June 15
BD JOLENTA OF HUNGARY, WIDOW (A.D. 1299)
JOLENTA, or Helena as she is called by the Poles, was one of four sisters who are honoured with the title of Blessed. They were the daughters of Bela IV, King of Hungary, the nieces of St Elizabeth, the great-nieces of St Hedwig, and lineal descendants of the Hungarian kings St Stephen and St Ladislaus. When she was five years old, Jolenta was committed to the care of her elder sister, Bd Cunegund, or Kinga, who had married Boleslaus II, King of Poland. Under their fostering care, the little girl grew up a pattern of virtue. She became the wife of Duke Boleslaus of Kalisz, with whom she spent a happy married life. Both of them were addicted to good works, and together they made various religious foundations. Jolenta was beloved by all, but especially by the poor, for whom she had a tender love. After the death of her husband, as soon as she had settled two of her daughters, she retired with the third and with Bd Cunegund, now, like herself, a widow, into the convent of Poor Clares which Cunegund had established at Sandeck. Jolenta's later years, however, were spent at Gnesen as superior of the convent of which she had been the foundress. She died there in 1299.
See 1. B. Prileszky, Acta Sanctorum Hungariae, vol. ii, Appendix pp. 54-55; Hueber, Menologium Franciscanum, p. 918; and cf. the bibliography attached to Bd Cunegund on July 24.
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(Butler's Lives of the Saints, Christian Classics, 1995)
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