July 14th Saint Henry the Exuberant King & Emperor (973 – 1024)
Quick Facts:
Henry was born in 973, the oldest of a family of four children. His father was Henry the Quarrelsome, Duke of Bavaria. His mother was Gisella, daughter of Conrad, King of Burgundy.
Henry's father had rebelled against two previous emperors and spent a lot of time in exile, so as a child Henry was educated in the Christian faith by St. Wolfgang, the Bishop of Regensburg.
Henry was an intelligent and devout student and for a period of time, he was considered for the priesthood. He became well acquainted with ecclesiastical interests at an early age.
St. Wolfgang's lessons in piety and charity left a lasting mark on Henry's soul, but it was ultimately in the political realm, not the Church, that he would exercise these virtues.
When his father died in 995, Henry succeeded him as Duke of Bavaria.
Seven years later, his cousin Otto III, the Holy Roman Emperor, died in Rome. Despite strong opposition from other candidates, Henry was able to secure his own election and was crowned King of Germany.
With all his learning and piety, Henry was an eminently sober man, endowed with sound, practical common sense. This prudence was combined with energy and conscientiousness.
Throughout his reign he sought to strengthen the German monarchy and to help reform and reorganize the Church. He used his influence with the Church to expand his own political power, but he was also responsible for establishing the Holy Roman Empire, along with its Christian civilization, across most of Europe at the time.
As king, Henry encouraged the German bishops to reform the practices of the Church in accordance with Canon Law.
He built a cathedral, established monasteries, arranged for the care of the poor, and supported religious reforms.
Henry was a great patron of the churches and monasteries, donating much of his wealth to them and making contributions for the relief of the poor.
Even sick and suffering from a fever, he traversed the empire in order to maintain peace. At all times he used his powers to fix problems.
He formed an alliance with St. Stephen, the first King of Hungary and his brother-in-law (he had married Henry's sister, Giselle).
He was married to another saint, St. Cunigunde of Luxembourg. Tradition accounts that the couple took vows of virginity and never consummated their marriage. He died without an heir in 1024, and was the last ruler of the Ottonian line. Henry died without an heir He died without an heir.
Henry was particularly active in promoting Benedictine monasticism following a miraculous cure from illness at the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino. He became an oblate of the Benedictine Order and today is venerated within the Order as the patron saint of all oblates.
Biography from the Breviary:
"Henry, surnamed the pious, Duke of Bavaria, became successfully king of Germany and emperor of the Romans; but not satisfied with a mere temporal principality, he strove to gain an immortal crown, by paying zealous service to the eternal king. As Emperor, he devoted himself earnestly to spreading religion, and rebuilt with great magnificence the churches which had been destroyed by the infidels, endowing them generously both with money and lands. He built monasteries and other pious establishments, and increased the income of others; the bishopric of Bamberg, which he had founded out of his family possessions, he made tributary to St Peter and the Roman Pontiff. When Benedict the VIII, who had crowned him emperor, was obliged to seek safety in flight, Henry received him and restored him to his see.
Once when he was suffering from a severe illness in the monastery of Monte Casino, St Benedict cured him by a wonderful miracle. He endowed the Roman church with a most copious grant, undertook in her defense a war against the Greeks, and gained possession of Apulia, which they had held for some time. It was his custom to undertake nothing without prayer, and at times he saw the angel of the Lord, or the holy martyrs, his patrons, fighting for him at the head of his army. Aided thus by the Divine Protection, he overcame barbarous nations more by prayer than by arms.
Hungary was still pagan; but Henry having given his sister in marriage to its King Stephen, the latter was baptized and thus the whole nation was brought to the faith of Christ. He set the rare example of preserving virginity in the married state, and at his death restored his wife, St Cunigund, a virgin to her family.
He arranged everything relating to the glory or advantage of his empire with the greatest prudence, and left scattered throughout Gaul, Italy, and Germany, traces of his munificence towards religion. The sweet odor of his heroic virtue spread far and wide, till he was more celebrated for his holiness than for his imperial dignity. At length, his life's work was accomplished, and he was called by our Lord to the rewards of the Heavenly Kingdom in the year of salvation 1024. His body was buried in the Church of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul at Bamberg. God wished to glorify His servant and many miracles were worked at His tomb. These being afterwards proved and certified, Eugenius III inscribed his name upon the catalog of the saints."
Commentary from Dom Prosper Gueranger:
"Let Earth and Heaven this day unite in celebrating the man who carried out to the full the designs of eternal wisdom. In his single person he discovered all the heroism and sanctity of the illustrious race, whose chief glory it is to have been for a century a worthy preparation for so great a man. Great before men, who knew not whether to admire more his bravery or the energetic activity which made him seem to be everywhere at once throughout his vast empire, he was ever successful, putting down internal revolts, conquering the sloves in the northern frontier, chastising the insolence of the Greeks in southern Italy, assisting Hungary to rise from barbarism to Christianity, concluding with Robert the pious a lasting peace between the empire and the eldest daughter of the tips. But the virgin spouse of the virgin Cunigund was greater still before God who never had a more faithful lieutenant upon Earth. God in His Christ was in Henry's eyes the only king; the interest of Christ and the Church, the one principle of his administration; the most perfect service of the Man-God, his highest ambition. He understood how the truest nobility was hidden in the cloister, where chosen souls, fleeing from the universal degradation, were averting the ruin and obtaining the salvation of the world. It was this thought that led him, on the Morrow of his imperial coronation, to confide to the famous abbey of Clooney the Golden Globe representing the world, which he, as soldier of the vicar of Christ, was commissioned to defend. It was with the desire of imitating those noble souls that he threw himself at the feet of the abbot of St Vaughn's at Verdun, begging admission into his community, and then, constrained by obedience, returned with a heavy heart to resume the burden of government."
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