Saint of the day October 16: St. Eduviges. Catholic sanctuary

Every October 16, the Church celebrates Saint Hedwig of Andechs (1174-1243), royal consort and mother of a family who, together with her husband, Henry I the Bearded, Duke of Poland, collaborated in the spread of Christianity in the territories. Europeans that today are part of Germany and Poland.

Hedwig (also, Hedwig) promoted the construction of monasteries and promoted the strengthening of religious orders. Upon the death of her husband, she took the habit and began a life in the monastery, from which she continued her service to the poor and sick.

A royal family at the service of God and the suffering

Hedwig was born in Andechs, Bavaria (Germany) in 1174. Daughter of Berthold IV, Duke of Tyrol, Carinthia and Istria, she married the 18-year-old Duke Henry of Silesia at the age of twelve, heir to her father’s dukedom (Henry I, the Bearded One). The couple were blessed with seven children.

Enrique began the construction of the Holy Cross hospice in Breslau, while Hedwig did the same with the Neumarkt leper colony, where he personally cared for those who suffered from this cruel disease.

Duchess of Greater Poland

The saint practiced charity with a contrite spirit: she used to go to church barefoot, regardless of whether it was winter and snow was falling, or whether it was summer. It is said that in order not to show off his penance, he carried the shoes in his hands and put them on immediately if he saw someone approaching along the way.

In silence, Ediviges formed a penitent heart, increasingly closer to that of Jesus, discreet and humble. How much the saints know how important penance is for their own and others’ salvation! The Grand Duchess of Poland gave proof of this.

Upon the death of her husband, Henry, immense sorrow took hold of the town, even the nuns of the duchy fell prey to doom. Hedwig, then, comforted the national cry by shouting: “Why do you complain about the will of God? Our lives are in His hands, and everything He does is well done, whether it is our own death or the death of loved ones.”

At the Virgin’s side forever: the monastery

At the same time, and with her children already mature, Eduviges asked to enter religious life. She would be accepted into the monastery of Trebnitz (Trzebnica), the work of her former husband. However, the duchess would not take regular vows, with the purpose of continuing to manage her assets and dispose of them in favor of the neediest in Silesia.

God granted Saint Hedwig the gift of performing miracles and prophesying. However, she attributed any favor coming from heaven to the intercession of the Mother of God. And Eduviges was a woman who intensely loved Mary Most Holy and from whom she never wanted to be separated. As an expression of that devotion, he always carried a small image of the Virgin with him, which he usually clenched with a closed fist when he begged her intercession.

Clinging to the Mother of God

Tradition says that Eduviges never wanted to deviate from the image of Mary, and even less so in the final hour. He would give his soul to God by squeezing a statuette of the Virgin with all his strength. When they wanted to prepare his body for the funeral, an attempt was made to free the image from his hands, but it was impossible, so it was decided that it would be buried with it.

Years later, when her remains were exhumed to be transferred to Bavaria, the small image of Mary was still attached to one of Hedwig’s fists. The fingers of the hand that held Mary were found incorrupt.

Saint Hedwig and the Pontificate of Saint John Paul II

After being elected Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church, on October 16, 1978, Saint John Paul II gave special thanks to Saint Hedwig, whose feast day was celebrated that day, and who in Poland, the homeland of the Pilgrim Pope, always awakens the popular gathering.

Only a few months later, on June 5, 1979, at the Mass he presided at in the sanctuary of Jasna Góra, in Trzebnica, Wrocław, the Polish Pope explained why he constantly had Saint Hedwig in mind: “… I do it for one concrete reason. Divine Providence, in its inscrutable designs, chose October 16, 1978 as the day of the definitive change in my life”, that is, his first day as Pope.

The name of Hedwig appears mentioned in the Apostolic Letter The Dignity of Woman (On The Dignity and Vocation of Women) by Pope Saint John Paul II, published on the occasion of the Marian Year of 1988.