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Jadwiga, or Hedwig, was born in the year of Our Lord 1373 or 1374, the youngest daughter of Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Poland. From an early age she was betrothed to William, Duke of Austria. When King Louis died, the very young Jadwiga was given the throne of Poland. The Polish nobility considered William too politically weak, and they instead promoted Jogaila, the pagan Grand Duke of Lithuania. Jadwiga loved William, but after much anguished prayer, she finally agreed to marry Jogaila instead, offering up the sacrifice for the good of her country. The Grand Duke, smitten by Jadwiga’s beauty and piety, fulfilled his vow to become Catholic before the wedding, taking the name Władysław. A wave of mass conversions swept through Lithuania as a result. Jadwiga was beloved by her people, and a great patron of the Church, the poor, and Polish learning and culture. She died in childbirth at just twenty-five years of age, leaving Władysław to rule over a united Catholic Poland and Lithuania for several more decades, ushering in Poland’s Golden Age. Jadwiga was venerated throughout Poland soon after her death, and was finally canonized by Pope St. John Paul II.
AT Rome, St. Alexius, confessor, son of the senator Euphemian. Leaving his spouse untouched the night of his marriage, he withdrew from his house, and after a long pilgrimage returned to Rome, where he was for seventeen years harbored in his father’s house as an unknown beggar, thus deluding the world by a new device. But after his death, becoming known through a voice heard in the churches of the city, and by his own writing, he was, under the Sovereign Pontiff, Innocent I, translated to the church of St. Boniface, where he wrought many miracles.
At Carthage, the birthday of the holy Scillitan martyrs Speratus, Narzales, Cythinus, Veturius, Felix, Acyllinus, Laetantius, Januaria, Generosa, Vestina, Donata, and Secunda. By order of the prefect Saturninus, after their first confession of the faith, they were sent to prison, nailed to pieces of wood, and finally beheaded. The relics of Speratus, with the bones of blessed Cyprian and the head of the martyr St. Pantaleon, were carried from Africa into France, and religiously placed in the basilica of St. John the Baptist at Lyons.
At Amastris, in Paphlagonia, St. Hyacinth, martyr, who died in prison after much suffering, under the prefect Castritius.
At Tivoli, St. Generosus, martyr.
At Constantinople, St. Theodota, martyr, under the Iconoclast Leo.
At Rome, the demise of pope St. Leo IV.
At Pavia, St. Ennodius, bishop and confessor.
At Auxerre, St. Theodosius, bishop.
At Milan, the virgin St. Marcellina, sister of the blessed bishop Ambrose, who received the religious veil from pope Liberius in the basilica of St. Peter at Rome. Her sanctity is attested by St. Ambrose in his writings.
At Venice, the translation of St. Marina, virgin.
℣. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
℟. Thanks be to God.