Saints
St. Adelaide – A Holy Roman Empress
St. Adelaide is one of the most inspiring saints for the modern woman and intercessor for those who are victims and suffering the pain of abuse. Saint Adelaide is the patron saint of abuse victims. Her feast day is celebrated on December 16th. St. Adelaide, patron saint of abuse victims, pray for us!
Throughout her difficult life she exhibited steadfast courage in her faith, was a caring ruler who was loved by her people, and strong woman of great honor in the face of abuse. She is a role model of how to bear life’s challenges with unwavering faith and how to be a strong religious woman even to this day.
Before Saint Adelaide was nineteen years old, she had been a princess, a queen, a wife, a mother, and a widow. When she was nineteen she was made a prisoner and was kept in what was practically solitary confinement. These first nineteen years were to be typical of Adelaide’s life. At times she had great prestige and power and at times she knew great adversity. From a material point of view her life was a series of ups and downs.
St. Adelaide Was An Honorable Princess
Adelaide’s father was King Ralph II of Burgundy, in what is now France, so Adelaide was born a princess. Royalty always married royalty, so when Adelaide was sixteen years old she married King Lothaire of Lombardy, in northern Italy. The marriage was blessed with one child, a daughter named Emma.
Lothaire was king in name only. The real power was held by Berengarius, the Marquis of Ivrea, who longed to have the title as well as the power of the king.
Lothaire died three years after his marriage, and there was a strong suspicion that he had been poisoned by Berengarius, who now succeeded him. Berengarius tried to arrange a marriage between his son and the widowed Adelaide, but she refused even to consider the idea. He then had her imprisoned in a castle on Lake Garda. That is why we find her a prisoner at the age of nineteen after having been a princess, a queen, a wife, a mother, and a widow.
Adelaide had many devoted friends. One of her friends dug a tunnel to the section of the castle where she was held, and by this means she escaped imprisonment. For a time she hid in the forest. Then the Duke of Canossa took her to the relative safety of his castle.
Liberating Her People
The nobles of Italy wished to be free from the unjust rule of Berengarius. They joined Pope Agapetus II in inviting Otte German king, to invade Italy and to re-establish justice. Otto went to Canossa where he met the popular ex-queen of the land he had been asked to liberate. The young widow and the considerably older Otto were married on Christmas Day, 951.
The marriage made conquest of Lombardy an easy matter, for the people loved Adelaide After gaining control of Lombardy, Otto generously offered to restore Berengarius to the throne provided he would promise to rule justly and hold all his lands as a fief, or dependency, from Otto Berengarius readily promised, and just as readily broke the promise, Pope John XII begged Otto to take the situation in hand once more Otto sent his son to take control of Lombardy. His son died before the work was completed, so Otto took personal charge of the campaign. Berengarius was taken prisoner and sent to Germany, where he died.
Adelaide’s marriage to Otto lasted twenty-one years, till the latter’s death in 973. The couple had five children. Adelaide was as popular among the German people as she had been among the Italians of Lombardy.
Empress of the Holy Roman Empire
Otto was really more of an emperor than a king, because he ruled a vast part of Europe and had kings who were subject to him. In 962, the Pope recognized both Otto’s great power and his devotion to the Church by crowning him emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. This meant that Adelaide was now the empress. No other woman in the Western world held such a lofty position. She was thirty-one years old.
Whatever Adelaide had of riches or power she used in the services of God. Her generosity to the poor was so great that some people thought it excessive. She and her husband supported many missionaries both inside and outside their realm. They established monasteries which became great centers of Christian learning. They we’re especially zealous in trying to convert the Slavs in the north ere eastern section of the empire.
Adelaide became a widow for the second time when she was forty-two. Her nineteen year old son became Otto II. He ruled well as long as he kept his mother as a counselor. After the death of his first wife he married a Grecian princess named Theophana.
The new queen induced Otto to banish his mother from the court. Instead grieving over her misfortune Adelaide made use of her extra time by saying more prayers and performing more exercises which brought closer to God. She offered many prayers and sacrifices for her ring son. After a time, Otto came to his mother and begged forgiveness.
A Deep Love For Prayer in the Face of Life’s Torments
Adelaide returned to court and under her wise counsels Otto reformed many abuses in his government. Otto II died after a reign of only nine years. His son, Otto III, was only three years old, and so Theophany became regent. Theophana had burned with resentment ever since Adelaide returned to court, and now she had her opportunity for revenge. She went out of her way to heap dishonor upon Adelaide and to make life uncomfortable for her. Adelaide suffered the ill-treatment and neglect with patience, and she prayed for Theophany.
Theophana died suddenly and Adelaide became regent for her grandson. This was more power than she had ever held in her life. When she had been queen and empress earlier her two husbands held the actual power. Now the power of the vast empire was in her hands. She did not welcome this. She was advancing in years, and the power was a burden. Honor and position meant nothing to her.
Nevertheless, she applied herself with assiduous care to the affairs of government. She showed no ill-will toward those courtiers who, in Theophana’s time, had treated her with contempt and caused her so much suffering. Although obliged to give much time and attention to public affairs, Adelaide did not neglect her spiritual life. At regular intervals she retired to her oratory to seek light from heaven.
Whenever she saw an injustice for which she could find no remedy, she did penance for the wrongdoer and begged God to set him right.
The last effort of Adelaide’s life was an act of charity. When h was sixty-eight years old she undertook a difficult journey to Burgundy, the home of her childhood. Her purpose was to bring about a reconciliation between King Ralph, her nephew, and his rebellious subjects. She died on the way, at Salces in Alsace, on December 16, 999.
St. Adelaide was a worthy mother, a devoted wife, a charitable and beloved queen, a zealous empress, and a just and able regent.
If you enjoyed learning about Saint Adelaide, Patron Saint of Abuse Victims, you may also enjoy learning more about St. Joan of Arc Patron Saint of Military Service.