Zdislava of Lemberk

Zdislava Berka, TOSD (also known as Zdislava of Lemberk; 1220–1252) was a Czech philanthropist who is now a saint of the Catholic Church. She was a "wife, mother, and one of the earliest lay Dominicans". She was a "precociously pious child", running away at the age of seven to the forest to become a hermit. She was forced by her family to return home, and when she was 15, they forced her to marry wealthy nobleman Havel of Markvartice. He treated her brutally, but she was eventually able to perform acts of charity, give refuge to the poor and dispossessed at their home, found and support two priories, and join the Third Order of Saint Dominic as a layperson. She died in 1252. She is the patron saint of Bohemia, of difficult marriages, and of those who are ridiculed for their piety. Her feast day is on 1 January. Life Zdislava was from the town of Litoměřice in what is now the northern part of the Czech Republic, to a Bohemian noble family. Her devout mother was born in Sicily and came to Bohemia as "a member of the retinue" of Queen Kunigunde. During her childhood, Zdislava went with her mother to visit Kunigunde, who probably first exposed Zdislava to the Dominicans. She might have met Ceslaus and Hyacinth of Poland. Zdislava, a "precociously pious child", was "extremely pious from her infancy", giving money away to charity at a young age. When she was seven years old, she ran away from her home into the forest to pursue a life of prayer, penance, and a solitary life as a hermit. Her family found her, though, and forced her to return home. When she was 15, her family forced her to marry, despite her objections, the wealthy nobleman Havel of Markvartice, who owned Lemberk Castle, a fortified castle in a frontier area that was occasionally attacked by Mongol invaders. Zdislava and Havel had four children. Zdislava's husband was "a man of violent temper" and treated her brutally, but "by her patience and gentleness she secured in the end considerable freedom of action in her practices of devotion, her austerities and her many works of charity". She devoted herself to the poor, opening the castle doors to those dispossessed by the invasions. Hagiographer Robert Ellsberg stated that Havel tolerated her "extravagant charity" because she followed his wishes and wore the costly clothes fitting her rank and station and would indulge in his "extravagant feasts" with him.