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 HEDWIG

189

HEDWIG

Utilitarians; and everywhere movements popularly designated as altruism are pointed out as monuments to the practical value of the hedonistic principle "the greatest good of the greatest number". But it must be observed that this principle may have another genesis and another part to play in ethics than those assigned to it by Hedonism. Besides, as Green has pointed out, the Utilitarians illogically annexed it, and the fruits it bore in their political activity are to be credited to it in its democratic, rather than in its hedonistic, character.

A list of authors is appended to the article on Egoism. The following also may be mentioned: Ladd, Philosophy of Con- duct (New York, 1902); Green, Prolegomena to Ethics (London, 1887), Bk. Ill; Bradley, Ethical Studies (London, 1876), Essays III and VII; Martineau, Types of Ethical Theory, II (Ix^ndon, 1886), Bk. II. j^^^^ j p^^

Hedwig, Saint, Duchess of Silesia, b. about 1174, at the castle of Andechs; d. at Trebnitz, 12 or 15 October, 1243. She was one of eight children born to Berthold IV, Count of Andechs and Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia. Of her four brothers, two be- came bishops, Ekbert of Bamberg, and Berthold of Aquileia; Otto succeeded his father as Duke of Dal- matia, and Heinrich became Margrave of Istria. Of her three sisters, Gertrude married Andrew II, King of Hungary, from which union sprang St. Elizabeth, Landgravine of Thuringia; Mcchtilde became Abbess of Kitzingen; while Agnes was made the unlawful wife of Philip II of France in 1196, on the repudiation of his lawful wife, Ingeborg, but was dismissed in 1200, Innocent III having laid France imdcr an inter- dict. Hedwig was educated at the monastery of Kitzingen, and, according to an old biography, at the age of twelve (11S6), was married to Henry I of Silesia (b. 116S), who in 1202 succeeded his father Boleslaw as Duke of Silesia. Henry's mother was a German; he himself had been educated in Germany; and now through his wife he was brought into still closer relations with CSermany. Henry I was an energetic prince, who greatly extended the boun- daries of his duchy, establishetl his authority on a firm basis, and rendered important services to civili- zation in the realm. For this purpose he encouraged to the utmost the spread of the more higlily developed civilization existing in the German territories adjoin- ing his to the west, so that Silesia became German in language and customs.

Hedwig now took a prominent part in the beneficent administration of her husband. Her prudence, forti- tude, and piety won for her great influence in the government of the land. In particular she gave her support to new monastic foundations and assisted those already in existence. It was chiefly through the monasteries that German civilization was spread in Silesia. Henry and Hedwig endowed munifi- cently the Cistercian monastery of Lcul>us, the Pre- monstratensian monastery of St. Vincent, and the foundation of the Canons of St. Augustine at Breslau. The following monasteries were established: the .\u- gustinian priory of Naumburg on the Bober (1217), later transferred to Sagan, the Cistercian monastery of Heinrichau (1227), and the priory of the .4ugustinian Canons at Kamenz (1210). St. Hedwig brought the Dominicans to Bunzlau and Breslau, the Franciscans to Goldberg (1212) and later to Krossen. The Tem- plars established a house at Klein-Ocls. Henry -was also the founder of the Hospital of the Holy Ghost at Breslau (1214), and Hedwig tended with disinterested charity the leper women in the hospital at Xeumarkt. At the instance of his saintly wife, the rluke then founded at his own expense, and on ground donated by himself the convent of the Cistercian nuns at Treb- nitz (1202), and generously endowed it. This was the first house of religious women in Silesia. The first nuns came from Bamberg and took possession of their new monastery early in 1203. The first abbess

is said to have been Petrussa, succeeded by Bl. Gertrude, a daughter of Henry and Hedwig, who at an early age had been betrothed to Otto von Wittels- bach. After he murdered the German King Philip of Swabia (1208), the betrothal was annulled and Ger- trude entered the Abbey of Trebnitz (before 1212), where she later became abbess.

For some years after her marriage, Hedwig resided chiefly at Breslau. She had seven children. A son, Boleslaw, and two daughters, Sophia and Agnes, died at an early age; Henry succeeded to his father's title; Conrad died while still a young man, in conse- quence of a fall from his horse (c. 1214) ; and Ger- trude embraced the religious life. On Christmas Day, 1208, another son of Hedwig's was baptized, probably not identical with the above-mentioned Boleslaw, who had died before this time. On the suggestion of Hedwig, after the birth of this last child, she and her husband led a virgin life (1209), and pro- nounced a vow of chastity before the Bishop of Bres- lau. Duke Henry took the tonsure and allowed his beard to grow, like the Cistercian lay brothers (whence his sobriquet of "the Bearded"). From this time forward Hedwig spent much of her time at the Abbey of Trebnitz, where, on the death of her husband (1238), she took up her permanent abode, that she might devote herself unreservedly to exercises of mortification and piety as well as to works of charity. She transferred to the abbey her inheritance of Schawoine. Hedwig had had many trials and tribula- tions. In the year 1227 her husliand, with Duke Lesko of Sandomir, was treacherously set upon by Swan- topolk, Duke of Pomerania, and severely wounded. Hedwig immediately hastened to Gonsawa, where the bloody deed had taken place, to care for her husband. Lesko had been killed, and war now broke out be- tween Henry of Silesia and Conrad of Masovia over the possession of Cracow. Conrad was defeated, but succeeded in surprising Henry in a church attending Divine service and led him captive to Plock (1229). Hedwig forthwith went to her husband's assistance, and her very appearance made such an impression on Conrad of RIasovia that he released the duke.

Of Hedwig's children, only Gertrude survived her; Duke Henry II fell at Wahlstatt (1241) in a battle against the Tatars. After her husband's death, Hedwig took the grey habit of the Cistercians, but was not received into the order as a religious, that she might retain the right to spend her revenues in chari- ties. The duchess practised severe mortification, en- dured all trials with the greatest resignation, with self-denying charity cared for the sick and supported the poor; in her interior life of prayer, she gave herself up to meditation on supernatural things. Her piety and gentleness won for her even during life the re]5U- tation of a saint. She was interred in the church attached to the monastery, and was canonized by Clement IV, 26 March, 1267, and on 25 August of the same year her remains were raised to the honours of the altar. Her feast is celebrated 17 October; she is honoured as the patroness of Silesia.

With St. Hedwig as patroness, R. Spiske, later canon at Breslau, founded, in 1848, a pious association of women and young girls, from which developed the congregation of the Sisters of St. Hedwig, established in 1859, at Breslau, under the Rule of St. Augustine, and constitutions appro'S'ed by the bishop. Their chief aim is the education of orphaned and abandoned children; they also conduct schools for little girls and trade schools. Their activity extends chiefly over Germany and Austria, but they also have a house in Denmark. The sisters number about three hundred, with mother-house at Breslau.

Acta SS., Oct.. VIII, 189-267; Stenzel, Scriptores rerum Silesiacarum, II (Breslau, 1835 — ), 1 sqq.; Semkowicz, Monu- menta Poloniec historica, IV (Lemberg, 1S,S4), 510-651: Potthast, Bibliotheca hist. med. cevii, II, 1362-63, with bibliography; Bibliotheca hagiographica latina, ed. Bolland., I, 562; Gorlich,