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Rh she made little delicacies, and sent them to the sick in other convents; she cleaned and mended the clothes of the lepers. Having no endowment, and living on alms, the community once ran short of food, and were threatened with starva- tion; but a basket of bread and fish suddenly appeared by Agnes's side, and was supposed to have been brought by angels.

St. Clara heard with great joy of Agnes's progress in holiness, and wrote to encourage her. She sent her the Franciscan rule, drawn up by Innocent IV. (1243-1254), and some little pre- sents, such as her own drinking-cup, plate, veil, and girdle, which, with some of her letters, are still shown in the convent of St. Damian at Prague.

In 1235 Pope Gregory IX., writing to Beatrice, queen of Castile, exhorts her to walk in the footsteps of the blessed of Hungary, and holds up for her admiration Agnes, sister of the king of Bohemia. Two years afterwards Gregory ordered that, on account of the rigorous climate of Bohemia, the nuns should not be subjected to the extreme privations practised by their sisters in Italy. For instance, on Sundays and Thursdays they were to have two abun- dant meals, of which eggs and milk were to form part; on the great festivals, i.e. Christmas. Easter, the feasts of the and the Apostles, they were not to fast at all. They were to wear two garments and to use fur mantles, to wear shoes, and to fill their pillows and bed-sacks with hay and straw. In 1243 Agnes procured further mitigations of the asceticism of the rule, on account of its unsuitability to the severe climate of her country. She did not spare herself, but she saw that it was impossible the rule should continue to exist in Bohemia without some modi- fication.

Wenzel wrote and thanked the Pope for his kindness to his sister. This letter was read at the General Council of Lyons, 1245, and is to be seen in the Regestu Bohemie et Moravia, pars i. Op. Carol Erben., 1855. Wenzel had the greatest veneration for his sister, and ho and all Bohemin thanked her when she effected a reconciliation between him and his son, Premysl Ottokar II., who had rebelled against him. Wenzel died in 1253, and was buried in the church of his sister's convent. Agnes lived nearly thirty years longer: she died in 1282, having been a nun for forty-seven years. Just before her death, when she had received the last sacraments, Katherine, one of her nuns, who had a weakness in her feet, and had not been able to stand for ten years, entreated her com- panions to bring her into the presence of the dying abbess, which they did, although Katherine was suffering great pain. She then besought Agnes to cure her infirmity. Agnes, in her humility, did not believe that she had the grace of miracles; but Katherine took her hand, and with it made the sign of the cross over her feet, and therewith was sud- denly healed. Her body retained the flexibility, and her face the colour, of life; and many miracles were wrought, one in favour of her sister-in-law, Queen Judith, so that many sick persons com- mended themselves to the prayers of the departed saint, and wore her relics. Though never canonized, she has always been regarded in her own country as a saint, and as one of the patrons of Bohemia. She is considered the founder of the Franciscans in Bohemia, as well as of the Clarissans. She founded, with her brother the king, the monastery and hospital of the Holy Spirit, near the bridge at Prague, and gave it to the Crucifers of the Red Star, to be the residence of the master of the order in that province. She also built the con- vents of Tissnowa and Woslowana, in Moravia, and that of St. Francis at Prague. She saw people's thoughts, and knew events which were happening at a distance. When her nephew, Premysl Ottokar II., was killed in the battle of Laa, Aug. 26, 1278, at the moment when he fell dead, she had a mental picture of the occurrence, and besought her sister nuns to pray with her for his soul. AA.SS. Boll., March 6. Chanowski, Bohemia pia. Wadding. Palacky, Geschicht von Böhmen. Johann Nep. Jentsch, Die Selige Agnes von Böhmen. Miræns, De Rebus Bohemicis. Cahier.