The Life of St Jadwiga

Duchess not only a Bavarian
At the age of 12 years, Jadwiga was married to Wrocław duke Henry I the Bearded (1165/1170–1238), son of Bolesław I the Tall, who, in turn, together with Jadwiga’s father Berthold had fought to pacify the rebellion in Milan. The close ties of the Polish family of the reigning Piast dynasty with the House of Diessen-Andechs was much more, so the marriage opened new diplomatic possibilities in central and eastern Europe. Of this marriage the author of the biography writes: „by concluding a marriage she fulfilled the will of her parents more than her will.” This was more so given that previously Jadwiga had been lined up to become the wife of Toljen Tohu, the ruler of western Serbia.
According to researchers into the life of St Jadwiga, her planned marriage was of obvious political significance, because it was associated with a contract concerning the transit of the troops of Frederick Barbarossa through the Balkans on the way to the Holy Land. The choice of Henry the Bearded as husband to Jadwiga could also bring many benefits to the German Empire in the form of a faithful ally and a liaison in diplomatic relations with the Czechs and Hungarians against the Welfs, who were threatening the imperial crown in Germany.
According to the Life of St Jadwiga, the princely couple’s wedding took place around 1186–1190, when Jadwiga was 12 years old. However, it is difficult to establish the geographical location of the wedding, and it is assumed to have been in one of the family seats: Andechs or Wrocław. Seven children were born of Jadwiga’s marriage to Henry the Bearded. Most of them died at a young age, and only Henry II the Pious (1196/1207–1241) and Gertruda, the later abbess of the Cistercian Abbey in Trzebnica (c. 1200–1268), reached adulthood. Jadwiga, being the wife of a Polish prince, had no authority to exercise independent government.

One of the most important tasks for Jadwiga was the foundation of a hospital for women suffering from leprosy in Środa Śląsk, near Wrocław in 1230. Her hagiographer writes: „special care was paid to lepers, for the love of Him who wanted to be a leper for us.” Jadwiga was also instrumental in the creation of an inn for travelling clerics in Wrocław, whose task was to serve these people with due dignity, and to provide them with all they needed for the duration of their stay and for their further journey.
For all her life in Silesia, Jadwiga sought tirelessly and to the best of her ability to provide all forms of relief to her subjects. This became her special concern and personal calling when, in 1209, she entered into an undying marriage of chastity with her spouse. Jadwiga, raised in the spirit of St Benedict, was aware of the importance of the depth of religious life, and therefore all the charitable activities which she pursued were related to the provision of spiritual assistance: „Hence, by herself or by her chaplain, she instructed the simple people who came to her court, namely what concerns the sacrament of penance, prayer, in general about everything that concerned the salvation of the soul.”
After the death of her husband and the independence of her son Henry the Pious, the duchess went to live in the Trzebnicki monastery, where her daughter Gertruda was the abbess.
She survived many personal tragedies in her life: the deaths of her children, her husband, her sisters, the destruction of her family, the Tatar invasion of Silesia, but her faith and full devotion to God were never shaken, and because of her love for Him, neither did her commitment to serve the inhabitants of the Silesian lands. On her death on 14 October 1243 she was considered a saint. Jadwiga’s canonisation took place on 26 March 1267 in Viterbo.