From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   March 14th - St. Matilda of Saxony, Queen, Widow (RM)   
   (Also known as Mathildis, Maud, Mechtildis)   
      
   Born at Engern, Westphalia, Germany, c. 895; died at Quedlinburg, March 14,   
   968.   
   Saint Matilda is another who shows us the possibility of living in the world   
   and   
   reaching the state of Christian perfection. It's not easy, especially at   
   first,   
   because there are so many delightful distractions that titillate the senses   
   and   
   feed the ego. But when the soul becomes acquainted with God and forms a   
   relationship, it hungers and thirsts for more of His love. Thus, fervent   
   prayer,   
   holy meditation, and reading pious books, are more necessary for those   
   living in   
   the world than for professed religious, because of the continual   
   distractions.   
   Amidst the pomp, hurry, and amusements of a court, Saint Matilda gave   
   herself up   
   to holy contemplation with such earnestness, that though she never neglected   
   any   
   duties, her soul was raised to heaven.   
      
   Saint Matilda was daughter of Count Dietric (Theodoric) of Westphalia and   
   Reinhild of Denmark. At a very early age her parents placed her under the   
   care   
   of her grandmother, Maud, abbess of Eufurt monastery, who had renounced the   
   world upon her widowhood. Matilda relished the life of prayer and spiritual   
   reading. Like all young ladies she learned the refined skill of needlework.   
   She   
   remained in the convent until her parents married her to Henry, son of Duke   
   Otto   
   of Saxony, in 909 (some vitae push all the dates for marriage and crowning   
   by   
   several years).   
      
   Her husband, named the Fowler, from his fondness for popular sport of   
   hawking,   
   became duke of Saxony at the death of his father, in 912. Upon the death of   
   Conrad I in 919, was chosen king of Germany. He was a pious and victorious   
   prince, and very tender of his subjects. His solicitude in easing their   
   taxes,   
   made them ready to serve their country in his wars at their own cost, though   
   he   
   generously recompensed their zeal after his expeditions, which were always   
   attended with success.   
      
   While he by his arms checked the insolence of the Hungarians and Danes, and   
   enlarged his dominions by adding to them Bavaria, Matilda gained domestic   
   victories over her spiritual enemies, more worthy of a Christian, and far   
   greater in the eyes of heaven. She nourished the precious seeds of devotion   
   and   
   humility in her heart by assiduous prayer and meditation; and, not content   
   with   
   the time which the day afforded for these exercises, employed part of the   
   night   
   the same way. The nearer the view was which she took of worldly vanities,   
   the   
   more clearly she discovered their emptiness and dangers and sighed to see   
   men   
   pursue such bubbles to the loss of their souls; for, under a fair outside,   
   they   
   contain nothing but poison and bitterness.   
      
   It was her delight to visit and comfort the sick and the afflicted, to serve   
   and   
   instruct the poor, and to show charity to prisoners, procuring their freedom   
   if   
   justice would permit it or easing their suffering by liberal alms. Her   
   husband,   
   edified by her example, concurred with her in every pious undertaking.   
      
   After twenty-seven years of marriage, Matilda and Henry were separated by   
   his   
   death in 936. During his last illness, Matilda went to the church to pour   
   forth   
   her soul in prayer for him at the foot of the altar. As soon as she   
   understood,   
   by the tears and cries of the people, that he had expired, she called for a   
   priest that was fasting, to offer the holy sacrifice for his soul; and at   
   the   
   same time cut off the jewels which she wore, and gave them to the priest as   
   a   
   pledge that she renounced from that moment the pomp of the world.   
      
   She had three sons (one source says five); Otto, afterwards emperor; Henry,   
   duke   
   of Bavaria who is known as "the Quarrelsome"; and Saint Bruno, archbishop of   
   Cologne. Henry was the better suited to succeed his father, but Otto, the   
   eldest, was elected. Otto was crowned king of Germany in 937. Matilda, in   
   the   
   contest between her two elder sons for the elected crown, favored her middle   
   son, Henry, a fault she expiated by severe afflictions and penance. When   
   Otto   
   (the Great) was elected, she persuaded him to name Henry duke of Bavaria   
   after   
   he had led an unsuccessful revolt.   
      
   These two sons conspired to strip her of her dowry, on the unjust charge   
   that   
   she had squandered away the revenues of the state on the poor. This   
   persecution   
   was long and cruel, especially because it came at the hands of her precious   
   sons. She retired to her country home but was later recalled to the court at   
   the   
   insistence of Otto's wife, Edith. The errant princes were reconciled to her   
   and   
   restored her all they had taken. She then became more liberal in her alms   
   than   
   ever.   
      
   When Henry again revolted, Otto put down the insurrection in 941 with great   
   cruelty. Matilda censured Henry when he began another revolt against Otto in   
   953   
   and for his ruthlessness in suppressing a revolt by his own subjects; at   
   that   
   time she prophesied his imminent death. Yet, the testimony of her son Henry   
   is   
   powerful. He told her: "Oh, my very dear one, in all things you have given   
   us   
   excellent advice: how many times have you changed iniquity to justice."   
      
   After Henry's death in 955, she devoted herself to building many churches   
   and   
   four religious houses, including Engern, Pöhlde in Brunswick (where she   
   maintained 3,000 monks), Quedlinburg in Saxony (where she buried her   
   husband),   
   and Nordhausen, where she retired in her later years. When she had finished   
   the   
   buildings, Quedlinburg became her usual retreat. After his victories over   
   the   
   Bohemians and Lombards, Matilda governed the kingdom when Otto went to Rome   
   in   
   962 to be crowned emperor, which is often regarded as the beginning of the   
   Holy   
   Roman Empire.   
      
   During the last of her 32 years of widowhood, Matilda entered one of the   
   convents she had founded at Nordhausen. She applied herself totally to her   
   devotions, and to works of mercy. It was her greatest pleasure to teach the   
   poor   
   and ignorant how to pray, as she had formerly taught her servants. In her   
   last   
   sickness she made her confession to her grandson William, the archbishop of   
   Mentz, who yet died twelve days before her, on his road home. She again made   
   a   
   public confession before the priests and monks of the place, received a   
   second   
   time the last sacraments, and lying on a sackcloth with ashes on her head.   
   Her   
   body remains at Quedlinburg, where she is buried beside her husband. The   
   Benedictines venerate her as one of their oblates.   
      
   To find the bliss Matilda found requires foregoing vain pleasures to open   
   precious hours for devotional exercises. Perhaps we can all hasten our   
   journey   
   toward sanctity this Lent by giving up an hour of television daily to spend   
   in   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)