and by many other nobles, and on returning was seen with entire and unhoped-for health, sinister opinion was wholly driven from the hearts of all, nor could deceitful fiction have place where proved truth stood in the open.

[133] and Razlaus, a poor man. A certain poor man, named Razlaus, chastised by the divine scourge, lay long contracted, whom Crisca his wife frequently carried at Wrocław to the church of Saint Albert to beg alms from passers-by: at length, using good counsel, he vowed to visit the thresholds of St. Hedwig, if perchance God would deign through the patronage of the same Saint to restore health to him. And since for poverty he could not have a conveyance, by creeping and dragging himself with his hands he set himself on the road to fulfil the vow he had made. While, therefore, he was on the journey which he had undertaken in order that, approaching the tomb of this Saint, he might invoke her help more efficaciously, with great pain he felt his sinews and bones stretched out, as though they were breaking. And thus relieved he went on to the tomb of the already mentioned Saint, where, having obtained full health through her suffrages, he afterwards, unharmed, visited the thresholds of the Holy Apostles. Many other contracted persons were cured through the merits of St. Hedwig, namely Pribislava, look in what follows concerning the hunchbacked, the first miracle [hhh]; likewise Adelheid, look in the same place, the second miracle [iii].

[134] Hunchbacked women, Pribislava Pribislava, living at Wrocław in the house of Zanstogoi, was contracted for more than two years, and from that contraction had a hump projecting from her back to the size of a pot. And her mother, hearing of the miracles which God was working through the merits of St. Hedwig in various parts, took this daughter of hers and hastened to the tomb of St. Hedwig, and arriving there on the feast of Blessed Bartholomew, was consoled there not a little, above all in this, that her daughter, whom she had brought contracted and hunchbacked, at once cured of both troubles, was free through the help of St. Hedwig herself.

[135] and Adelheid are healed. Adelheid, a girl of seven years, daughter of Methza of Wrocław, was contracted in the feet and so bent that she could not move herself, and from long bending over had been made hunchbacked. And when she could not be helped by the aid of various medicines, her mother vowed that she would bring her to the tomb of St. Hedwig, which she also did; and she laid her beside it and with tears invoked the help of Blessed Hedwig for her health. And suddenly divine consolation was present to the woman weeping and praying. For the girl, for whose cure the mother was weeping and praying, taking hold of the tomb, raised herself and stood on her feet and began to walk, she who from the feast of Blessed Martin, bishop and Confessor, until the third day after the following feast of Blessed John the Baptist of the same year [kkk] had been at once lame and hunchbacked. And having recovered entire health from both defects, she returned home with her mother's joy; a small trace of the hump, however, remained in her, perhaps Providence so disposing it, that afterwards the certainty of the miracle performed might be able to be shown more evidently for commending the sanctity of Blessed Hedwig. Many other hunchbacked persons were cured through the patronage of St. Hedwig, namely Margaret, look above, concerning infirmity of the feet, the third miracle [lll].

[136] Paralytics cured, Siffrid of Wrocław, Siffrid, a citizen and brother of the judge of Wrocław, was struck with paralysis in the right side, so that he could not walk on the right foot, and that stricken part was so filled with holes as if it had been pierced with an awl, and in that part he wholly lacked the skin of the body. And when he had had the counsel of many and great physicians, and had spent much on medicines, and no medicine profited him for driving away the aforesaid languors, using the counsel of his wife, the lady Bertradis, he turned to seek divine help, for the more easily obtaining which he also vowed that he would come to the tomb of Blessed Hedwig. He went forth, therefore, from Wrocław in a vehicle towards Trebnitz, and, arriving there, two men leading him, he approached the tomb of St. Hedwig on the day of the translation of the Blessed Apostle Bartholomew and laid himself wholly upon it, and, weeping most bitterly, prayed, saying thus: "Blessed Hedwig, deign to help me, a wretch, and rescue me from these pains." The prayer finished, at once the man who for a year and a half had been tormented by wretched pain, many ladies of the cloister of Trebnitz looking on and many others being present, rose suddenly healthy and freed from all that sickness by divine providence through the merits of St. Hedwig.

[137] Godfrey of Cosmin, Godfrey of Cosmin, a town of Poland, had fallen into an acute fever, and when he had suffered it very grievously for fifteen days, he invoked Blessed Hedwig and, making a vow to her, said: "My lady Saint Hedwig, help me and obtain health for me from the Lord, and I will go on foot to your tomb." The vow made, he was relieved from the affliction of the fever, but, struck with paralysis, he lost the function and motion of his hands, in which he was tormented with such pain that he longed rather to die than to be afflicted longer by the torment of so vehement a pain. Whence to certain persons visiting him in that sickness he offered his horse as a gift if they would kill him and so free him from the stings of the pains which he sustained [mmm]. But because no one was willing to undertake this wicked deed, as neither ought he, he began to invoke Blessed Stanislaus and to offer vows to him, that he would deign to succour him. And when he did not profit even so, but the aforesaid torture grew stronger and stronger, he turned again the sigh of his heart to Blessed Hedwig, and making a vow, promised that he would come to her tomb. His full brother too, named Theoderic, he urged by prayers to this, that he undertook with him the labour of going there. And when, going on together, they had completed four miles of the journey, they sat down on the way for the sake of refreshing themselves. Godfrey, however, because he could not use his own hands, sitting down, watched his brother forming morsels for the refreshment. After a little interval, therefore, the same sick man, looking on and expecting to be fed by his brother, began to cry out and say: "Dearest brother! I now feel that in my hands I am better through the grace of God and the merits of Blessed Hedwig." And at once stretching out his hand he took bread and put it to his own mouth to eat, and at once raising his hands to heaven said: "I give thanks to thee, Lord God, and to Blessed Hedwig, because the use of my hands

and the function of which I had long been deprived I now resume." Then, going further and the journey being completed, two days before the feast of Saint Vincent the bishop they arrived at Trebnitz at the tomb of St. Hedwig. Where, while Godfrey was prostrating himself in prayer and saying: "Blessed Hedwig, I beseech you to deign to help me by your merits and to intercede for me with the Lord," he suddenly felt himself as it were bathed with warm water, and so, his brother and many others who had been with him on the way, likewise pilgrims, being present, he was plainly healed of the affliction which he had sustained for four months in his hands and in his whole body.

[138] Nenkerus, nephew of Wislava, The lady Wislava, wife of Ulric, under-steward of the lord Henry, duke of Silesia, had a certain nephew named Nenkerus, who in his childhood, from a certain infirmity, incurred paralysis in one hand and one foot so grievously that he could be helped neither by the aid of physicians nor by anointings with ointments nor by any remedies applied by the art of men. His mother, therefore, vowed that he should be carried to the mausoleum of St. Hedwig. When he had been carried there and placed upon it, he at once indeed escaped the trembling of the already mentioned limbs, but, brought back to the lodging, after a short interval of time, suffering a relapse, he fell back into the same sickness, the Lord perhaps so disposing it, that God, invoked anew through the merits of St. Hedwig, might show both that his power and mercy are great, and might declare more abundantly to the human race the virtue of the sanctity of Blessed Hedwig by a new miracle. Whence the aforesaid mother, after she perceived that her son had relapsed, carried him back again to the tomb of St. Hedwig, and, pouring out tears there from the desire of her heart, did not cease to multiply prayers and supplications, until she obtained full health for her said son in the same place. For at once he could both take and hold whatever was offered him to take, and he returned healthy, who for two years and a half had been wearied by the aforesaid infirmity.

[139] and Sdeslava, a woman in childbed. Sdeslava, wife of Matthew of Thincia, being in childbed on the next Friday after Ash Wednesday, was so struck with paralysis in hands and feet that she had to be refreshed with liquids from another's hand and through a reed. She was also afflicted with great pains if at any time she was moved anywhere for necessity. For she lay continually, and when she was moved or carried anywhere or turned to the other side, even this, if it was done gently in a linen sheet, she could scarcely bear. In these afflictions, therefore, she passed the time until the feast of Blessed George the Martyr [nnn], on which feast, because she seemed already to be approaching her end, the salutary sacrament of extreme unction was ministered to her. And one night a certain venerable lady in religious habit appeared to her in her sleep, saying: "Go, visit the tomb of Blessed Hedwig and you will be cured." Who, awakened, recounted to her husband what she had seen and heard while sleeping, and asked urgently that, according as the aforesaid revelation had taught, he would bring her in haste to the tomb of St. Hedwig. But the husband refused to fulfil his wife's desire, fearing lest, if she died on the way, people would say that he had voluntarily hastened her death, and so by acting improvidently he would be neglectful of his reputation; for the woman was thought by all to be about to die suddenly. Nevertheless the woman's importunate petition prevailed, and the husband, on the counsel of friends, sent his wife, languishing unto death, to Trebnitz with a fitting company, for he joined to her a son and a daughter and two servants. These, therefore, when they had arrived with the conveyance before the monastery of Trebnitz, placing her on a seat carried her to the tomb of St. Hedwig, where she said with tears: "Blessed Hedwig, come to the help of me, labouring in this sickness." A great crowd of people also, which was then present, invoked the Lord for her out of compassion. And at once, having been carried a little distance from the tomb, by the mediating help of St. Hedwig she received health from the Lord, and, mounting without the support of servants the cart in which she had come, when she wished to go away, she returned to her own home; and on the way, after, going back from the Saint's tomb, she had gone three miles, on the vigil of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul [ooo], she was more fully freed from all the sickness which she had incurred in the same year. And when she had entered her own dwelling, her husband, seeing her get down without help from the cart in which she had scarcely been placed by many men, and considering her coming to meet him with swift step, whom within three days he had sent off half-alive, was filled with wonder and joy. People also hastened from the whole village, running together to see the woman, as though raised from the dead, and they glorified God and extolled with suppliant devotion the merits of St. Hedwig. Many other paralytics were cured by the help of St. Hedwig, namely Snegula, look for the second miracle concerning the dumb [ppp].

[140] Adelheid of Wrocław is freed from fever: Adelheid, wife of Bernard, a citizen of Wrocław, suffered quartan fevers for many years and spent much on physicians and medicines to escape them, which, however, profited her very little. And when she noticed that she could not be cured, making a vow to St. Hedwig, she approached her tomb, praying and saying: "Blessed Hedwig, if you are of any merit with God, free me from this quartan which I suffer." But she had laboured in vain, because the fevers which, coming to the tomb, she had brought, going away she carried with her. Nevertheless she repeated several times the labour once made, for she visited the mausoleum of St. Hedwig four times, although she did not merit then to carry back from it the desired health. And no wonder if she could not escape the sickness of the body who retained the languor of a wilful mind, since iron shut up in a wound prevents the flesh from full health. For this woman, as she afterwards confessed, had always doubted whether the merits of Blessed Hedwig could in any way assist her to health. Whence the Lord deferred her cure, that he might at length repay her labours with a twofold gift, namely when, the sickness of the heart having been uncovered and healed, he should likewise drive away her languors from the flesh. Admonished therefore by the Lord through a certain vision, and comforted not a little by the speech of a certain religious man who taught her to approach the tomb of Blessed Hedwig with firm hope, the obstacle of all distrust having been quickly cast away, she approached the mausoleum of the already mentioned Saint a fifth time and suppliantly asked for the antidote of cure, saying with confidence: "Blessed Hedwig, free me, otherwise I shall be very angry with you." And behold, at once all the joints of the fingers of her hands began to be stretched out with great pain, and presently she was fully freed through the help of St. Hedwig from the fevers with which she had been languishing for twelve years and twenty-four days.

[141] Epileptic women, Beatrix of Prussicz Beatrix, daughter of Sbilitc, a knight of Prussicz, was epileptic. While she was tormented by that wretched affliction, she tore with her teeth whatever she could seize, even the flesh of her own or another's body, and that detestable disease had so prevailed in her that sometimes within the space of one natural day she suffered that trouble thirty times, nor could any remedies applied to her for cure profit her. Her mother, therefore, the lady Wenceslava, trusting in the merits of Blessed Hedwig, a vow having been made, came to the tomb of the same Saint, her daughter placed in a cart, but she herself following the cart on foot, and, placing her daughter upon it, prayed, saying these words: "Blessed Hedwig, as you have power with God and as I believe you indeed to be a Saint, help my daughter." Presently, God having mercy, the girl escaped that sickness through the intercession of St. Hedwig, nor thereafter did she feel the abominable affliction which she had sustained for two years and more.

[142] and Dobromira of Yeskotel are freed. Dobromir, daughter of Clement, a knight of Yeskotel, had the falling sickness from her birth. But that she laboured with that disease could not be known before she had passed the age of infancy and had advanced so far in days that she was able to creep on the ground. Twice indeed or three times, often even four times in a day, she was vexed by this trouble. The father, therefore, with the girl's mother, going on pilgrimage barefoot within the week of Pentecost, proceeded to the tomb of St. Hedwig, and, the child having been placed on the same tomb, they invoked God with tears that he would mercifully deign to cure him on account of the merits of St. Hedwig. The prayer completed, they received back their daughter altogether unharmed, so that thereafter no sign of that horrible disease ever appeared in her.

[143] Recalled to a sound mind, Adelheid, Adelheid, stepdaughter of the wife of Hildebrand, out of her mind, could scarcely be held even when shut up, and said that she saw many monsters. When Jutta, her stepmother, was bringing her for the grace of cure to the tomb of St. Hedwig, and, the greater part of the journey having been completed, had arrived at a certain hill from which could be seen the church in which the body of Blessed Hedwig rests buried, the languishing girl began to say with shouts: "Now I am being drowned here," although, being placed on the height of the hills, there was nothing of water in the vicinity. Brought nevertheless to the mausoleum of St. Hedwig, and many persons who were then present praying for her, she was at once freed from the evil with which she had been wearied for four weeks.

[144] A Brother of the Order of Preachers A certain brother in the Order of Preachers was as it were frenzied. Whom another brother of the same Order brought to the tomb of St. Hedwig. Where, while they were praying together, the sick brother, leaning his head on the Saint's tomb, fell asleep, and afterwards, waking, rose, freed from the sickness so entirely that he never felt it thereafter.

[145] Dobroslava of Breulicz, Dobroslava, wife of Michael, a knight of Breulicz, because she was maniacal and possessed, was kept bound in chains, lest she should tear her garments and scatter whatever else she seized, for whatever she could lay her hands on she treated cruelly. If at any time the sign of the Cross was offered her, she spat and gnashed her teeth, since she could do nothing else against it. She was at length brought to the tomb of St. Hedwig, and, prayer having been made for her there to the Lord, in the presence of many, she was freed through the suffrages of the same Saint from the affliction which she had sustained from the feast of Saint Vitus [qqq] until the feast of Blessed Bartholomew in the same year.

[146] and Bratumila of the village of Gelz. Bratumila, wife of Wenceslaus, living in the village named Gelz, one day saw a demon appearing to her in the form of a beggar; having seen which, she at once fortified herself with the sign of the Cross. But the ancient enemy thundered against her with his voice, saying: "Why do you move this wood against us?" — wishing by wood to be understood the hand with which, making the Cross, she had blessed herself — and seizing that hand he pressed it so strongly that he pressed all her fingers into the palm, and from that time that hand withered, and the fingers thereafter remained thus pressed into the palm. This woman also suffered from the same adversary of salvation many illusions and such vehement afflictions of the body that she was wholly of the use

of reason deprived. For when the Saints were named to her, or the Cross was offered, she spat against it. But brought by friends to the tomb of St. Hedwig on the Friday within the paschal week, and having been brought there every day for eight days, she was at length freed from the demon and had again the use of reason, the help of Blessed Hedwig mediating, her hand, however, which the demon had touched, remaining withered. Because she carried it for two years and more unfit for labours, her husband, affected not a little with weariness at this, bringing her before the bishop of Wrocław, the lord Thomas the First, sought a divorce, alleging that she would be useless to him for timely help. But the bishop, as a man indeed lettered and prudent, answered him: "Since you received her healthy, you will keep her even now sick." The lord Berthold too, parish priest of Trebnitz, because he was archpriest, compelled the same man who sought the divorce to give a fidejussory security that he would not put away the woman on account of the hand which she had withered, since this was in no way lawful for him by right. And in the third year after she was freed from the demon, she hastened again to the tomb of St. Hedwig, to see whether perchance through the help of this Saint she could escape the withering of her hand, and for this cause she visited the said tomb for seven days continuously, praying and saying: "Saint Hedwig, I commend to you my soul and my body, and I ask you to restore to me the health of my hand." At length the Lord, having pity on her, the merits of Blessed Hedwig interceding, at the door of the chapel in which the body of the same Saint is shown buried, quickly drove away by his power the withering of the already mentioned hand about the feast of Blessed James the Apostle [rrr] and bestowed on her full soundness.

[147] Cured from flux of blood; Idca of Wrocław, Idca, daughter of Luke, a citizen of Wrocław, while she was with her already mentioned father and her mother, named Helwiga, at her uncle's at Ratebor, which city is distant from Wrocław by twenty Polish miles [sss], fell into a most grievous dysentery, by which she was vexed for sixteen weeks, so that doubt was held of her longer life. Moreover, in that sickness the Lord added another scourge to her, so that she could use neither hands nor feet; for when her feet had to be drawn up to the body or stretched out, and when it befell her to be refreshed with food, all this had to be done by the hands of others. Her aforesaid parents, therefore, made a vow to bring her to the tomb of St. Hedwig, and, placing her in a conveyance, began to supplicate God that he would deign to come to her help through the merits of St. Hedwig. And when they came before the city of Wrocław, the girl was healed entirely in her whole body and began to use her feet and hands fully. Whence, exulting with no small joy, the parents with their daughter completed the journey begun to the thresholds of St. Hedwig on the vigil of Saint Michael [ttt], and, paying praises to the Lord and proclaiming the glory of the sanctity of St. Hedwig, they returned to their own home.

[148] and Bertradis of Cyrna. Bertradis of Cyrna suffered a flux of blood for sixteen weeks so grievously that she could be helped by no aid of physicians, although she had spent much on them. There was no opinion, therefore, that she could escape without dying of that sickness. She vowed, however, to visit the tomb of Blessed Hedwig if health were given her, and at once she was healed. But because, on the counsel of her husband, she delayed to fulfil the vow made, she quickly relapsed and began to be more gravely sick than before. She repeated, therefore, the vow and anxiously fulfilled it, and obtained health, the help of Blessed Hedwig mediating.

[149] from quinsy, Peter the Bohemian recovers; Peter the Bohemian of Scassicz, of the duke's household, suffered in his throat the disease which is called quinsy, which had so taken hold of him that for three days he could not speak, nor take food or drink, nor breathe comfortably. And when he had vowed that he would come barefoot and in a hair-shirt to the tomb of St. Hedwig if she cured him of the aforesaid disease, the vow having been made, he lay down to rest and slept, and, awaking after sleep, felt himself wholly healed and gave thanks to God and to St. Hedwig, by whose intercession he believed health had been restored to him.

[150] from a fistula, Lawrence of Licovicz; Lawrence of Licovicz, a man aged and grey, had a fistulous wound in his breast, from which pus flowed and a very great stench exhaled, on account of the intolerableness of which stench his wife hated him and withdrew from him. Moreover he had contracted feet and therefore could not walk, but, lying continually, was beaten by this manifold trouble. Yet having hope in the Lord, he invoked his clemency through the merits of St. Hedwig, and was relieved so far that he both rose from bed and could go forward a little. He made a vow, therefore, of coming to the tomb of St. Hedwig; and supported by two staves, because he was still weak, tottering this way and that, from his dwelling, which was distant three miles, he scarcely reached the said tomb within five days, on the Friday before the feast of Blessed Bartholomew, with great labour, where also he prayed thus: "Saint Hedwig, free me, because I wish to be your servant as long as I live." At once the man, who had languished almost fifteen months, was fully cured in his feet and escaped the fistulous and fetid wound of the breast, and in a single day returned to his home, walking on his own feet by the road by which he had come with difficulty in five days. The lord Volimir, bishop of Włocławek [uuu], who was one of the examiners of the miracles, afterwards handled with his own hands the place of the aforesaid wound, miraculously cured through the merits of St. Hedwig, and, bearing witness, said that he had found the wound itself fully healed.

[141] from a struma, Stronislava; Stronislava had on her right shoulder a struma of the size of a loaf, which at length burst, and pus flowed out from it, and afterwards it became fistulous. The same woman had also lost the use of her right hand, and, overwhelmed by such evils, she remained so oppressed from before the first entry of the Tartars into Poland until almost six years after the death of Blessed Hedwig had been completed. For at that time this woman, approaching the tomb of the already mentioned Saint, prayed with tears, saying: "My lady Blessed Hedwig, give back entire health to my body, that I may be able to be sustained by its labour." At once the woman was healed and freed fully from both diseases of sickness with which she had laboured. Some signs of the swelling, however, every pain being removed, remained in the place of the struma after she had been cured.

[152] from the danger of death, the boy Dominic, Dominic was a boy of eight years, son of Vitoslaus, a knight of Borech, whom a horse struck so strongly on the temple with the hoof of its foot that he was held for dead for as long as someone could cross on foot one Polish mile. At length, his strength recovered, he returned indeed to the life of the body, but the deadly wound received in the head remained. To which, when his parents and friends applied the powders and ointments they could have, and yet they in no way conferred health, because a certain flesh growing in the wound to the length of a finger prevented the wound from being closed over. The boy, therefore, being in danger of death, his father, remembering how he had before been freed from another deadly sickness by the help of Blessed Hedwig (according to what is shown above, where those cured of sicknesses are reported, in the first miracle [www]), went to Trebnitz to the thresholds of St. Hedwig, to pray for the health of the same boy. And behold, in that very three days which the father spent in going, his aforesaid son, who from the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, having received the mortal wound, as is said before, had languished until the octave of the Lord's Epiphany [yyy] of the same following year, was so fully healed that the mother, running joyfully to meet her husband as he came, said: "Our son by the grace of God is well and healthy." A small sign, however, had remained in the place of the wound, the Lord so disposing for the clearer evidence of the miracle performed.

[153] Hysentrudis of Wrocław, Hysendrudis, wife of Berold of Wrocław, when, a fœtus having been conceived, she was pregnant, and nine weeks had elapsed and the time had been completed at which the conceived child is commonly quickened in the womb, and she did not feel the conceived infant move, as she naturally ought, she began to be burdened and to fear the danger of death without doubt threatening her. But no more efficacious counsel for the health of the body was given her, nor perhaps could be given, than that she should go to the tomb of Blessed Hedwig to invoke her patronage, which also she did. But because she doubted the merits of the already mentioned Saint and was not sufficiently believing, she deservedly did not find the grace of health which she desired. Nor could she indeed attain to perfect cure until it came about that the darkness of distrust, clinging more firmly to her breast, was more fully driven away by the light of belief. Admonished, therefore, by a faithful man, her host, in whose house she had lodged, that she should invoke St. Hedwig with all confidence for her safety, if she wished to be freed more quickly from so great a danger, she approached the Saint's tomb again, and, the stumbling-block of all doubt cast away, invoked her with devout prayers that she would deign to help her. Wonderful indeed: presently, the mind being healed of the disease of doubt, bodily health followed; for after she had returned to the tomb of St. Hedwig and prayed there, her child in the womb began to move; and when she had repeated the prayer, the child moved again more; and the third time, when she prayed confidently, she felt the conceived child fully living. And returning to her own home, at the due time, she bore with safety a daughter, afterwards called by the proper name Margaret, giving thanks to God and to Blessed Hedwig, by whose help she had been freed from the jaws of death.

[154] and Bertha of Wrocław. A certain girl named Berchta, drawing water near Wrocław, fell into the river Oder and was dragged by the excessive force of the water under the wheels of four mills following one another. A certain man seeing this called out, calling the kinswoman of the same girl by her proper name: "Berchta, Berchta, the river has already swallowed your kinswoman!" Which when she heard, at once springing out of her house, she cried out and said: "Lady, Saint Hedwig, I beseech you, do not suffer my kinswoman to perish, but free her from the present danger." While she repeated these prayers many times, crying aloud, she called about a hundred people to run up to see what had happened. Many too of those who had gathered at that spectacle invoked the merciful Lord that through the merits of St. Hedwig he would rescue the girl sunk in the deep, lest, having fallen by so wretched a chance, she should perish. Nevertheless by some persons instruments and boats were brought for drawing her out, if perchance the body sunk in the waters should be found, the waters having nearly twenty cubits of depth. O how wonderful is God in his Saints, whose wonderful works indeed shine out even in present things, to be known by the faithful soul! For the divine power

the aforesaid girl, eighteen years of age, rolled under the wheels of the mills, as is said before, passed through without breaking of her body and without breaking of the wheels, although, as experienced men said, the same wheels could easily have been broken by a small piece of wood put under them. Moreover, while those standing by were waiting until she should be drawn dead from the depth of the waters, because they did not think she was alive whom the abundance of the river had hidden for so long a time, suddenly she appeared standing on the bank on the other side of the river, all seeing it, and shook the watery moisture from her garments. Thus through the intercession of St. Hedwig the girl escaped the danger of death on the Thursday after the feast of Saint Michael, who had been overwhelmed by the waves for as great a space of time as one could walk the fifth part of a Polish mile. And that this miraculous deed might become known to all by a more evident sign, the body of the aforesaid girl, although it was otherwise quite healthy, nevertheless showed to the eyes of onlookers, on the back and feet, the bruises which the machinery of the wheels had made in pressing it.

[155] Nicholas, a boy, son of a certain miller, on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross [xxx], falling into the water which flowed down over the mill, was drowned. When the mother of the same boy learned this, by great cries, The dead raised, the boy Nicholas, proceeding from the grief of her heart, she compelled many to come. And among others Walter of Praczov, the lord of that mill, running up, saw the already mentioned boy lying pressed in the wooden channel under the wheel, and his feet projecting a little from the waves under which he lay drowned; and because, the instruments most suitable for lifting being lacking, they could not raise that great wheel under which the boy was pressed, yet, that they might rescue him in whatever way they could, they let in the force of the water several times for the turning of that wheel. When they made no progress even so, especially since the boy, placed between the wheel and the wooden channel, did not suffer the wheel to turn, although the flood of waters flowed over it, at length, axes having been brought, they cut away the poles by which they were raising the machine of the wheel, and drew out the boy, as being dead, livid, cold and stiff and inflexible as wood. Nor is it a wonder if that boy was dead, who had lain drowned under the waves so long that one could have walked a Lombard mile [zzz]. And although no hope of life was held of him, yet the aforesaid Walter, trusting in the suffrage of Blessed Hedwig, invoking her rather often, said: "Blessed Hedwig, raise this boy, and if you raise him, I will go with him on my feet to your tomb." Having shaken the water from the boy's body, as much as could be shaken out, he also placed him by the fire. And he lay motionless, as without doubt dead, from midday until sunset of the aforesaid feast day. But as the faithful did not cease to invoke the Lord through the merits of Blessed Hedwig for recalling the boy to life, beginning to breathe on that same day, on the following morning the boy rose unharmed, suffering no pain at all, only a bruise remaining on his back, like a black cloth, from the aforesaid pressing.

[156] the boy William, William, a boy not fully two years of age, son of Vincent, castellan of Olesno aaaa, was carried in the village which is called Othmant to the river Oder, and having been set down and left on the bank, his tutor went into the river to cool himself and likewise to swim. And while, so occupied, he tarried, the boy, he not seeing it, wishing to follow him, slipped forward and was drowned in the river. Whom the tutor, afterwards returning to the bank and not finding him where he had left him, at length sought in the waves, and finding him drowned and drawing him out, shook from him as much as he could the waters which, drowned, he had drunk in. And returning home with the boy, he wished to hide the deed from the parents, but it could not lie hidden, since the boy, warmed by his mother, vomited the remaining water and suddenly died. Whose death the parents and the household lamenting, nevertheless invoked God through the merits of Blessed Hedwig that life might be given back to the boy. And when the father with his wife, named Berchta, the boy's mother, had made a vow that, if he were recalled to life, they would bring the boy to the tomb of Blessed Hedwig, at once the boy revived. But as they delayed to accomplish what they had promised, on the morrow the same boy again succumbed to death. Which the parents imputing, as they ought, to their own negligence, repeated the prayer and the vow and were heard anew by the Lord, the suffrage of Blessed Hedwig intervening, to whose thresholds they proceeded without delay. From that day, therefore, the aforesaid little boy was seen always to advance in health of body.

[157] Vitoslava, a little infant newly born, before she received the sacrament of baptism, suffered death. And her grandmother, approaching, the little infant Vitoslava, the lady Sulislava, and taking her up, carried her dead to the mother, that is, her own daughter. The household too having been called together, all lamented with loud cries, not the infant dead, but rather dead without the sacrament of baptism, and together they prayed that the Lord, through the merits of St. Hedwig, would deign to give her life at least for so long a time until she should receive the aforesaid sacrament. And behold, the Lord was suddenly present to the prayers of the petitioners and granted the girl certain signs of life, who, however, although she still showed more the likeness of one dead than of one living, was carried in a kneading-trough to baptism. And having been baptized, she presently recovered health more fully.

[158] Petruscha of Wrocław, Petruscha, daughter of Martin of Wrocław, being five weeks of age, died; for Elzuna, her mother, wishing to go to another village, asked a certain woman, named Boguslava, to keep the already mentioned infant for her until she should return, her business dispatched. The aforesaid matron indeed undertook the keeping, but kept her wretchedly; for, leaving the infant in the cradle, she went to a neighbouring house to do some work there, and meanwhile a pig, coming, overturned the cradle and suffocated the child, falling on its face under many clothes. The mother, returning at length, asked Boguslava about the child she had entrusted to her. But she answered that she had forgotten her by reason of the occupation which she had. And when the mother entered the dwelling, the pig sprang out fleeing, and the child was found dead, whose little body, now quite cold, had stiffened like wood. The mother bewails her dead little daughter, and fear doubled her grief, by which she was not a little afraid of being chastised by her husband for this negligence. And the already mentioned husband, coming upon them, himself also bewails the mournful corpse, nor did he grieve so much for the extinction of his daughter as he was pricked at heart for the sin of negligence; for he feared that the crime of killing the child would have to be imputed to himself and his wife. But remembering that the fame of the miracles of Blessed Hedwig was public, he said to his wife: "Let us invoke with confidence the Saint of God, who, reigning in heaven, has received this power from the Lord, that what is justly asked through her merits may be consolingly obtained." And so, going together into a more secret part of the house, they prayed. The aforesaid Boguslava too, remaining by the corpse, prayed, saying these words: "Blessed Hedwig, I beseech you by your merits, free me from the sin into which I have fallen by not sufficiently guarding this child, and I promise that, if the dead child revives, I will go on foot to your tomb." The prayer completed, the parents, approaching the little bier in which the girl had been placed for burial, found living her whom a little before they had laid down dead, and sucking the breasts, her strength resumed, she gradually recovered, she who after the mother's return had lain lifeless for as great a space of time as bread could be baked in an oven. But at what hour of the day she died is not known, because no human being was then present.

[159] a woman of the village of Lissocitz In a village of the hospitallers, called Lissocitz, of the diocese of Olomouc, a certain woman received the end of living. Who, while she was held dead through a day, assigned to punishments for the offences from which while living she had not fully purged herself by satisfaction, was sustaining the burnings of flames. But God, who according to the prophet is wonderful in his Saints, wishing the admirable sanctity of Blessed Hedwig to be made manifest even in remote places, so disposed that the already mentioned Saint herself appeared visibly to the aforesaid dead woman, being in the flames, and powerfully drew her from the burning and by divine power recalled her to her former life. This woman had never before in her life heard of the proclamation of the Saint's sanctity or of her miracles, but, rescued by her from the torments of the flame and recalled from the dead to her former state, for the four years in which she lived after the already mentioned resurrection she did not cease to extol her with praises, but recounted to all she could what had been done concerning her, and showed to many certain signs of burning which had remained in her body, for the fuller proving of the miracle and benefit of divine piety.

[160] a man of the town of Prussicz. In the town of Prusicz bbbb, of the diocese of Wrocław, a certain man died. Who, when he was to be buried in the cemetery of the monastery in which the body of St. Hedwig is buried, after he had already lain lifeless for two days, rose from the dead. The fame of this miracle came to the duke, who would not at once believe it, but ordered the man raised to be brought before him; he also caused to be called into his presence the lord of the village in which that man had been living when he died, who was said to have been recalled to life, that he too, coming and being questioned, might tell the truth if he knew any about this deed. Both, appearing before the duke himself, constantly asserted that the death of that man had been real, and that the already mentioned raising had truly been done by the intervention of Blessed Hedwig. Concerning the fœtus miraculously quickened in its mother's womb, look above, concerning those rescued from the danger of death, the second miracle, Ysendrudis, and the rest cccc.

[161] A little bird restored to life: The Lord Almighty, who, as the prophet testifies, has disposed to save men and beasts, made this his Saint, Blessed Hedwig, honourable in this too, that she was able to obtain the restoration of life not only for men but also for dead irrational creatures, for the solace of those devoted to her, as is evident in the one example which is subjoined. For sister Christina of the house of Trebnitz was rearing for the sake of amusement a certain little bird which is called a Quiscula. When sister Agatha was holding it one day in her hands, it died, and casting it away she exposed it on a certain wall to be devoured by beasts. But the aforesaid Christina, understanding that she was defrauded of her solace, and grieving with womanly tenderness for the dead little bird, went to the tomb of Blessed Hedwig and prayed, saying thus: "My lady Blessed Hedwig, I believe that, if you will, you can console me; whence I beseech you to pour gladness into my heart by now restoring to life my dead bird." The prayer completed, she returned to the place where she knew the little bird had been thrown lifeless, and found it alive there. For this Saint did not wish even in small things to leave troubled after her death the sisters whom, while she lived, she always endeavoured to cherish with consolations,

as is more fully proved in what follows.

[162] a nun's veil preserved in the fire. Sister Juliana of the house of Trebnitz, on the night of the Lord's Circumcision, the office of Matins having been sung, had come to the stove of the sisters' warming-room for the sake of warming herself, and there through negligence threw the insignia of her head, namely the crown and veil, into the opening. The aforesaid stove too was blazing with such heats that if anyone stood carelessly at the opening of its little window, the heat coming out consumed the footwear and other garments which it could reach. Troubled not a little at the already mentioned insignia having fallen into the furnace, which on account of the fire she could not recover, and the bell calling the community, which was already then being rung for Lauds, the sister going away abandoned the things as lost. Having hope, however, in the patronage of Blessed Hedwig, going to her tomb she prayed swiftly thus: "Blessed Hedwig, because I believe you truly a Saint and trust in your merits, preserve my insignia for me." And hastening to choir, she was present in succession not only at Lauds but also at Mass, Prime and Chapter. And persevering bodily in the already mentioned offices, she nevertheless invoked the Lord and the help of Blessed Hedwig that the things of her little cell might be preserved unharmed for her. The Chapter being finished according to custom, she hastens to the place in which she had left the aforesaid ornaments. But because for the excessive heat she could not put her hand in to search, she stretched through the window a curved needle fixed on a rod, and drew out of the opening the aforesaid insignia, unharmed by the heat and altogether inviolate. Which the examiners afterwards transmitted under their seals to the Roman curia in testimony of the truth of this miracle and of the sanctity of Blessed Hedwig.

ANNOTATA.

i. Matthew XXII. 22.

p. Olsnicz, today the town of Oels, head of a circle, in the district of Wrocław.

q. The feast of St. George, Martyr, is celebrated on the 23rd day of April.

r. Thomaskirch, formerly Domaicerke, two miles distant from Ohlau, in the district of Wrocław.

s. Alta Ripa is the name of Brieg rendered into Latin, a city which is the head of a district and circle.

t. The biographer has already spoken of this Elizabeth above at number 100.

u. Of Snegula it is treated below at number 116.

w. Michowicz, today Miechowitz, in the district of Opole, the circle of Beuthen.

y. The feast of St. Lawrence falls on the 10th day of August.

x. Socolnicz, today Zaugwitz or Zaulkwitz, in the parish of Gross-Peterwitz, in the district of Wrocław, the circle of Schweidnitz.

z. Costhomloth, today Kostenblut, in the district of Wrocław, the circle of Neumarkt.

aa. The sickness lasted, therefore, from the 25th day of July to the 25th of November, on which days two Saints are venerated.

bb. The dukes of Pomerania favoured the nuns of Trebnitz: for they granted them, among other things, that when they should annually cause their ship, which is called a scuta (our Flemish Schuyte), to be sent to the ducal parts for procuring herring for themselves, it should be free in perpetuity from toll and exaction Stenzel, Scriptores, volume II, page 68, number 1..

cc. The castle of Swetensis, today Schwetz, in the district of Marienwerder, head of a circle.

dd. Clypeus is taken not only for a defensive instrument of war but also for the image which was painted on it: wherefore clypeator, as in this place, is also to be taken for a craftsman who fashions images. Du Cange under the word Clypeus.

ee. Below, numbers 137 and 139.

ff. Below, number 145.

gg. Below, number 151.

hh. Pruzicz, today Prausnitz; in the parish of Seichau, district of Liegnitz, circle of Jauer.

ii. An error must have crept in here in the name or in the quality: for in the time between the death and the canonization of St. Hedwig there was no other abbess at Trebnitz than her daughter Gertrude, who held the headship from the year 1232 to 1268: nay, in the series of abbesses there is none who obtained the name of Petronilla except the first, Petrusa; but she, as having died before St. Hedwig, cannot be meant.

kk. Pascurove, near Striegau, a place today unknown: but the most celebrated Stenzel observes that many places in this vicinity formerly had other names than today Ibid., page 72, number 1..

ll. Beroldivilla, Bernstadt, the ancient name of Liegnitz Ibid., number 2.. Although the town of Bernstadt is also listed today in the district of Wrocław, the circle of Oels.

mm. There formerly occurred a twofold vill of this name: namely that which even today retains the name Chroscina, in the district and circle of Opole, although it was at one time called Schmeilsdorf. There is also another vill, formerly Croscina, today called Weisdorf, in the same district of Opole, but in the circle of Falkenberg. Which of the two vills is to be understood here could not today be discerned.

nn. Silesia was formerly divided into Castellanies, as is clear from this place Ibid., page 73, number 2..

oo. Sadalno, is it that which was formerly called Sadilno? Today Zadel, near Frankenstein, in the district of Wrocław.

pp. We have already said above in Annotation ii that no trace remains of an abbess of this name.

qq. The feast of St. Callistus, Pope and Martyr, is celebrated on the 14th of October, and so on the day before the anniversary of St. Hedwig.

rr. Namely the 25th of July.

ss. Below, number 136.

tt. Below, number 115.

uu. Above, number 135.

ww. Below, number 150.

yy. Mechovice, today Münchwitz, under the present parish of Bralin, head of a circle, in the district of Wrocław.

xx. Bresno or Bresna, a castellany in the Voivodeship of Łęczyca.

zz. Camenata, a room or chamber in which there is a fireplace. Du Cange at this word.

aaa. Above, number 116.

bbb. Below, number 138.

ccc. Below, number 147.

ddd. Wesna, today Wiese, near Hochkirch, from which there is a view of the town of Trebnitz, in the district of Wrocław, the circle of Trebnitz.

eee. Schwetz on the Vistula, in the district of Marienwerder, head of a circle.

fff. Milicz, today Militsch, in the district of Wrocław, head of a circle.

ggg. Świętopełk was duke of that part of Pomerania which is washed by the Vistula, and which was afterwards called Pomerelia: the duke died in the year 1266.

hhh. Below, number 134.

iii. Below, number 135.

kkk. Adelheid, therefore, was sick from the 11th day of November until the 26th of June.

lll. Above, number 124.

mmm. The most celebrated Stenzel explains this text Scriptores, volume II, page 79, number 1. as though it were a question of killing the horse, and accordingly holds this as a vestige of pagan superstition. To me it seems that the talk is of suicide, which the preceding words already presage, when Godfrey is said to have been tormented with such pain that he longed rather to die than to be afflicted longer by the torments of so vehement a pain.

nnn. The feast of St. George, Martyr, falls on the 23rd day of April.

ooo. The vigil of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul occurs on the 28th of June.

ppp. Above, number 116.

qqq. From the feast of St. Vitus until the feast of St. Bartholomew, that is, from the 15th of June to the 24th of August.

rrr. The feast of St. James recurs on the 25th of July.

sss. Twenty Polish miles are here reckoned at twenty-two German miles.

ttt. The vigil of St. Michael is the 28th of September.

uuu. Vlodimirus occupied the see of Włocławek from the year 1262 to 1271, in which he died.

www. Above, number 97.

yyy. From the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin until the octave of the Epiphany, that is, from the 8th of September to the 13th of January.

xxx. The Exaltation of the Holy Cross is celebrated on the 14th of September.

zzz. The Lombard mile was shorter than the Polish.

aaaa. Olesno, today Rosenberg, head of a circle in the district of Opole.

bbbb. Prusicz, today Prausnitz, a town in the district of Wrocław, the circle of Militsch. Compare above, Annotation hh.

cccc. Above, number 153.

jam* already.

Chap. IX. Of the miracles at the time of the canonization of St. Hedwig, of her canonization and of the translation of her body.

From the Saint's tomb there flow light Sister Elizabeth, sacristan of the house of Trebnitz, rising from sleep one night before Matins, found the light in the dormitory put out, and to rekindle it she went to the church for a light. And arriving near the place of burial of St. Hedwig, she saw the whole tomb surrounded with a most clear light, and, terrified with womanly faint-heartedness, she returned to the dormitory and afterwards narrated how she had seen a great light, certainly signifying something. Sister Juliana too, of the house of Trebnitz, the light in the dormitory having likewise been put out, going to the church to kindle a light, saw not only a great light about the tomb of St. Hedwig, but also as it were two bishops and two abbots, all clothed in white, standing at the tomb, whose signification is declared below [a].

[164] and a wonderful fragrance: On a certain anniversary of the death of Blessed Hedwig, certain ladies were keeping vigil praying at the tomb of the same Saint, among whom Agnes, Christina, Margaret and Joanna, sisters of the monastery of Trebnitz, were intent on the sacred watches, reading through the psalter. While, therefore, they were singing psalms together and

praying, a most sweet but strange odour pressed upon the nostrils of all. They were all astonished at the fragrance of so great and so unaccustomed an odour, and each wondered the more because there were no odoriferous things with them; yet none wished to say anything to another about anything of the kind, lest the strict bond of silence should be loosed ^b. But the odour not ceasing, sister Agnes asked the others by signs whether they perceived by smell the sweetness of the odour by which she herself had now for some time been wonderfully changed. And they said: "We have perceived it and we perceive it." The aforesaid light, therefore, shining in the darkness of night, and the apparition of the prelates, and the sweetness of the odour poured round in the house of the Lord, gave markedly to understand that the Saint buried there, whose life had shone to the world with the light of good works and who had been the good odour of Christ in every place, now saw light in light and was as the odour of balsam before God. They also indicated that the time was now near in which she was to be inscribed in the holy Church of God in the Catalogue of the Saints, with the concurrence of prelates.

[165] the process of canonization begins; For in the same year the lord Volimir, bishop of Włocławek [c], and Brother Simon, provincial prior of Poland of the Friars Preachers, were deputed as examiners by the Apostolic See, who began to investigate and examine the life and miracles of Blessed Hedwig in the year one thousand two hundred and sixty-two, on the seventh day before the Kalends of November, writing down the depositions and names of the witnesses and their whole process concerning this business entrusted to them, and, seals having been affixed, transmitting it to the Supreme Pontiff, they signified to him that many other kinds of signs also and cures of sicknesses, which they had heard from trustworthy persons had been wrought by the merits of Blessed Hedwig, they had been unable to examine on account of the difficulty of summoning witnesses from remote parts. Whence a second commission was given them by the Supreme Pontiff to inquire concerning the same business; and then, proceeding anew to the examination, they found more than the former, which, writing them down, they transmitted a second time to the Apostolic See. The first aforesaid examination, therefore, was made in the chapter-house of the sisters of Trebnitz in the year of the Lord mentioned; the second in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and sixty-three, on the 5th day before the Kalends of March, in the house of the same sisters; the third in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and sixty-four, on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of April, in the same place, in the church of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle; the fourth in the same year at Wrocław in the house of the Friars Preachers, on the seventh day before the Kalends of April. In other places also the aforesaid prelates and inquisitors made examinations concerning the life and miracles of this Saint, as I have learned from those who recounted it, of which, perhaps omitted for the sake of brevity, because I found nothing written, I have not cared to add anything here.

[166] and meanwhile a girl near death And when many messengers and solemn procurators were being sent to the curia of the lord Pope for the sake of furthering the canonization of St. Hedwig, Master Nicholas ^d, scholastic of Cracow, also arranged to go there for this very purpose. But seeing his brother's daughter weighed down with such languor that she seemed nearer to death than to life, especially since, already placed in her agony, she had closed her eyes, her friends grieving at the passing of the girl, he, compassionating, said: "Blessed Hedwig, I believe that you are a Saint, and I propose to go to the Roman curia to further the glory of your canonization; that I may therefore be bolder in what is to be done, show me a sign for good by freeing this daughter of my brother from her sickness." These things said, he went to table with the others, and behold, before the dinner was finished, someone came announcing and saying that the girl herself had already so recovered from her languor that she was playing with her mother with joyful applause and soothing with glad gestures her mother's formerly sad spirit.

[167] and the blind daughter of Clement IV are healed In the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and sixty-four, on the second day before the end of August, in the third year of the pontificate of the lord Pope Urban the Fourth, there being then at the Roman curia Master Solomon, archdeacon of Cracow, and Herengebert, dean of Wyszogród, and many other honourable persons labouring in the procuration of the Saint's canonization, the examination of the witnesses present at the curia concerning the life and miracles of Blessed Hedwig was committed anew by word of mouth by the Supreme Pontiff; but her canonization was postponed until the times of the lord Pope Clement the Fourth. This lord Clement, then universal father of the Church, although he was sufficiently instructed by the suitable testimony of many concerning the prerogative of the merits of the already mentioned Blessed Hedwig, nevertheless desired that a sign should be wrought by God through her merits, so that, while he beheld it with bodily eyes, he himself too might be a witness of her sanctity. And because, formerly devoted to secular service ^e, he had had by his lawful wife a daughter deprived of the light of her eyes, during the sacred solemnities of the Masses which he celebrated he besought the Lord that, through the intercession of her whose canonization was then being treated of, if she were a Saint, he would take away from his daughter the trouble of blindness and give her light. The eternal Pontiff was present without delay, assenting to the prayers of his Vicar, and adorned his daughter with clear lights and granted her the desired sight, that he too might glorify the Son of God in his Saint, the more quickly exalting in the Church her whom from the consideration of the new miracle he could sufficiently judge to be already transferred to the brightness of the heavenly homeland. The truth, therefore, having been ascertained and the divine will known, the supreme prelate did not delay to fulfil what pious prayers had long demanded.

[168] St. Hedwig is canonized at Viterbo: For, the curia having been assembled at Viterbo, he recites the life and miracles of St. Hedwig before all and commends her merits in public discourse, and solemnly inscribed her in the Catalogue of the Saints in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and sixty-seven, on the Ides of October ^f. Then was verified and fulfilled that vision, of which it was spoken a little before, shown to sister Juliana concerning the two bishops, because what the lord Pope Urban began by committing the office of examination, this the lord Pope Clement happily consummated, inscribing her in the number of the Saints in the third year of his pontificate. And the two abbots, who had likewise appeared to the same sister in the vision, indicated a thing to be accomplished at the time of the translation, as will be said in the following treatise on the translation of this Saint. That illustrious solemnity of the canonization too the power of the Creator rendered wonderfully consoling; for that day on which the aforesaid solemnities were performed was one of abstinence, and it was not permitted to use meat on it, nor could fish suitable for such a festivity be had, although sought everywhere, even through the adjacent places. For there was at Viterbo a certain valley, containing indeed a fish-pond, which had not and never had had fish, which was then found to abound with a multitude of large fish. The abundance of which, prepared by the Lord for the refreshment of the faithful, heaped up not a little the joyfulness of spiritual gladness.

[169] the Saint's tomb, many being present, The messengers having returned from the curia with gladness, the aforesaid canonization of Blessed Hedwig having been performed at Viterbo, as has been said before, the festival of the translation of the same Saint was at once solemnly proclaimed, and her body, most worthy of all veneration, was translated in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and sixty-VIII, on the XVIth day before the Kalends of the month of September ^g. Whose tomb, which was firmly closed with mortar and stones, when it had been opened with the greatest difficulty, iron instruments also being applied, in the presence of the honourable lords, namely Nicholas, abbot of Leubus ^h, and Maurice, formerly abbot of Kamenz [i], who, prepared in all respects with noble priestly ornaments as about to celebrate Mass on a solemn day, the lord Conrad [k], duke of Głogów, with his sons and his sister Agnes, full sister of the same duke, and certain other persons being present, approached with devotion and great reverence to raise from the earth those Relics most worthy of all veneration. Many prelates and venerable men indeed had come and * could have been admitted while these things were to be done, but, the multitude having been excluded for the sake of avoiding the din of disturbance, only the aforesaid fathers, as chosen by the Lord for this work, were taken, perhaps by dispensation, that that which the vision shown to sister Juliana concerning the two bishops and abbots had taught, according to what is said before, might be truly fulfilled in fact, and that from their mouth, as of two trustworthy witnesses, the wonders which the power of the Saviour then deigned to work and show might come to the knowledge of others.

[170] is opened, For, the earth having been cast out of the tomb and the upper slab removed from the sarcophagus in which the holy body lay, an odour of such vigour and so most sweet emanated that it changed the minds of all present there into admiration and joy. And while the bones of the sacred body were being raised from the earth, the flesh having been consumed and the framework of the limbs loosed, three fingers of her left hand were found wholly intact, retaining enclosed within them the little image of the Blessed Virgin which she had frequently carried with her while she lived, and with which she had been buried when dead, because in dying she had so pressed it between the joints of the aforesaid fingers that it could not be drawn out from them in a good way ^l. Therefore those miracles which are recounted above as done through this image then took new increase, when the incorrupt Mother preserved intact from the vice of corruption, for so long a time, the holders of her image. The brain too of her head, which had lain buried in the earth for almost twenty-five years, was found most fresh and wonderfully preserved by divine power, although, according to the tradition of some, the marrow and the matter of the brain putrefy first. Moreover a certain liquid, pure and clear like olive oil, of most sweet and wonderful odour, sweated out from that head, which rendered the shrouds and cloths in which the head was wrapped wholly wet, as though they had been drawn from a river and wrung out for drying ^m.

[171] and, an enormous multitude of people flocking together, To the aforesaid festivity there flowed together from diverse regions of the world an almost innumerable multitude of people. Princes also and lords of lands, very many prelates and rectors of Churches, with a multitude of religious persons of diverse Orders, solemnized by their presence that feast on which this translation was celebrated. For the renowned king of the Bohemians, Odakarus ⁿ, and the lord Władysław, duke of Silesia and bishop of Salzburg ^o, and his brothers, dukes of Silesia, grandsons of the same Saint, and many dukes of Poland, each with his nobles, coming according to the dignity of their state and the worldly glory in which they were strong, adorned the level fields with many-coloured and wonderfully varied and beautiful tents, in which they made their stations round about the monastery of Trebnitz. Moreover each one showed the affection of devotion which he had towards the Saint of God by a special gift and a present of offering, and all the people paid their vows, and each with devout mind offered what he had promised, or what the Lord inspired him, he laid down from his means for the reverence and honour of the Saint. And although, for the great number and the innumerable multitude of people gathered there, the approach was exceedingly difficult, yet, vying with one another, one desiring to go before and to anticipate another in greeting and kissing the Saint's Relics, very many sustained an unspeakable and dangerous pressure. The voice of exultation and salvation was heard in the temple, for they sang with sweet-sounding melody, Glory to God in the highest, not only men and women, seculars and religious persons,

but also the sound of organs resounded the praises of the Lord, by which the hearts of the faithful were stirred to devotion and to spiritual gladness. Candles adorned with flowers, standing and burning day and night in many places, adorned the house of God with continual light. And with a special delight the artful ascent and descent of certain burning candles soothed the eyes of the onlookers, which, attached to certain revolving spheres hanging in the sanctuary, moved up and down, imitated, according to the craftsman's contrivance, the wandering stars in the firmament. And it was well done by divine ordinance that lights of this kind should adorn the solemnities of her who, while she lived, from the contemplation of the heavenly lights frequently rose up, as is said above, into wonder and jubilation and was kindled to divine love.

[172] The Saint's body is raised. The air too and the disposition of the sky seemed with a certain cheerfulness to play in accord with that joyful festivity; such, in fine, was then the serenity and the shutting up of the winds in the treasuries of the Lord, that people, for the multitude remaining here and there through the groves or the open fields even under the sky, rejoiced in a great purity of the air. For the lights too which they had lit to the praise of God and the honour of Blessed Hedwig, wishing to adorn that festivity in which her sacred body was translated, or the solemnity of the translation of the same body was celebrated, felt no hindrances to their burning from any breath of wind. He who, as Scripture testifies [p], maketh concord in high places, wrought these great things. By whose grace not only the higher things but also the lower, namely the hearts of men, were then disposed to such tranquillity that, as happens rather frequently in so great a gathering, no one was found either killed or wounded; and it was indeed worthy and fitting that the people which had come together to celebrate the festivity of her who raised the dead, cured wounds and languors, should, her merits interceding, return home with safety and joy. But since from the preceding life and miracles, and from the authority of the Apostolic See, it has now become known and is known to the faithful clearer than light that she is truly a Saint and associated with the angels, many still hasten to her basilica, venerating her and praying that, helped by her suffrages, they may find grace with God. Pray thou also for us, thy suppliants, O Blessed Hedwig, that the Lord our God, who transferred thee to eternal glory, may after the misery of the present life transfer us to the company of the Angels, who lives and reigns through all ages of ages. Amen.

Here ends the Greater Legend of Blessed Hedwig.

Prayer of the author of both Legends.

My lady, Saint Hedwig, I profess myself the servant of Almighty God and of your sanctity, although, alas! an unprofitable one, and certainly a debtor of thanksgiving for benefits received. Lest, therefore, I neglect to discharge the debt of my service, and so be reproved as ungrateful for the fault of omission, I, poor and little, joined to a college of the poor [q], who cannot show great things with the great, with the poor little widow offering in the temple, cast into the treasury of the glory of God and of your praise these two mites, namely the Greater and the Lesser Treatise of your life and of your Miracles: devoutly and humbly beseeching that you, O worthy and kindly lady of mine, will deign to receive them, and commend me to the Lord with all those who in any way have furthered or read the text of this volume and offer this gift together with me to your sanctity, and by your prayers obtain for us in the present the gift of the Holy Spirit, a secure departure from this world, and the joy and solace of eternal life, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

ANNOTATA.

a. Below, number 168.

p. Job XXV 2.

q. From these words we conjectured at number 6 of the preliminary Commentary that the biographer had followed the regular camps; but, as we said there, there is no need to divine anything beyond that.

nec* [not].

Here begins the Treatise or Mirror of the genealogy of Saint Hedwig, formerly duchess of Silesia.

By an anonymous nearly contemporary author. In Stenzel, Scriptores rerum Silesiacarum, volume II.

Hedwig, widow and duchess, at Trebnitz in Silesia. (S.)

BHL Number: 3768

BY AN ANONYMOUS NEARLY CONTEMPORARY AUTHOR.

To know in some measure from what root the noble stock, the progeny of Blessed Hedwig, proceeded, the very many branches of her generation, multiplied on this side and that and hanging as from the trunk of a noble tree, not as ignoble or superfluous, but perhaps to forestall the weariness of readers, I have rather often cut off with the knife of abbreviation, leaving in the tenor of the reading and writing only those among whom more nearly, and from whom more immediately, that flower blooming like the rose or the lily in merits and examples, namely Blessed Hedwig, daughter of the duke of Merania, duchess and patroness of Silesia, proceeded by birth. But because of the forebears of the father of this same Saint I have not learned many things, because I could not have writings or teachers concerning them, although he too without doubt sprang from a very noble lineage [a], I shall follow in some part the line of consanguinity of the mother of the aforesaid Saint, according to what is found described in certain histories and ancient codices. The posterity too and the excellent offspring of St. Hedwig herself, as the report of those who know has taught me, I wish to subjoin, that it may become known to those present and to come who shall read the present things, if they were ignorant of it, with what comely and pleasing fruit of children the aforesaid most beautiful flower was fruitful.

[2] Whence it is to be known that the great-great-great-grandfather of Blessed Hedwig was called Dedo, and was count of Merseburg [b], who by his wife, named Theburga, daughter of Theoderic the margrave, had a son called Theoderic [c], the successor indeed of his lordship. The great-great-grandfather of St. Hedwig, therefore, was the son of the aforesaid Dedo, named Theoderic, count of Merseburg, lord of Hilburch and Suselicz, who by Mechtild his wife, daughter of Ekkehard the margrave, had Dedo the margrave ^d and Thimo and many other sons, counts, from whom by succession of generation margraves and many other nobles proceeded. The great-grandfather's father of St. Hedwig, however, was Count Thimo ^e, son of the aforesaid Theoderic, who by Ida his wife, daughter of the duke of Northeim ^f, had a son Dedo, who began the cloister of canons on the Mons Serenus ^g, and Conrad, who completed it in honour of the Blessed Apostle Peter. And the great-grandfather of Blessed Hedwig was the aforesaid Count Conrad ^h, son of the aforesaid Thimo, whom Lothar, or Luther, the emperor made margrave of Meissen and of the East, which is called Lusatia. Who also by his wife Lucarda, daughter of a certain Albert, a most noble man of Swabia, had six sons and as many daughters.

[3] Omitting the diffused propagations of all of whom, I subjoin the generations of only three sons of the aforesaid margrave Conrad, namely Otto, Frederick and Dedo. For Otto, margrave of Meissen, who founded Cella [i], a monastery of the Cistercian Order, had as wife Hedwig, daughter of Albert, margrave of Saxony [k], by whom he had Albert, margrave of Meissen, and Count Theoderic as sons [l]. And the margrave Albert having died, Count Theoderic, his brother, obtained his lordship, namely the march of Meissen, marrying Judith, daughter of Hermann, Landgrave of Thuringia, and had by her Henry, who was margrave of Meissen and of the East, and count palatine of Saxony and Landgrave of Thuringia ^m. This Henry had as wife a daughter of the duke of Austria, of whom were born two sons, Albert, Landgrave of Thuringia, and Theoderic, margrave of Landesberch.

[4] Albert married a daughter of the Emperor Frederick the second [n], by whom he had three sons, Henry, Frederick and Thizmann. Henry married Hedwig, daughter of Henry the third, duke of Silesia, by whom he had a son Frederick [o]. Frederick the margrave married a daughter of the duke of Carinthia, sister of the queen of Germany [p]. Thizmann, Landgrave and margrave of the East, married Jutta, daughter of Count Berthold of Hennenberch [q]. But Theoderic, margrave of Landesberch, son of the aforesaid margrave Henry, having as wife Helen, daughter of John, margrave of Brandenburg, had by her a son, Frederick, margrave of Meissen and of the East, to whom the daughter of Henry, duke of Bavaria, was married [r]. The same Theoderic, margrave of Landesberch, also had two daughters, namely Sophia, formerly wife of Duke Conrad of Głogów, afterwards abbess of the sisters of the Order of Saint Clare in the monastery of Wizenfels, which the mother of the same Sophia built [s], and Gertrude, a nun in the same monastery.

[5] Of the second son of the aforesaid Conrad, the great-grandfather of St. Hedwig, Frederick, count of Bren [t], and of Hedwig his wife, daughter of Dypold, paternal uncle of Odakar, duke of Bohemia, were born Count Otto, Sophia, abbess of Quedling, and Count Frederick, who married Judith, daughter of Frederick, count of Cygenhagen, brother of Hermann, Landgrave of Thuringia [u], by whom he had Otto, count of Within, Theoderic, count of Bren, and Hedwig, mother of Henry, count of Hoinsteyn [v]. This Theoderic, placed last, married Eudoxia, daughter of Duke Conrad of Kujavia and Masovia [w], by whom he had four sons, Otto, Conrad, Theoderic, Henry, and two daughters, Judith, whom Myscivoyus, duke of Pomerania, married,

[x], and Hedwig, abbess of Gerbstedt [y].

[6] The first son, Otto, was count of Wethin; the second, Conrad, was count of Bren [z], who, marrying Elizabeth, daughter of Albert, duke of Saxony, had by her Albert, Conrad and Otto, counts, and Theoderic, a brother of the Order of the knighthood of the Temple [aa]. The third son of Theoderic, Theoderic, was likewise a brother in the aforesaid Order of Templars [bb]. The fourth son, Henry, was a brother professed in the Order of Friars Minor, to which he betook himself, having left a canonry of the cathedral church of Magdeburg. Whom the lord Pope Martin IV, while he was staying in the aforesaid Order at Wrocław, gave as archbishop to the Church of Gniezno; but he refused with all his strength to accept this dignity, nay, he laboured in person at the Roman curia to be absolved from it [cc]. The aforesaid sons of Theoderic, count of Bren, were kinsmen of Blessed Hedwig in the third degree.

[7] And the grandfather of St. Hedwig was Dedo, count and margrave of the East and lord of Groyz, son of the aforesaid margrave Conrad. This Dedo, having as wife Mechtild [dd], daughter of Count Gozwin of Hornesberch, had by her Conrad the margrave, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Mieszko, duke of Poland [ee], of whom were born to him two daughters, one Mechtild, whom Albert, margrave of Brandenburg, took as wife, the other was called Agnes, whom Henry, count palatine of the Rhine, brother of the Emperor Otto the Fourth, married. The aforesaid Dedo also had a daughter named Agnes, of whom was born Blessed Hedwig. The aforesaid margrave Dedo, the grandfather of St. Hedwig, also founded a monastery of regular canons, which is called Zcillen [ff], and died in the year of the Lord 1190. And Berthold, duke of Merania, took as wife the already mentioned Agnes, daughter of the aforesaid margrave Dedo, of whom were born Otto, duke of Merania, margrave of Hysterich, who is also called of Andasse, Ekenbert, bishop of Bamberg, and Berthold, patriarch of Aquileia. He had also three daughters, of whom one married the king of France [gg], another the king of Hungary, namely the mother of St. Elizabeth [hh], the third Henry, duke of Poland, who is now St. Hedwig.

[8] Proceeding to set forth the posterity of this Saint, it first occurs to us to be considered that the father of St. Hedwig was the aforesaid Berthold, duke of Merania, margrave of Baden and count of Tyrol [ii]; and the mother of the same Saint was the aforesaid lady Agnes, daughter of the already mentioned Dedo. Who, joined in marriage to Henry the first [kk], duke of Silesia, called With the Beard, bore three sons, Boleslaw, Conrad, Henry, and three daughters, Agnes, Sophia, Gertrude. All the others having died in youth [ll], there remained only the son Henry, his father's successor in the lordship, and one daughter, Gertrude, abbess in the monastery of Trebnitz, which her father Duke Henry built. And the aforesaid Henry, St. Hedwig's son, married the lady Anna, daughter of Přemysl, king of Bohemia, and of Constance, daughter of the king of Hungary. Which lady Anna bore four sons, Boleslaw, Henry, Conrad, Władysław, and five daughters, Hedwig, Agnes, Constance, Elizabeth, Gertrude. And Duke Henry the Second, St. Hedwig's son, was killed by the Tartars in the year of the Lord 1241, on the fifth day before the Ides of April, and was buried at Wrocław among the Friars Minor [mm]. And Boleslaw, the first son of Duke Henry, the son of St. Hedwig, was duke of Silesia and lord of Legnica, who, marrying Hedwig, daughter of Henry, count of Anhalt, had by her three sons, Henry, Bolko, Bernard, and three daughters, Agnes, Hedwig, Anca or Anna.

[5] Henry, the first son of Duke Boleslaw, was duke of Silesia and lord of Legnica, who married Elizabeth, daughter of the duke of Poland and lord of Kalisz. By whom he had three sons, Boleslaw, Henry, Władysław, and five daughters, Hedwig (who had married the margrave of Brandenburg [nn], on whose death she entered the Order of St. Clare at Wrocław), Anna and Elizabeth (who were placed there in the same Order [oo]), Helen (who followed her grandmother, the lady Jolenta, to the cloister of the aforesaid Order in the city of Gniezno), and Euphemia, whom Otto, duke and count of Carinthia, married as wife [pp]. Bolko, the second son of Duke Boleslaw, was duke of Silesia and lord of Vurstenberch, having as consort Beatrix, daughter of Otto the Tall, margrave of Brandenburg, by whom he had four sons [qq], Bolko, Henry, Bernard … and two daughters, one Jutta, whom Stephen, duke of Bavaria, married [rr], and Beatrix [ss], whom he arranged to place for the service of the Lord in the cloister at Strelin, which the duke himself founded and endowed in honour of St. Clare. Bernard, the third son of Boleslaw, died without children. The first daughter of Duke Boleslaw, Agnes, married Ulric, count of Wirthemberch: the second daughter of the same duke, Hedwig, married Conrad, duke of Masovia: the third daughter of the aforesaid Duke Boleslaw, Anna or Anca, was a nun in the monastery of Trebnitz and abbess there [tt].

[10] Henry the Third, son of Duke Henry, the son of St. Hedwig, was duke of Silesia and lord of Wrocław, having as consort Judith, daughter of Conrad, duke of Kujavia and Masovia, full sister of the lady Eudoxia mentioned above [uu], the mother of brother Henry of Bren and of his brothers, of whom were born Henry and Hedwig. Henry was duke of Silesia and lord of Wrocław, duke also of Cracow and Sandomierz and lord of Glatz, who is called today Henry the Fourth, a worthy duke, and had as consort the lady … [vv], daughter of Otto the Tall, margrave of Brandenburg, and died without children and was buried at Wrocław in the church of the canons which he himself founded in honour of the Holy Cross. Hedwig married Henry, son of Albert, landgrave of Thuringia, born of the daughter of the Emperor Frederick, and had a son Frederick, as has been said above. And her husband having died, Hedwig herself took as husband Otto the Fat, count of Anhalt and lord of Ascharia, and had sons and daughters. The other sons of the aforesaid Duke Henry the Third all died in youth.

[11] Conrad, the third son of Henry the second, the son of St. Hedwig, was duke of Silesia and lord of Głogów, having as consort Salomea, daughter of Duke Władysław, duke of all Poland, by whom he had three sons, Henry, Premco or Przemysł, and Conrad, and three daughters, Anna, Euphemia, Hedwig. The first son, Henry, duke of Silesia and lord of Głogów, having as wife Mechtild, daughter of Albert, duke of Brunswick, had sons, Henry, Conrad, Boleslaw, John [ww], and daughters, Agnes and Salomea. The second son of Conrad, namely Przemysł, was duke of Silesia and lord of Steinau, slain in battle and dead without children. The third son, Conrad, was duke of Silesia and lord of Sagan and provost in the cathedral church of Wrocław [xx]. The first daughter of the aforesaid Duke Conrad, the lady Anna, married Louis, count palatine of the Rhine and duke of Bavaria. The second daughter, Euphemia, married the count of Goricz and had a son Henry, count of Gorizia. The third daughter, Hedwig, was abbess in a monastery of the Order of St. Clare. Władysław, who was called Wlodco, the fourth son of Duke Henry, the son of St. Hedwig, was duke of Silesia and lord of Wrocław, and archbishop of Salzburg, in which church he died and was buried [yy].

[12] The Treatise on the sons of Duke Henry, son of St. Hedwig, slain by the Tartars, being completed, there follows that on the daughters. The first daughter of this Duke Henry the Second was Hedwig, abbess at Wrocław in the Order of St. Clare. The second daughter of the same duke, Agnes, was abbess in the monastery of Trebnitz [zz], which, as is said above, her grandfather, Duke Henry the First, called With the Beard, founded and solemnly completed. The third daughter of Duke Henry the Second, the son of St. Hedwig, Gertrude, married Boleslaw, duke of Masovia, but lacked children. The fourth daughter of the said Henry, Elizabeth, married Przemysł, duke of Poland and lord of Poznań, by whom he had a son, named Przemysł, duke, afterwards king of Poland, and four daughters, Constance, who married Conrad, margrave of Brandenburg, and bore a son, John; Eufrosca, abbess at Trebnitz [aaa]; Anna, abbess at Duenzko [bbb]; Euphemia or Ofca, who died at Wrocław in the Order of St. Clare and was buried there in the cloister of the same Saint. His fifth daughter, Constance, Casimir, duke of Kujavia, son of Conrad, duke of Kujavia and Masovia, took as consort, and had by her two sons, Leszek and Siemomysł, who was called by the diminutive Simasco. The first son of Duke Casimir, Leszek, was duke of Sieradz and of Cracow and Sandomierz, having as wife Griffa, daughter of Rozlaus, duke of Russia. The second son of Duke Casimir, Siemomysł, was duke of Kujavia, having as consort Salomea, daughter of the duke of Pomerania, by whom he had three sons, dukes of Kujavia, Leszek, Przemysł, Casimir, and two daughters, the lady Fenenna, consort of the king of Hungary, and the lady Constance, abbess in the monastery of Trebnitz [ccc].

ANNOTATA.

p. Frederick, son of the Landgrave Albert, called the Bitten, because his mother, Margaret, fleeing, had bitten him, a three-year-old, on the cheek, that he might one day remember the hard separation Mencke, Rerum Germanicarum Scriptores, volume II, column 1448.. He died, according to Eccard Genealogia, column 455., in the month of November of the year 1324.

q. Titzmann was killed in the year 1308 on Good Friday in church, and was buried at Leipzig among the Friars Preachers Ibid., column 452..

r. It is not known whether Frederick, son of Theoderic, who took Catherine of Bavaria as wife, left descendants when he died in the year 1291.

s. She who is here called Sophia is called Brigitta in Sommersberg, genealogical table II Scriptores rerum Silesiacarum, volume I, page 342..

t. Frederick, count of Bren, a vill near Landsberg in the region of Meissen, died in the year 1182 Ibid., page 108, note 3..

u. Otto died in the year 1203, Frederick in the year 1221, and Sophia, abbess of Quedlinburg, closed her last day before the year 1230 Ibid., note 4..

v. Otto and Theoderic ruled with equal authority the counties of Bren and Wettin; the former died in the year 1233, the latter in the year 1264 Ibid., note 5..

w. The most ancient testimony that Eudoxia was the daughter of Conrad of Masovia Ibid., note 6..

x. Judith is commonly not numbered by the Pomeranian writers among the wives of Myscivoyus, or Mestwin II, although her marriage is placed beyond all controversy in this passage Stenzel, note 7..

y. The monastery of Gerbstedt was situated in the county of Mansfeld.

z. Otto flourished in the year 1264, but Conrad died between the years 1274 and 1278 Ibid., page 109, note 1..

aa. Albert died in the year 1283 or 1284, Otto, the last count of Bren, in the year 1290, Conrad about the year 1285 Ibid., note 2..

bb. There are more recent writers who also place among the knights of the Temple Otto, son of Theoderic; but wrongly, since he is here simply called count Ibid., number 3..

cc. Długosz in the Polish History, book VII Volume I, column 852., making no mention of Henry of Bren, says that the see of Gniezno, vacant long after the death of Martin, was occupied by James Świnka. Nevertheless there are extant apostolic letters given by Pope Martin IV on the 10th day before the Kalends of January of the year 1281, by which he sets Henry of Bren, a professed brother of the Order of Minors, over the Church of Gniezno as archbishop and pastor [Stenzel, 482, and Wadding, Annales Fratrum Minorum, volume V, pages 101, 106 and 482.]. The silence of Długosz may be interpreted in some fashion from this, that, although instituted by the Pontiff, the most humble man begged to be excused from the supreme dignity, as we are taught by a fragment appended to the Life of Anna, duchess of Silesia Scriptores, volume II, page 132., which runs thus: Brother Henry of Bren, son of the count of Bren and kinsman of the princes of Silesia and Poland, died in the year of the Lord 1302. He, having been given by the venerable Lord Martin IV as archbishop of the Church of Gniezno, resigned the archbishopric to him, and, despising the glory of the world, happily paid the debt of this flesh in the Order and habit of the Friars Minor. He is buried in the middle of the choir with the same Friars at Wrocław at St. James. He, being for a long time visitor of the Ladies of St. Clare, preserving them in all sanctity and purity of life, won for God no small gain from the sheep committed to him. Whose memory is in benediction. That Henry was moreover involved in the highest affairs of priesthood and empire is shown by the letters of the Emperor Rudolf given to Henry, and his answer Ibid., page 474..

dd. Dedo died, according to the Annals of Altzella Mencke, volume II, column 398., in the year 1190. Mechtild, moreover, daughter of Gozwin of Heinsberg, seems to have been the sister of Philip the archbishop, as Meibom tries to prove Rerum Germanicarum Scriptores, volume III, page 254..

ee. Conrad, margrave of Lusatia, died in the year 1210 Eccard, Principes Saxoniæ, column 82..

ff. Tschillen, today Wechselburg, near Rochlitz in the territory of Leipzig.

gg. Agnes married in the year 1193 Philip Augustus, king of France, who had repudiated his wife, Ingeborg, whom others call Bothilda, daughter of the king of Denmark, by decree of the Council of Reims in the year 1195 Mansi, Supplement to the Councils, volume II, column 772.: wherefore Philip took Agnes, Berthold's daughter, over her in the year 1196. But Queen Ingeborg, having interposed an appeal to the Roman See, complained first through Danish envoys before Celestine III: by Philip's arts the suit was drawn out, so that the Pontiff's successor, Innocent III, found it still pending. But, as the contemporary writer of the Gesta says Bréquigny, Diplomata, volume II, page 56 and following., Innocent, succeeding Celestine, at once took pains by his letters and through the bishop of Paris to admonish the oft-mentioned king to remove from himself her (Agnes of Merania) whom he had brought in over the other against the prohibition of the Church, and to receive into conjugal favour her (Ingeborg) whom, lawfully married, he had unlawfully thought fit to remove, the licence of law not being denied him to be heard afterwards, restitution having been made, if he thought he had anything to propose. Innocent therefore sent to Philip Peter of Capua, Cardinal Deacon of the title of St. Mary in Via Lata, whom he instructed to subject the whole of France to ecclesiastical interdict, and that no divine office should be celebrated in it except the baptism of little children and the penance of the dying. The legate, therefore, having gathered a council at Dijon and Vienne Compare Mansi, Supplement to the Councils, volume II, column 777., promulgated the interdict [See the form of the Interdict in Martène, volume IV of the Anecdota, column 147.], which lay upon France for eight continuous months, until Innocent's legate, Octavian, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, having bound Philip by oath to receive Ingeborg, to treat her as queen and not to put her away without the judgment of the Church, relaxed the sentence of interdict. The Gesta add: The king separated the woman brought in over the other from his embraces, but did not exclude her from the bounds of the kingdom, because she was pregnant and already near her delivery. Further, the Lord judged her cause, because, having fallen gravely sick after the birth, she paid the debt of the flesh about the beginning of the year 1201, leaving two offspring from the concubinage, whom Innocent legitimated on the 4th day before the Nones of November in the 4th year of his Pontificate, but of Christ 1202 Bréquigny, Diplomata, volume III, page 1087., so that no defect of birth exists: the Pontiff namely reckoning that, since greater fitness is required in spiritual than in secular things, it ought not to be doubted that the Apostolic See can legitimate such persons (those less lawfully begotten) for secular acts, especially at the petition of those who recognize no other superior among men, apart from the Roman Pontiff, having such power. Since, therefore, our most dear son Ph., illustrious king of France, besides his first-born, whom he received of his first wife, has no other offspring besides a boy and a girl, whom a noble woman, formerly daughter of a noble man, the duke of Merania, lately deceased, bore him, providently considering his posterity, he has humbly asked of us that we would take care to legitimate them by the favour of Apostolic authority, vehemently affirming that, after our venerable brother W. Note: William of Champagne, archbishop of Reims, Cardinal of St. Sabina, then legate of the Apostolic See, promulgated the sentence of divorce between him and our most dear daughter I. Note: Ingeborg, illustrious queen of the Franks, although that sentence was afterwards revoked by the Apostolic See on account of the judicial order not having been observed, yet no prohibition against marrying another reached him, and on account of the proofs of affinity exhibited before the same archbishop, which the same king believed to be true, he thought there was a conjugal bond between him and the aforesaid noble woman, although he was compelled by our authority both to put her away and to receive the aforesaid queen. For the rest, as regards the succession to the kingdom of France, the legitimation had no effect, since Louis VIII, born of Philip's first wife, Isabella of Hainaut, was the father of St. Louis the king, from whom the kings of France have sprung down to this very day.

hh. Of St. Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew, king of Hungary, and of Gertrude, sister of St. Hedwig, it will be treated at the day on which she is venerated, the 19th of November. See the Life of the Saint, piously and carefully written by the count de Montalembert.

ii. That our genealogist erred here is manifest from the History of Tyrol. For although Andechs is situated in Tyrol, it does not follow that Berthold

held the whole region; yet that about these times a certain Berthold was count of Tyrol is shown by the Rotulus of Polling Oefele, Rerum Boicarum Scriptores, volume II, page 830.. But the genealogist slips more gravely when he declares our Berthold also margrave of Baden, since the Andechs do not seem to have had any territory there: I suspect that the fame of the Bertholds of Zähringen, margraves of Baden, reached our writer and gave occasion for his confusing the line of Zähringen and that of Andechs into one. For the rest, since, as the genealogist himself confesses above at number 1, he did not learn many things about the forebears of St. Hedwig's father, there is ground for excusing him if he has stumbled in the paternal titles of our Saint.

kk. Henry the Bearded, duke of Silesia, of the line of the Piasts, who still held Poland with the title of duke, was the second-born son of Boleslaw the Tall, duke of Silesia; born in the year 1168, he died in 1238 [L'Art de vérifier les dates, volume II, page 69, and volume III, page 450, Paris edition 1784.].

ll. From this text we learn that not only Boleslaw and Conrad died before their father, but also their sisters, Agnes and Sophia, whom Sommersberg, Table I, numbers 20 and 21 Scriptores Silesiaci, volume I, page 298., wrongly says were nuns, since nothing of the kind occurs among the more ancient writers; nay, their burial in the monastery of men at Leubus seems to indicate that they closed their last day in the secular state.

mm. Wadding says Annales Minorum, volume II, page 422, Roman edition 1732. that about the year 1236 the convent of the Friars Minor at Wrocław was built, and that there, by order of Anna his wife, the body of Henry II, St. Hedwig's son, was buried. But what is said in the Life of Anna, duchess of Silesia Stenzel, Scriptores, volume II, page 128., that she, after the death of her husband, built a house for the Minors, is to be understood as is reported a little below Ibid., page 132., that Duke Henry had begun to build a cloister for the Friars Minor, but, death intervening, Anna his wife completed it.

nn. The most celebrated Stenzel notes Ibid., page 111. that Hedwig married Otto, son of Otto the Tall, margrave of Brandenburg, and adduces as witness the Chronicle of Bohemia of Pulkava: whence it would become certain, what is called into doubt by some L'Art de vérifier les dates, volume III, page 517., that Otto the Tall had at least two sons, namely Hermann and Otto. The Brandenburg History written by Pauli ascribes Hedwig as wife to Otto, called With the Arrow, son of John I, while Otto the Tall was son of John III of Brandenburg. If Vigilius Greiderer in his Germania Franciscana Volume I, page 858. reports accurately, Hedwig was already a nun in the year 1301, in which case she could not have been the wife of Otto With the Arrow, who died in the year 1308. Hedwig died in the year 1339.

oo. That Anna and Elizabeth, with their widowed sister Hedwig, were nuns of St. Clare is shown by a diploma of Henry VI, duke of Wrocław, in which he gives leave to build a mill at Moslitz, in consideration, he says, of our beloved sisters, Anna the abbess, Hedwig, formerly widow of the margrave, and Elizabeth, nuns of the monastery of St. Clare at Wrocław In the place cited..

pp. Otto, duke of Carinthia, died at Innsbruck in the year 1310, leaving four daughters Frölich, Tentamen Archontologiæ Carinthiæ, table VI..

qq. The name of the fourth son is lacking, as it seems, in all the codices Stenzel, page 111, note 3..

rr. The Compilatio chronologica rerum Boicarum has the following under the year 1240 Oefele, Rerum Boicarum, volume II, page 337.: Stephen married the lady Inta, daughter of Bulco, duke of Poland (Silesia), who bore Henry and Otto, who married Richardis, countess of Jülich. Henry married Margaret, daughter of John, king of Bohemia, who bore Duke John, who died without children.

ss. Strehlen, a town on the river Ohle, or Olava, in the duchy of Brieg, had a monastery of Clarissan Virgins, now destroyed, founded by Bulco, son of Boleslaw of Silesia-Fürstenberg, in the year 1295 or 1296 Greiderer, Germania Franciscana, volume I, page 588..

tt. From the year 1287 to 1297 the abbess of Trebnitz was Euphrosyne, who calls herself the sister of Bolko of Fürstenberg, whence it is given to understand that Anna, having entered the monastery, according to custom changed her name and was called Euphrosyne Stenzel, page 111, note 6..

uu. Of Eudoxia it has already been treated above at number 22 and in Annotation w.

vv. Some manuscript codices supply this lacuna, adding that the name of the daughter of Otto the Tall and wife of Henry of Glatz was Mechtild Oefele, Rerum Boicarum, volume II, page 337..

ww. If this passage be compared with what Sommersberg has about the children of Henry III of Głogów, Table II Scriptores, volume I, page 342., it will be clear that our genealogist omitted Primco and three daughters. Which perhaps must be explained from this, that those children were not yet born at the time when the genealogist was writing. For that Primco was the son of the aforesaid Henry III is shown by a diploma in which in the year 1312 Primco himself divided the paternal inheritance with his brothers, Henry, John, Conrad and Bolko Ibid., page 869.. As regards the daughters, Agnes and Salomea, named by the genealogist, Sommersberg adds a threefold offspring: Beatrix, whom Pohl in his manuscript Annals of Wrocław says was the daughter of Henry III of Głogów and wife of the Emperor Louis the Bavarian: and a twofold Hedwig, of whom he discovers the one in the Catalogue of the abbesses of Trebnitz, the other in her sepulchral stone at Leubus Ibid., pages 353 and 354..

xx. From this passage the most celebrated Stenzel concludes Stenzel, page 112, note 2. that the genealogy of St. Hedwig was written before the beginning of the fourteenth century, since Conrad, who is here called simply provost of the cathedral church of Wrocław, in a diploma given on the 23rd of May of the year 1299 added the title of elect of the See of Aquileia, and in another diploma given on the 2nd of August following named himself patriarch of the Holy Church of Aquileia. The argument would certainly be binding if Conrad had peacefully occupied the said see: but the Church of Aquileia itself has scarcely retained a trace of such an election, since Bernardo de Rubeis, a most accurate writer on sacred Aquileia Monumenta Ecclesiæ Aquilejensis, column 801., says roundly that Conrad, elect of Aquileia, is sought in vain and found nowhere. It is certain, however, that Conrad was elected; wherefore Ughelli wrote more accurately Italia Sacra, volume V, column 96.: After the death of Raymond (della Torre, on the 21st day of February 1298), they promoted Conrad, duke of Poland, to the see, which, however, Pope Boniface VIII refusing, he did not obtain. Peter Gerra succeeded Raymond, declared patriarch of Aquileia by Pope Boniface on the 8th day of July 1299. Since, therefore, Conrad's election was void, it may be that the genealogist made no mention of it, without its being permissible to conclude strictly that the work was written before this time, namely the beginning of the fourteenth century. For the rest, Conrad died in the year 1304 Sommersberg, Scriptores, volume I, page 346..

yy. Władysław, who is also called Ladislaus, succeeded Udalric, who, Philip of Ortenburg having been deposed, had been made archbishop of Salzburg from the bishop of Seckau. But, weary of the bloody controversy in which he was involved with his rival Philip, he renounced the see of Salzburg in the year 1264. And so Pope Clement IV, by letters of the 10th day of November 1265, instituted Władysław, who, although young, died on the 28th of April 1270, carried off, as was suspected, by poison from his relatives, because he intended to transfer part of his inheritance to the Church of Salzburg Hansiz, Metropolis Salisburgensis, volume II, page 366 and following..

zz. That Agnes was abbess of Trebnitz is shown by a bull of Blessed Gregory X, given on the 2nd of January 1273, in which he commands the abbot of the canons regular of Wrocław that, a contrary constitution of the Cistercian Order notwithstanding, he take care to minister the revenues owed to Agnes, abbess of the monastery of Trebnitz Stenzel, page 113, note 1..

aaa. Euphrosca is held in the diplomas of Trebnitz as abbess from the year 1287 to 1297 Ibid., number 4..

bbb. Concerning the monastery of Ouenzko Długosz reports this Historia Polonica, book VII, volume I, column 692.: Przemysł I, duke of Greater Poland and of Poznań, intending to increase divine worship in his principalities, founds in his ducal vill of Owienska, situated near the river Warta, a monastery of nuns of the Cistercian Order, in the year 1242.

ccc. From what is said here of the descendants of St. Hedwig it would be easy to show that almost all the princely families of Europe reckon St. Hedwig among their forebears: yet, lest the enumeration run on longer than is fair, we exhibit a synoptic table, drawn from the more approved sources, which shows the blood of the dukes of Silesia transfused into most present-day princes; whence with easy labour the same could be done for others too: we have also omitted to bring down the stocks to the present-day princes, because these things are readily found in the books which treat of the Genealogies of princes. We have followed as guides those whom we have known to be most trustworthy: Sommersberg's Scriptores rerum Silesiacarum, Schwandtner's Scriptores rerum Hungaricarum, Anselme's Histoire Généalogique de la maison royale de France, the Benedictine-Maurist chronological book L'Art de vérifier les dates, etc.

THE POSTERITY OF ST. HEDWIG,

propagated down to the present-day princes of Europe