Sts. Henry II and Cunegunda are our holy role-models for March. Most of the saintly the couples I have found are either fairly recent or from biblical times, but Henry II and Cunegunda represent the period in between. They are also notable for being not only saints but royalty!

Henry II was born in 972 to Henry, Duke of Bavaria, and Gisela of Burgundy.  They were descended from the Ottonian line, but there was some bad blood in the family, and it was assumed that Henry would never take the throne.  He was therefore educated to be a cleric, like his brother, Bruno, who became bishop of Augsburg.  Henry had connections to many other holy people, too.  He was educated by St. Wolfgang, and he was miraculously cured of an illness at some point in his adult life by St. Benedict, to whose spirituality he became particularly attached.  Additionally, the famous King St. Stephen of Hungary was Henry’s brother-in-law.

Around the year 1000, Henry II married a seventh-generation descendant of Charlemagne.  I will call her Cunegunda here, but you might find her name spelled a thousand other ways, including Kunegunda, Cunegund, and Cunegundes.  Henry gave his bride a magnificent wedding gift: the Castle of Bamberg.  Right away, Cunegunda convinced her husband to add a church to the site of the castle, which is a great example of her character.  This church would become the Cathedral seat of the new Bamberg diocese, which the couple also founded.  

Henry II had not expected to rule more than the Duchy of Bavaria, which he inherited from his father in 995, but through a series of timely deaths and consolidation of power, he became King of Germany in 1002 and King of Italy in 1004.  10 years later, he and Cunegunda were crowned Holy Roman Emperor and Empress, receiving the Imperial Crown from the hands of the pope.  Despite his lack of training, Henry II proved a strong monarch.  He helped incorporate Bohemia into the Empire, he centralized authority, and he promoted peace and happiness throughout his reign.

Henry didn’t do it all alone, though.  Cunegunda was his closest advisor, attending council meetings and travelling with him wherever he went.  During their 25 years of marriage, she was his consors regni (“partner in the rule”).  On the couple’s tomb, both are depicted with lions at their feet to represent courage and strength, though this was usually reserved just for men.  Cunegunda also appears the same size as her husband on the cover of a book they commissioned, which shows their equality.  While Henry is shown holding an orb and scepter to symbolize his power, Cunegunda’s hands also emphasize her important role in the partnership as she points directly at an image of Christ.  

Indeed, it was largely due to his wife’s influence that Henry gave so much land to the Church, starting with the Cathedral I mentioned.  Cunegunda also had a Benedictine monastery built to thank God for healing her from a grave illness, and she herself would serve her widowed years there as a nun.  Other contributions to the Church include helping to re-establish the diocese of Merseburg and its missionary outreach to the Slavs, stressing monastic reform (especially preserving clerical celibacy, which ensured that land endowments to the Church would not be passed to heirs), and plenty of financial support.  

Of course, Henry and Cunegunda also showed remarkable personal piety.  They had both been attracted to monastic life before marriage, and Henry actually lived as a Benedictine Oblate during their marriage.  Because the marriage was childless, there is some question as to whether it was a Josephite or “white marriage” wherein the spouses renounce sexual relations and live as brother and sister.  Given their piety, it doesn’t seem impossible that they could’ve made an agreement not to consummate their marriage.  But if this was not the case, it is surprising that Henry did not divorce his wife and remarry so that he might produce an heir.  This was allowed by German ecclesial tradition at the time, but Henry, who bowed first and foremost to the laws of the Roman Church, remained with Cunegunda and “made Christ the substitute heir (Holböck):” he gave virtually all he had to the poor before his death in 1024.

On the first anniversary of her husband’s death, Cunegunda traded her mourning clothes for the habit of a nun.  She retired to the Benedictine community she had helped found, the Kaufungen Abbey in Hesse, Germany.  There, Cunegunda “behaved as the lowest of the house (St. Cunegundes),” as though she was never an empress.  She spent her time praying, reading and visiting the sick, until she passed away in 1040.  She was buried in Bamberg Cathedral beside her husband of 25 years.

St. Henry II was canonized around 1146.  He is the only German ruler from the medieval period to be honored as a Saint!  In 1200, Cunegunda was also canonized.  In compiling her biography for the cause, several accounts of miracles were attributed to Cunegunda.  First, she was apparently accused of infidelity at some point, and forced to walk across hot irons to determine God’s judgment.  She was completely unharmed, showing her innocence; an iron (or ploughshare) is today the Saint’s distinguishing attribute in church images.  Second, she was said to have extinguished a fire that had engulfed her bed in the middle of the night by making the sign of the cross over the flames.  The final miracle involves slapping her own niece across the face!  When she needed to appoint a superior for the convent she had founded, Cunegunda chose her dear niece Judith, but Judith proved to be frivolous and too attached to worldly pleasures.  When discussion failed, Cunegunda hit Judith, and the mark of the empress’ fingers never left the girl’s face.  Not only was Judith converted, but the entire community of nuns was inspired to grow in virtue.

Originally, Cunegunda’s feast day was celebrated on the anniversary of her death, March 3.  However, it was later moved to her husband’s feast day on July 13, “in order to emphasize that what God has joined in marriage should not be separated, even in liturgy (Holböck).”  This couple walked the path of their vocation to holiness together as few others did, particularly medieval rulers.

References:

Holböck, Ferdinand. Married Saints and Blesseds Through the Centuries. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Ignatius, 2002, p. 133-8.

Hume, Cardinal Basil, OSB, ed. Butler’s Lives of the Saints: Concise Edition. 4th ed. San Francisco: Harper and Row Publishers, 1985, p. 65-6, p. 213-4

“St. Cunegundes.” Catholic Online. Last modified , 2020. https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=217.

“St. Henry II.” Catholic Online. Last modified , 2020. https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3719.