(C.D. Stampley Enterprises, Charlotte, NC 2001). Used with permission.

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For those with disappointing children

St. Matilda (c.895-968)

Feast day: March 14

Parents who are bewildered by the actions of their own children will find in St. Matilda a patron who empathizes with their sorrow and confusion. Her own sons publicly humiliated Matilda, deprived her of her independence, and even tried to kill one another

Matilda's earliest biographers made a point of recording that she was descended from Widukind, the savage chief of the pagan Saxons and Charlemagne's most determined enemy, who had surprised friends and foes alike by suddenly asking to be baptized. Throughout Matilda's life, Saxony remained the frontier of the Christian world. To the north the Viking pirates invoked Odin and Thor as they set out to plunder the monasteries and Christian towns of Europe. To the east, the people of Hungary, Poland, and Lithuania still worshipped their grim forest gods. Even in Germany paganism had not entirely given way to Christianity.

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Into this dark, rough, and bloody world Matilda was born in 895. Her father was Dietrich, duke of Westphalia. Her mother was Reinhild, a member of the royal family of Denmark.

When Matilda was still a little girl her parents sent her to the convent at Erfurt where her paternal grandmother, Maud, was Abbess. In the quiet, orderly, prayerful life of the Benedictine cloister Matilda felt safe. In every crisis of her adult life, she would retreat to a convent.

In 909 Matilda married Henry the Fowler, heir to the duchy of Saxony. (Her young husband had acquired his nickname because of his passion for hunting birds). The wedding was at Walhausen, and Henry gave the land and its income to Matilda as her dowry. Three years later Matilda's father-in-law died and Henry became duke. Seven years after that the nobles and bishops of Germany elected Henry king. The election gave Henry and Matilda power, wealth, and the opportunity to found a royal dynasty. But the crown also brought Henry a world of trouble. Germany's borders were under constant assault from the Hungarians, the Danes, and the Bavarians. Until his death, Henry's reign would be an endless series of wars.

At home, however, Henry and Matilda knew no strife. They loved and respected each other. Matilda had always been charitable; as queen of Germany she could be more generous than ever before. Her favorite charities were churches, monasteries and convents, but she also gave abundantly to the poor. Matilda's kindness even extended to criminals and prisoners from her husband's wars. If she could not persuade Henry to release them then she comforted them in the cells with food, light, and warm clothes. Henry never tried to limit Matilda's acts of charity. Rather, he attributed his victories to his wife's prayers and good works.

Matilda and Henry had five children: Otto, who would become emperor; Gerberga, who married Louis IV, king of France; Hedwig, who married Hugh, founder of France's Capet dynasty; Henry, the future Duke of Bavaria and Matilda's favorite; and Bruno, who became the Archbishop of Cologne and was canonized after his death.

In 936 Henry became ill and died. While the royal household was lamenting the death of the king, Matilda went to the castle chapel and called for a priest to say Mass for her husband's soul. As the priest stood at the altar, Matilda cut the jewels off her gown. After Mass she handed all the precious stones to the priest as a token that from that day forward she renounced her rank and privileges and intended to follow a life dedicated to prayer and works of charity. In his will, Henry left his wife large resources from which to drawÑhis estates and possessions in Quedlinburg, Poehlden, Nordhausen, Grona, and Duderstadt. Combined with her dowry and her inheritance from her father, Henry's legacy made Matilda a very wealthy woman.

With the death of her husband, Matilda's troubles began. Some of them she brought on herself by her favoritism. In 937, when the nobles and bishops of Germany assembled to elect a new king, Matilda lobbied for Henry. She argued that although Otto was the first-born, young Henry was the first son born to Henry the Fowler after he had been named king of Germany. Matilda's argument was flimsy, yet a handful of nobles indulged their queen and voted for her favorite. Nonetheless, the overwhelming majority of the lords of the realm chose Otto.

Matilda was embarrassed to have her partiality publicly exposed and rejected. Henry, on the other hand, was angry and jealous. He allied himself with Louis IV, his brother-in-law, and led an army against his brother. Otto had no trouble defeating the rebels. Afterwards he compelled Henry to swear allegiance to him.

Now a strange thing happened. The two brothers forgot their quarrels for a moment and joined forces against their mother. They accused Matilda of being irresponsible with her resources. To keep her from squandering any more of the treasure of the kingdom on religious houses and the poor, Otto and Henry confiscated everything Matilda had inherited from her late husband.

To blunt the pain of being spied on and persecuted by her own children, Matilda indulged in a little irony, saying how good it was to see her boys working in harmony at last. Then Matilda left the court and went back home to Westphalia to live at the Engern convent.

Matilda was not in exile long. Edith, Otto's wife, interceded for her mother-in-law until the king agreed to bring his mother back to court. As a sign of respect, Otto sent a large embassy of bishops and nobles to serve as his mother's escort. When she arrived, Otto begged Matilda to pardon him and returned all her wealth and property. Like a loving mother, Matilda forgave her son, and then took up again the lavish works of charity which Otto found so irritating.

Henry was still making trouble, so Matilda went to Otto with a request. "Make your brother a ruler in his own right," she said. "Grant him the title of Duke of Bavaria." She hoped that once he had lands of his own to rule, Henry would give up trying to steal the crown from his big brother. Whether to humor his mother or to pacify his brother, Otto agreed.

And for twelve years Henry was quiet. Then in 953, Henry hatched a plot with Otto's son Ludolf, Otto's son-in-law Conrad, and Frederick, Archbishop of Mainz, to assassinate Otto. This, the most ambitious and most wicked of all Henry's schemes, was no more successful than the others. Otto survived the conspiracy unharmed. Incredibly, he did avenge himself against his brother.

In 955 Matilda sent a message to Henry to come see her. She had premonitions that he would not live much longer. She begged him to repent of a life marked by bloodshed and treachery and make a lasting peace with Otto. Henry refused, and as Matilda predicted, he died soon afterward.

Matilda's grief at the death of her most beloved and most wayward son was almost more than she could bear. To take her mind off her sorrow, she devoted herself to founding Benedictine convents and monasteries at Pöhlde, Quedlinburg, and Nordhausen. Then Matilda had her husband's body exhumed and reburied in the monastery church of Quedlinburg.

As the years went by, Otto's relationship with his mother improved to the point that when he went to Rome in 962 to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor by {ln:Pope} John XII, he named Matilda one of the regents authorized to rule Germany in his absence.

The last time Matilda saw all her surviving children and grandchildren was Easter 965 at Cologne where her youngest son, Bruno, was Archbishop.

In her final years, Matilda retired to the convent of Nordhausen where Ricburga, one of her former ladies in waiting, was Abbess. Around Christmas 967 Matilda became ill. As the weeks went by and her condition grew worse, she realized that she was dying. She asked Ricburga to fulfill one final request: Matilda wanted to die at Quedlinburg.

When she reached her destination, Matilda gave away what was left of her estate, including the shroud that had been prepared for her burial. Her grandson William, Archbishop of Mainz, came to hear her last confession. Her granddaughter Matilda came to be with her in those final days. Matilda died in utter poverty, lying on the floor, her head covered with Ashes, surrounded by priests, monks, and nuns praying for her soul.

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Prayer to the saints is a powerful thing.

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