St. Hedwig of Silesia
Feast Day: October 16
A laywoman from Bavaria, in southern Germany, Hedwig married the duke of Silesia, in southern Poland.
Henry I encouraged his wife’s numerous charitable activities, one of which was founding an abbey of Cistercian nuns at Trzebnica.
The couple vowed to live chastely after their seventh child was born in 1209.
When Henry died in 1238, Hedwig moved to the abbey, where her daughter Gertrude was abbess, but without becoming a nun.
She used her fortune to aid the poor and suffering nearby, and is remembered for increasing German influence in Silesia.
