Saint of the day: Saint Agnes of Bohemia

Saint of the day, Saint Agnes of Bohemia: Agnes had no children of her own, but she was certainly life-giving for all who knew her. Agnes was the daughter of Queen Constance and King Ottokar I of Bohemia. She was betrothed to the Duke of Silesia, who died three years later. Growing up, he decided he wanted to enter religious life.

After refusing marriages to King Henry VII of Germany and King Henry III of England, Agnes was faced with a proposal from Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor. He asked Pope Gregory IX for help. The pope was persuasive; Frederick said magnanimously that he could not be offended if Agnes preferred the King of Heaven to him.

After building a hospital for the poor and a residence for the friars, Agnes financed the construction of a monastery of Poor Clares in Prague. In 1236, she and seven other noblewomen entered this monastery. Santa Chiara sent five nuns from San Damiano to join them and wrote four letters to Agnese advising her on the beauty of her vocation and her duties as abbess.

Agnes became known for prayer, obedience and mortification. Papal pressure forced her to accept her election as abbess, however her preferred title was "older sister". Her position did not prevent her from cooking for the other sisters and mending the clothes of the lepers. The nuns found her kind but very strict about the observance of poverty; he refused the royal brother's offer to set up an endowment for the monastery. Devotion to Agnes arose immediately after her death, on 6 March 1282. She was canonized in 1989. Her liturgical feast is celebrated on 6 March.

Saint of the day, Saint Agnes of Bohemia: reflection

Agnes spent at least 45 years in a monastery of Poor Clares. Such a life requires a lot of patience and charity. The temptation of selfishness certainly did not go away when Agnes entered the monastery. Perhaps it is easy for us to think that the cloistered nuns "made it" with regard to holiness. Their path is the same as ours: gradual exchange of our norms - selfish inclinations - for God's norms of generosity.