Saint Hunna

Saint Hunna had been the benefactress of the latter monastery, and, together with her husband, she had given it a portion of her property located in Siegolsheim and Mittelweier. Saint Deodatus, who then governed the abbeys of Ebersmunster and Jointure in Lorraine, often visited Hunna's castle and contributed, through his example and exhortations, to the spiritual advancement of this humble servant of God. One admired in her a tender compassion toward the poor and the unfortunate. Her castle was the asylum where the needy of the region took refuge; for she did not only bestow upon them gifts of money, she tended to their infirmities, rendered them the most menial services, and long after her death, a fountain was shown where she did not blush to go and wash the clothes of the poor; which caused her to be given the nickname of the Holy Washerwoman.

It is said that her apartments were often filled with a crowd of poor people who had come from afar to explain their troubles to her. Hunna always received them with an extreme kindness that touched everyone, trying to console them, to improve their situation, and contributing to it with all her means. The confidence that the people had placed in her went to such a point that she was often established as an arbiter of disputes, and they submitted to her decisions without a murmur. History does not tell us in what year she ceased to live; but what it has not forgotten to transmit to us is that Hunna earned the name of holy princess during her lifetime, and that her death plunged all those who had known her into mourning and affliction.

Hunna is the patroness of washerwomen in Alsace; what we have said is sufficient to provide the explanation for this patronage.

## CULT AND RELICS OF SAINT HUNNA.

### OUR LADY OF DUSSEMBACH.

Saint Hunna was buried in the castle church, and the faithful invoked her immediately. She continued to be held in great veneration until 1520; at that time, the Duke of Württemberg addressed Po pe Leo X an pape Léon X Pope who authorized the office of Saint Ozanne. d requested her solemn canonization. The Sovereign Pontiff acceded to the Duke's wishes, and Hunna was solemnly inscribed in the catalogue of Saints. Her body was exposed for public veneration on April 15 of the same year. The faithful flocked from all parts to implore the protection of this ancient benefactress of Alsace, and her cult thus spread more and more. Five years later, during the war known as the Rustand s' war, her tomb was pro guerre dite des Rustands Peasant revolt during which the saint's tomb was desecrated. faned; the reliquary that contained the relics remained intact, however; but, in 1549, the inhabitants of Hunawihr, having embraced Lutheranism, rushed furiously upon the Saint's tomb, broke the reliquary, pulled out the venerable remains, and cast them to the wind like vile dust that did not deserve to be preserved. This is how the cult of this heroine of the true faith ended in this village.

At some distance from Hunawihr is located the town of Ribeauvillé, which formerly contained several religious houses. The beautiful parish church of this town was built in 1483; the choir, however, dates from 1284. This church is dedicated to Saint Gregory the Great, and contains a vault that once served as a burial place for the counts of Ribeaupierre. The only monastery that existed in Ribeauvillé at the time of the Revolution was that of the Augustinians, which Henri de Ribeaupierre had founded in 1197. This house, purchased by private individuals, serves today as a novitiate for the Sisters of Providence, who are successfully engaged in the instruction of young Catholic girls of the diocese. The chapel of the famous pilgrimage of Dussembach formerly depended on it.

But a bond whose memories belong more particularly to history is the ancient pilgrimage of Dussembach. Its origin dates back to the end of the 13th century. An Alsatian nobleman had been guilty of a great crime: torn by remorse and pursued by the cries of his conscience, he went deep into this wild valley and built a calvary, near which he often came to weep for his faults and meditate on the vanity of the things of this world. Egenolfe, Count of Ribea upierre, had taken the cross an Égénolfe, comte de Ribeaupierre Count of Ribeaupierre and crusader, founder of the sanctuary of Dussembach. d fought valiantly alongside the Baldwins and the Marquises of Montferrat. After the capture of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, the crusaders rushed upon the relics contained in the numerous basilicas of that city, and Egenolfe seized a small statue of the Blessed Virgin, which he brought himself from Constantinople to this valley. He erected a small chapel near the calvary in which he placed the statue of the Mother of God, and wished to be buried there.

Our Lady of Dussembach, illustrated by brilliant miracles, did not take long to become a very famous pilgrimage, frequented by pilgrims who came in crowds from thirty to forty leagues around to venerate the Virgin brought from the East.

The considerable influx of pilgrims decided the owners of Dussembach, in 1269, to add a second chapel to the first, and in 1297, one of their descendants, named Anaheim the Bold, added a third, in fulfillment of a vow he had made to regain his freedom when he was a prisoner of war.

These three chapels were devastated a first time by the forty thousand adventurers who, discharged by the Black Prince after the Battle of Poitiers, formed themselves into great companies and caused such dreadful ravages throughout France; a second time by the Swedes in the Thirty Years' War; and finally, a third and last time, by the Revolution of '93.

Nowadays, the image of the Virgin Mary of Dussembach is located in the parish church of Ribeauvillé, in a chapel built to expose it to public veneration.

The Blessed Virgin honored at Dussembach was formerly the Patroness of the musicians of Alsace.

They formed a brotherhood, regulated by statutes, which obliged each member to confess, to hear Mass, to give alms on each of the feasts of the Blessed Virgin, and to wear the medal of the Mother of God on their clothing.

The day of the celebration of the Ribeauvillé feast was set for September 8. The musicians would gather at the Soleil inn, and under the leadership of one of them, whom they called their king, Pfeifferkanig, they would attend a solemn Mass together in the parish church. After Mass, they would go to the castle and perform various symphonies. A tribunal was established, which condemned those who were absent without a legitimate reason or who had committed some serious fault, to pay a pound of wax to the Virgin of Dussembach.

However, some fragments of them are known, which are kept in Hunawihr and in the cathedral of Saint-Dié, where they are surrounded by the veneration of the faithful.

Our Lady of Dussembach also had a Confraternity of Our Lady of Assistance, a mutual aid society for the present life and the future life, where one pledged not only to help one another here below, but also to offer certain prayers for each other after death. All these institutions, like the chapels, disappeared under the revolutionary breath.

Sainte d'Alsace, by Abbé Hunckler; Propre de Saint-Dié; Notre-Dame de France.