From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   December 16th - St. Adelaide   
      
   St. Adelaide was a marvel of grace and beauty, according to St. Odilon of   
   Cluny,   
   who was her spiritual director and biographer. Daughter of Rudolph II, King   
   of   
   Burgundy, she was born in 931 and at age 15 married Lothaire II, King of   
   Italy.   
   Later their daughter became Queen of France.   
      
   Adelaide was 18-years-old when she lost her husband, who was supposedly   
   poisoned   
   by his political competitor Berengarius of Ivrea. The latter soon proclaimed   
   himself King of Italy and proposed to unite Adelaide in marriage with his   
   son.   
   The widow refused and Berengarius confiscated her estates and held her   
   prisoner   
   in the Castle of Garda. St. Adelaide managed to escape and fled to the   
   Castle of   
   Canossa, property of the Church. From that impregnable fortress she directed   
   a   
   plea to Otto I, King of Germany, to come to her aid.   
      
   Otto I hastened to her appeal with a powerful army. After defeating her   
   oppressor, Otto became King of Italy and married St. Adelaide. One year   
   later,   
   in 952 he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome. The eldest son of this   
   marriage, Otto II, succeeded his father as Emperor. At first, influenced by   
   his   
   jealous wife Theohano, Otto II revolted against his mother. Fearing for her   
   life, she fled to Burgundy. There she came to know St. Odilon and became   
   famous   
   for her charities to many French monasteries.   
      
   Later, after her son repented, she returned to Germany where she continued   
   her   
   saintly life. She sent a splendid imperial mantle worn by her son to be   
   placed   
   in the grave of St. Martin. She wrote these instructions to the one charged   
   with   
   the mission:   
   "When you will reach the tomb of the glorious St. Martin, say these words:   
   'Bishop of God, receive these humble gifts from Adelaide, servant of the   
   servants of God, sinner by nature and Empress by the grace of God. Receive   
   this   
   mantle of Otto, her eldest son. You, who had the glory to cover Our Lord   
   with   
   your mantle in the person of a poor man, pray for him.'"   
   After Theophano died, Adelaide became the regent of her grandson, Otto III.   
   She   
   used her position to help the poor, evangelize, and build and restore   
   monasteries and churches. When she felt her end was near, she asked to be   
   taken   
   to the Convent of Seltz in Alsace that she had built. She was laid to rest   
   next   
   to the tomb of Otto the Great, her second husband.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   The life of St. Adelaide is so extraordinary that it could be the subject   
   for a   
   medieval illumination. She was not the kind of saint who lives in a convent   
   in   
   the recollected life of a cloister. Rather, she is the heroine who has great   
   adventures and passes through the most difficult dangers. She was not the   
   kind   
   of person whose ideal is to live in retirement. To the contrary, she saw in   
   the   
   risk, in the uncertainty, in the fight for the cause of her legitimate   
   rights,   
   the reason for her life. For her this was the salt of life that gave it   
   flavor.   
      
   We can imagine Queen Adelaide, a saint with the innocence of the dove and   
   the   
   astuteness of the serpent.   
      
   She was a Princess, daughter of the King of Burgundy, and married the King   
   of   
   Italy. Berengarius II supposedly poisoned her husband, proclaimed himself   
   King   
   of Italy and wanted her to marry his son, that is, the son of the murderer   
   of   
   her husband. If she had, she could have lived an easy life, without   
   problems.   
   She refused, was imprisoned and exposed to the worst offenses. She escaped.   
      
   I admire her escape very much. Normally one has a different picture of a   
   holy   
   woman in prison: a sad lady, a little overweight, seated next to a column,   
   weeping, lacking the cunning to fool the guards. She was the opposite. We   
   can   
   imagine her vigilant, studying her chances to escape. And when the moment   
   came,   
   she had the agility of mind to act, to slip through a door, to jump over a   
   fence, to seek provisory refuge and then continue the flight until she was   
   out   
   of danger. A saint is not like the caricature of the sad fat lady; a saint   
   has   
   to have the virtue of fortitude.   
      
   St. Adelaide also knew where to find safety. She went to Canossa, the   
   impregnable fortress where St. Gregory VII stayed when he received Emperor   
   Henry   
   IV, who went there to make penance, kiss the feet of the Pope, and ask   
   forgiveness. Canossa was a territory that belonged to another king - the   
   Pope,   
   who was also a temporal sovereign. Therefore, Adelaide knew where to seek   
   refuge: she was a good politician. She had the innocence of the dove, but   
   also   
   the cunning of the serpent.   
      
   After that, what did she do? Something one would not expect from a saint.   
   She   
   arranged a marriage for herself, and a very good one. She wrote to the King   
   of   
   Germany, the heir of the Holy Roman Empire, and asked him to come to defend   
   her.   
   He did, and then they were married. For her this represented the beginning   
   of a   
   new life. You can imagine the great fortitude of this soul, her dedication   
   and   
   courage. The magnificent virtues of St. Adelaide are the very opposite of   
   the   
   caricatures often painted of the saints!   
      
   Otto became Emperor, they married, and had a son. The son of this marriage,   
   however, at first was not so good, and a new tragedy started for St.   
   Adelaide.   
   He revolted and persecuted her. She fled to Burgundy, met St. Odilon and   
   made   
   many gifts to the monasteries there. It is probable that she also made a   
   promise   
   to St. Martin in return for her son's conversion, because the incident that   
   follows gives the impression that she was fulfilling a promise made for a   
   favor   
   granted.   
      
   When she sent the Emperor's mantle to honor St. Martin, she included a   
   message,   
   and the most beautiful part of it, in a certain sense, was the title she   
   chose   
   for herself:   
      
   "Adelaide, sinner by nature and Empress by the grace of God."   
      
   There is a grandeur in this title that comes from the simplicity of the   
   contrast   
   of the two descriptions. She attained the highest position a woman can have   
   on   
   earth, but she recognized that everything was due to grace.   
      
   Let us ask St. Adelaide to give us the spirit of adventure that she had. To   
   be   
   fighters for the right, to love the risk to its furthest limits within   
   wisdom.   
   To be courageous soldiers of Our Lady so that in the future someone could   
   say   
   about each one of us, "Sinner by nature, but champion against the Revolution   
   by   
   the grace of God."   
      
   See Images at:   
   http://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j052sdAdelaide12-16.htm   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The faith given to me in baptism suggests to me surely: by yourself you will   
   do   
   nothing, but if you have God as the center of all your action, then you will   
   reach the goal.   
   --Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati   
      
   Bible Quote:   
      
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