The Lives of the Saints, Volume III (of 16): March. Baring-Gould Sabine

KUNEGUND, EMPSS(ABOUT A.D. 1040.)

      [German, Cologne, Basle, and Roman Martyrologies; also in the Benedictine Martyrology of Wyon. Proper offices in the Brussels, Passau Ratisbon, Salzburg, Frisingen, Bamberg, Eichstadt, Vienna, and other Breviaries. Her translation is celebrated on September 9th; and her canonization on March 29th. At Bamberg she is again commemorated on August 1st. Her life was written after 1190. This life forms the Breviary lessons at Bamberg on March 3rd and August 1st. Other authorities are the historians of the time.]

      S. Kunegund, or Cunegundes, was the daughter of Sigfried, count of Luxemburg, and Hedewig, his pious wife. She was married to S. Henry, duke of Bavaria. Her sister was married to Gerard, Count of Alsace. Her brothers were Henry, created, in 103, duke of Bavaria, when S. Henry was emperor; Frederick, count of Luxemburg on the death of his father; Dietrich, bishop of Metz; and others.

      On the death of the emperor Otho III., S. Henry was elected king of the Romans, and was crowned at Mentz on June 6th, 1002. Kunegund was crowned empress at Paderborn, on August 10th, in the same year. Immediately on his coronation his cousin, the Margrave, Henry of Schwein-furt, demanded the dukedom of Bavaria, and his own brother, Bruno, made a similar claim. But the emperor refused to give it to either, and bestowed it on Henry, Count of Luxemburg, his wife's brother. The two disappointed competitors then conspired against him with Boleslas II., of Bohemia, but they were defeated by the emperor near Creusen, in 1003, and were pardoned. Adalbert, another brother of Kunegund, then expelled Megingod, archbishop of Treves, and seized on the diocese for himself, but the emperor deposed him, and restored the rightful archbishop.

      In 1013, Henry and Kunegund received the imperial crown at Rome, from the pope. It was on this occasion that the pope bestowed on the emperor the golden ball, the emblem of the globe over which he was destined to rule. The imperial pair, it is said, had taken the vow of chastity, but of this there is no evidence. Kunegund's virtue, however, did not escape slander, and she voluntarily underwent the ordeal by fire, and walked unharmed over glowing ploughshares to testify her innocence.

      S. Henry founded the bishopric of Bamberg, partly at the instigation of S. Kunegund, who obtained for the city such privileges, that it became a popular saying there, that Kunegund's silk threads defended Bamberg better than walls and towers. Pope Benedict VIII. visited Bamberg in 1020, for the purpose of consecrating the new establishment. Kunegund also built and endowed a Benedictine abbey for nuns, at Kaufungen, near Cassel. Before it was finished, in 1024, S. Henry died. On the anniversary of his death, in 1025, she assembled a great number of prelates to the dedication of her church at Kaufungen; and after the singing of the gospel, she offered on the altar a piece of the true cross, and then put off her imperial robes, and clothed herself with a poor habit; her hair was cut off, and the bishop put on her a veil, and a ring as a pledge of her fidelity to her heavenly Spouse. After she was consecrated to God in religion, she seemed entirely to forget that she had been empress, and behaved as the last in the house, being persuaded that she was so before God. She feared nothing more than whatever could bring to her mind the remembrance of her former dignity. She prayed and read much, worked with her hands, and took a singular pleasure in visiting and comforting the sick. Thus she passed the fifteen last years of her life, never suffering the least preference to be given her above any one in the community. Her mortifications at length reduced her to a very weak[Pg 53][Pg 54] condition, and brought on her last sickness. Her monastery and the whole city of Cassel were grievously afflicted at the thought of their approaching loss; she alone appeared without concern, lying on a coarse hair-cloth, ready to give up the ghost, whilst the prayers of the dying were read by her side. Perceiving they were preparing a cloth fringed with gold to cover her corpse after her death, she ordered it to be taken away; nor could she be at rest till it was promised that she should be buried as a religious in her habit. She died on the 3rd of March, 1040. Her body was carried to Bamberg, and buried near that of her husband. The greatest part of her relics still remains in the same church. She was solemnly canonized by Innocent III. in 1200.

      She is represented in art with the ploughshares at her feet.

      March 4

      S. Lucius, Pope, M. at Rome, A.D. 253.

      SS. Nine Hundred Martyrs on the Appian Way, at Rome, circ. A.D. 260.

      S. Caius the Palatine, and xxvii. Companions, MM. at Rome.

      S. Owen, Mk. at Lastingham, end of 7th cent.

      S. Basinus, B. of Treves, circ. A.D. 672.

      SS. Adrian, B. of S. Andrews, and Comp., MM. in the Isle ofMay, circ. A.D. 870.

      S. Casimir, Prince of Poland, A.D. 1484.

S. LUCIUS, POPE, M(A.D. 253.)

      [Usuardus, Ado, Notker, Wandelbert, and Roman Martyrologies. Authorities: – Eusebius, the letters of S. Cyprian, Anastasius Bibliothecarius, and a Life by Guaiserius, a monk, (11th cent.)]

      Saint Lucius was a Roman by birth, and one of the clergy of that church under SS. Fabian and Cornelius. This latter having been crowned with martyrdom, in 252, S. Lucius succeeded him in the pontificate. The emperor Gallus having renewed the persecution of his predecessor Decius, at least in Rome, this holy pope was no sooner placed in the chair of S. Peter, than he was banished, though to what place is uncertain. "Thus," says S. Dionysius of Alexandria, "did Gallus deprive himself of the succour of heaven, by expelling those who every day prayed to God for his peace and prosperity." S. Cyprian wrote to S. Lucius to congratulate him both on his promotion, and on having had grace to suffer banishment for Christ. Our saint had been but a short time in exile when he was recalled, to the great joy of his people, who went out of Rome in crowds to meet him. S. Cyprian wrote to him a second letter of congratulation on this occasion. He says, "He had not lost the dignity of martyrdom because he had the will, as the three children in the furnace, though preserved by God from death; this glory added a new dignity to his priesthood; so that he, a bishop, assisted at God's altar, who could exhort his flock to martyrdom by his own example as well as by his words. By giving such graces to his pastors, God showed where his true Church was: for he denied the like glory of suffering to the Novatian heretics. The enemy of Christ only attacks the soldiers of Christ: heretics he knows to be already his own, and passes them by. We supplicate God the Father and His Son, our Lord, giving thanks and praying together, that He who perfects all may bring you to the glorious crown of your confession, who, perhaps, has only recalled you that your glory might not be hidden; for the victim who owes his brethren an example of virtue and faith, ought to be sacrificed before their eyes."

      Eusebius says that Lucius did not occupy the pontifical throne for above eight months. He seems to have died on March 4th, under Gallus, but how we know not. His body was found in the Catacombs, and was laid in the church of S. Cecilia at Rome, where it is now exposed to the veneration of the faithful. Considerable portions of the body of S. Lucius, M., are preserved at Bologna, and a head, purporting to be that of S. Lucius, was anciently one of the great relics of Roeskilde Cathedral. But these must be the remains of other saints of the same name, and it was an error of the clergy of Bologna and of Roeskilde to assert that these relics belonged to the martyred pope. That such a mistake may easily have been made is seen from the fact that two martyrs of the name of Lucius are commemorated on this day, the second being a companion of Caius the Palatine; and six in January, and as many in February, not to mention those in the other months. In the Schleswig Breviary, published in 1512, the feast of S. Lucius, Pope, M., was observed on account of the presence of the head of a S. Lucius, M., at Roeskilde, with nine lessons at matins, of which the six first were taken from the account of the Life and Translation of S. Lucius the pope, made by pope Paschal in 812.

S. CAIUS THE PALATINE, AND COMP., MM(DATE UNCERTAIN.)

      [Bede, Usuardus, Ado, Notker, Roman Martyrology. The names of the companions of S. Caius vary in the Martyrologies.]

      S. Caius, and twenty-seven fellow soldiers, suffered for the faith at Rome. Caius was an officer of the palace, but under what emperor is not known. He was drowned in the sea.

S. OWEN, MK(END OF 7TH CENT.)

      [Anglican and Benedictine Martyrologies. Authority: – Bede, Hist. Eccl., lib. iv. c. 3.]

      The