Louisa was born into the highest circle of nobility. Her father was the duke of Savoy, while on her mother’s side her uncle was the king of France. A pious child, she dreamed of entering religious life. But this way hardly an acceptable vocation for a child of her station. Instead, when she was seventeen, her uncle arranged her marriage to a young nobleman. Though they would have no children, the marriage proved a happy one. Her husband accepted her religious devotion, which she combined with an active role in court life. Together they set a high moral standard, requiring that anyone who cursed in their presence make a contribution to the poor. Meanwhile, Louisa engaged in a range of charitable activities, from care of widows and orphans to nursing the sick and even victims of the plague.
When she was twenty-seven, her husband died. After a period of mourning, she made preparations to leaved her privileged world – putting on the habit of a Franciscan tertiary and distributing her fortune. After two years she entered a convent of Poor Clares in Orbe. There she spent the rest of her life in prayer and poverty, eventually rising to the office of abbess. She died on July 24, 1503 and was beatified in 1839.
St. Kunigunde (or Kinga) was the daughter of the king of Hungary and a niece of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. At the age of sixteen, she was married to King Boleslaus V of Poland. She waited until the night of their wedding, according to legend, to reveal that she had vowed herself to God and to a life of celibacy. Fortunately, her husband agreed to honor her wishes, thus earning the title Boleslaus the Chaste.
It was a happy marriage for the next forty years. Kunigunde wore a hair shirt and practiced other forms of mortification. From her personal fortune she endowed many churches, hospitals, and monasteries, and when her husband died, she retired from court and became a Poor Clare in a convent she had established. There she refused any acknowledgment of her former status, and devoted herself to prayer. In time, she became prioress. During an invasion of Tartars, the nuns were forced to flee. When the castle in which they found refuge was besieged, Kunigunde’s prayers were credited with the invaders’ withdrawal. She died on July 24, 1292. In 1999, she was canonized by Pope John Paul II.
A famous Polish legend credits St. Kunigunde with the discovery of a great salt mine in Poland. An underground chapel built in this mine, “St. Kinga’s Chapel”, is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.
Julia Frances Catherine Postel was born in a small French town near Cherbourg. After studying in a Benedictine convent, she returned home to teach school, though privately she dedicated herself to God’s service. Her calling became clear, with the onset of the Revolution, when her parish priest was forced to go underground. Postel pus herself at his service, setting up a secret chapel in her home, where clandestine services could be conducted. She herself undertook religious duties, such as carrying consecrated Hosts to administer to the dying. Thus, as Pope Pius X later commented, she served as a veritable “maiden priest.”
As the persecution receded, Postel devoted herself to repairing the local church, offering religious instruction, organizing prayer guilds, and performing works of mercy. In 1807, she determined that what she really wanted to do was to teach children, and for this she should organize a religious congregation. She joined with three companions in taking religious vows. Observing the rule of the Third Orde of St. Francis, they called themselves the Poor Daughters of Mercy. She became Mother Mary-Magdalen.
Thirty years later, their motherhouse was transferred from Cherbourg to a former Benedictine abbey in Courtance. Their new bishop urged them to replace their former rule with that of St. John Baptist de la Salle, and they changed their name to the Sisters of the Christian Schools of Mercy. After the order struggled for some years of dire poverty, the bishop urged them to disband. But Mother Mary-Magdalen persisted, and eventually their fortunes turned.
She died on July 16, 1846 at the age of eighty-nine. She was canonized in 1925.
