Saint Henry II

In 993 he lost his father and succeeded him in the Duchy of Bavaria. Knowing the duties of a sovereign, he governed his people according to the precepts of our holy religion and the laws of justice. It is at this time that his marriage to Cunigunde, daughter o f Siegfri Cunégonde Wife of Henry II, known for her virginity and piety. ed, Count of the Moselle, must be placed. The two spouses observed continence throughout the duration of their union, and gave each other the finest examples of Christian virtues. Seeking in all things only the glory of God and the happiness of their subjects, the duke and his wife seemed to rival one another in zeal and love for the people. Never was a government more paternal and more happy: the subjects blessed heaven for having given them a leader so virtuous and so just, and the duke, for his part, thanked Providence for the graces it bestowed upon his states and for the union that reigned among his subjects.

A few years before he was elected emperor, Saint Wolfgang, who had already passed away, appeared to him in a dream at night, as if he were in the church of Saint Emmeram, bishop and martyr, and told him to read what was written on the wall. He did so, and saw nothing other than these two words: After six. When he awoke, he pondered in his mind what these words could mean, and believed they meant that he would live for only six more days. He immediately gave great alms, and, seeing at the end of this time that he was in good health, he thought it must be understood as six months; therefore, he continued to perform good works, and when the six months had passed without him feeling any change in his health, he finally believed that these words were to be understood as six years. Thus, he prepared himself to die at the end of that time. But when the six years had elapsed, he was, on the first day of the year 1002, raised to the imperial dignity: for Otto III having died in Rome in the year 1001, the princes of Germany, leaving to the Roman people the care of the funeral duties of the emperor they had lost, occupied themselves with the election of a successor, who was Saint Henry, Duke of Bavaria and Count of Bamberg. This prince then understood what his vision meant, and gave thanks to God and to Saint Wolfgang for the revelation he had received.

Henry, learning of his election, departed accompanied by a large number of chosen men, and left Bavaria to cross the Rhine near Worms, and from there to go to Mainz to be crowned emperor; but Hermann, Duke of Alsace a nd Swabia, who had hoped to place Hermann, duc d'Alsace et de Souabe Competitor of Henry for the imperial throne. himself on the imperial throne, having learned of Henry's plan, advanced with troops to dispute his crossing of the Rhine: then Henry, feigning to fear an engagement on the banks of this river, broke camp as if he wished to return to Bavaria. This counter-march deceived Hermann, who withdrew, while Henry turned quietly toward Laurisheim and advanced as far as Mainz, where he was crowned King of Germany. It was Archbishop Willigis who anointed him on July 8, 1002, in the presence of a large number of bishops and lords of the Empire. The reputation for piety, justice, gentleness, and moderation that he enjoyed had led the leaders of the Germanic body to place him at their head. Through an act of generosity, Henry ceded his Duchy of Bavaria to his brother-in-law, surnamed Henry the Elder.

From then on, constantly occupied with procuring the happiness of his subjects, Henry applied himself with zeal to knowing the situation of his empire and the needs of his peoples. Through the wisdom of his government, he justified the high opinion that had been formed of him, and through the happy combination of Christian, royal, and military virtues, he proved that a good king is a true gift from heaven. He prayed often, meditated incessantly on the law of God, and practiced humility in all circumstances, in order to guard against pride and not allow himself to be dazzled by the pomp of earthly grandeur.

However, his competitor Hermann, furious at having lost his rights to the crown, spread the rumor that he was going to seek out Henry and challenge him to single combat wherever he might meet him. This monarch had then advanced into Swabia with the intention of staying for some time in the Abbey of Reichenau, located on an island in Lake Constance. Having learned that Hermann was to come to fight him, he withdrew to a large plain to wait for him there: but the latter did not appear; then the courtiers urged Henry to invest Constance, as Hermann had done at Strasbourg, which his troops had taken and delivered to pillage, even setting fire to the cathedral: but the holy emperor rejected this advice and, not doubting that Constance would eventually submit, he replied that God had not placed the crown on his head to do harm, but on the contrary to punish those who did, and that by ruining Constance, as Strasbourg had been, it would be doubling his losses.

Hermann, seeing Henry becoming more and more established on his throne, desisted from his project and left this monarch the leisure to bring happiness to his vast empire.

Henry resolved from then on to devote himself entirely to the service of the King of heaven and earth: he took extreme care to make the Catholic religion flourish. He gave great wealth to the churches and embellished them extraordinarily. He repaired those of Hildesheim, Magdeburg, Strasbourg, Meissen, Basel, and Merseburg, episcopal churches which the ravages of the Slavs had almost entirely destroyed: he made the same liberalities to all the bishoprics of his empire, and, by a revelation from God, he appointed Saint Godehard as bishop to the city of Hildesheim, where he had been raised and instructed in the sciences.

What he did for the church of Merseburg deserves to be told at greater length. This bishopric had been ravaged and, so to speak, destroyed by the incursions of the idolaters who inhabited Poland and Slavonia. Our Saint resolved to fight these barbarians. While passing through Walbeck, he took the sword of Saint Adrian, martyr, which had been kept there for a very long time as a relic. After putting it at his side, he said to God with all his heart: "Judge, O Lord, my enemies, strike down those who attack me; take up shield and buckler, and stretch out your hand in my favor." He then advanced and had his army camp at the place where the church of Merseburg is situated. When he saw it thus ruined, he heaved a deep sigh, and addressing Saint Lawrence, patron of this church, he said to him: "Great Saint, illustrious martyr of Jesus Christ, if I can, by your assistance, subject these barbarian nations to the Christian religion, I will restore, with the help of God, this church consecrated to your honor to its former dignity."

When he was near the innumerable army of the Barbarians, he had recourse to his ordinary weapons, we mean prayer; and, after having implored the help of God, he placed his army and his person under the protection of the blessed martyrs Saint Lawrence, Saint George, and Saint Adrian; then he had everyone receive communion, drew up his troops in battle array, harangued them to excite them to fight generously, and, seeing this multitude of enemies, he addressed this prayer to God: "Lord, who are the God of battles, raise your arm against these nations that wish to destroy your servants. Disperse them by your power; ruin them, you, my God, who are our protector, and make them like the chaff that the wind blows away." As he uttered these words, he saw at the head of his army the glorious Martyrs whom he had invoked and taken as protectors, and the exterminating angel, who was putting the enemy battalions to flight; thus, as happened formerly to the army of Sennacherib, this incalculable number of Barbarians was dispersed: they threw down their weapons and sought their safety in flight, without this victory costing the Christians a single drop of blood.

Then this most holy emperor raised his hands and eyes to heaven, and thanked God in these terms: "I bless you, King of heaven and earth, who resist the proud, who pour out your graces upon the humble, and protect those who love you. You shall be glorified among all nations, because of this victory which we owe to you alone."

After such a happy and great success, the Saint made an advantageous treaty with these Barbarians. Poland, Bohemia, and Moravia remained tributary to him; and he fulfilled, with such fidelity and magnificence, the vow he had made to Saint Lawrence regarding the church and bishopric of Merseburg, that he restored them with more splendor than ever to their former dignity.

In addition to several other churches that he had built with great magnificence, he also wished to erect that of Bamb Bamberg City where Henry founded a bishopric and where he is buried. erg into a cathedral, and to establish an episcopal see there, by subjecting to it the abbeys of Schutteren and Gengenbach, situated on the right bank of the Rhine and which were then in the diocese of Strasbourg. For this, he held a general assembly of all the prelates of the empire in the city of Frankfurt (1007); there he performed an act of humility that deserves the reflection of the greatest princes of Christendom. Entering this sacred Synod, he prostrated himself on the ground before all the prelates who composed it, as if recognizing in their character the majesty of the almighty God, in whose name they were assembled, and he would not have risen if the archbishop, who was presiding, had not taken him by the hand and placed him himself on the throne that had been prepared for him. The assembly willingly consented to his pious design, and regulated, with extreme joy, all the things necessary to carry it out. The title of the glorious apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and of the blessed martyr Saint George, was given to the new church; and the emperor particularly assigned it to the nomination of the Popes, wishing it to be absolutely and immediately subject to the Holy See. He also had two beautiful monasteries built in the same city to be its safeguard; one of regular canons of Saint Augus tine, the other of religi religieux de Saint-Benoît Religious order occupying the monastery of Honnecourt. ous of Saint Benedict: the first was dedicated to Saint Stephen, and the second to Saint Michael and to Saint Benedict himself.

The affairs of Italy were not in a very good state at that time, for the order that Charlemagne had established there had been violated by the artifice of the Lombards; and, after the death of Otto III, Hartwich had seized the principal places of Cisalpine Gaul. These troubles obliged the emperor to march there with diligence, in order to stop their course as soon as possible. But, as God ceaselessly poured out His graces upon him, and as he was like the sword and the shield that protected him against all his enemies, it was not long before he defeated Hartwich; but he had scarcely begun to taste the fruits of his triumph when he was recalled to Germany to prevent the pernicious designs of Boleslaw, Duke of Poland, who wanted to take advantage of his absence and cast trouble into his States, against the fidelity he owed to the treaty made between them after the day of Merseburg. He therefore left Italy, after having offered his vows at the tomb of Saint Ambrose, for whom he had a particular devotion, and soon arrived at the borders of Poland. This war did not prevent him from thinking of the universal rest of the empire; he took care to have Synods and ecclesiastical assemblies convened, in order to provide for the proper regulation of morals and the wise conduct of the Catholic Church.

During all these affairs, the death of Pope S ergius IV o Benoît VIII Pope supported by Henry II against an antipope. ccurred, and Benedict VIII was legitimately elected as his successor. A schismatic antipope, who took the name of Gregory, opposed his exaltation and pursued him so cruelly that, finding no safety for himself in Italy, he was forced to have recourse to the emperor and to go to Germany. Henry took him under his protection and marched immediately to come and place him himself on the throne of Saint Peter by the force of his arms. Gregory, frightened by this resolution, yielded all his pretensions to the Holy See and sought his rest in retirement. Thus Benedict re-entered Rome, where he was received with joy and recognized as the legitimate successor of the Prince of the Apostles. Henry followed him with his army, and His Holiness went out of the city to meet him and presented him with a golden globe, enriched with precious stones and surmounted by a cross; which has, subsequently, been placed in the hands of the emperors, his successors, as a mark of their sovereignty.

The day after their arrival, the emperor and the empress Cunigunde, leaving their palace, were conducted with great pomp to the church of the Prince of the Apostles, followed by the twelve Roman senators who represented the majesty of that august senate, which was once the arbiter and the terror of all the nations of the earth. The Pope received them at the entrance of the door, and, having made Henry swear fidelity to the successors of Saint Peter, he introduced them fully into the temple. Then, he consecrated Henry emperor, and placed the imperial crown on the heads of both. The emperor, who never forgot his initial piety in the midst of the greatest honors, wished that the crown, which had served for the pomp of his coronation, be placed on the altar of the Prince of the Apostles, to pay him homage for all his greatness and all the splendor of his imperial majesty. He confirmed and renewed, out of gratitude, the donations made to the Holy See by his predecessors and by Pepin the Short.

The famous Werner, Bishop of Strasbourg Strasbourg City that Bennon leaves at the beginning of his narrative. , was then occupied with gathering the materials necessary to build his cathedral church. This church, which still dated from the sixth century, had been destroyed in 1002 by the troops of Hermann, Henry's competitor, as we have said, and by fire from heaven in 1007. The choir that Charlemagne, according to a constant tradition, had caused to be built, being constructed of stone, resisted the violence of the flames and the canons were able to continue the offices there. In 1012, Henry, who had attended and had been struck by the modesty and piety with which the latter celebrated the holy mysteries, by the beautiful order that was observed there, and by the majesty that reigned in the sanctuary, asked the bishop to be received among the canons. Werner, who knew how necessary a man like Henry was to the empire, made lively remonstrances to him to make him turn back from his project; but the monarch returned several times to the design he was nurturing and pressed the bishop strongly to receive him: then Werner, feigning to enter into his views, told him to present himself the next day at the great choir before the high altar: Henry obeyed; the bishop appeared and asked him: "Is your majesty disposed to obey me in all things?" Henry promised it. "Well then!" replied Werner, "I order you, by virtue of this obedience that you have just promised me, to continue to govern the empire, as you have done until now; for the Lord has destined you to be a monarch and not a canon."

At these words Henry was as if struck by lightning: he had to obey; and seeing that the bishop was in no way disposed to yield to his desires, and wishing nevertheless to have some part in the prayers of the canons, he founded a prebend, endowed with a rich income, for an ecclesiastic who would perform the divine service in his name: this foundation subsisted until the moment of the revolution. When at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the noble canons separated from those who were not, and thus established the first distinction between the great chapter and the great choir, the canonry founded by Saint Henry became one of the prebends of the great choir, under the title of the king's prebend of the choir. The emperors of Germany appointed to it until the thirteenth century; but since that time the grand provost had the collation of it. The one who possessed it had the first place in the great choir, in processions, and in public ceremonies; but in the capitular assemblies he had rank only according to his seniority. He formerly presided in place of the dean, when the latter did not attend the assemblies, and had the right to perform the office on certain feast days. Since the canonization of Saint Henry, when this feast fell on a Sunday, it was solemnized with great pomp by the king of the choir: this was no longer observed since the reunion of Strasbourg to France.

Henry did not limit his liberality toward the cathedral of Strasbourg to this single act; he also assigned to it large sums to enable the bishop to continue its construction; he increased the revenues of all the canons, which caused him to be named, by some historians, the restorer of the bishopric of Strasbourg.

After such great and pious exploits, he fell ill with the stone, and suffered extreme pain with great patience. The doctors could not cure him with any remedy; he had himself carried to Monte Cassino, to imp lore the as Mont-Cassin Reference monastery for the Benedictine Rule. sistance of Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica. This Saint appeared to him at night in a dream, and, by a surprising miracle, extracted his stone and gave it to him; so that upon waking, he found it in his hand and felt entirely healed. This grace so greatly increased the devotion he already had for this holy patriarch of religious that he gave great wealth to his entire Order.

Afterward, he returned to Rome, where Pope Benedict VIII received him with all sorts of honors. Having gone to spend the first night, after his entry, in the church of Saint Mary Major, he received there a favor from heaven that should not be passed over in silence. During the greatest fervor of his prayers, Jesus Christ appeared to him visibly, dressed in pontifical vestments and all radiant with glory. He came to celebrate the adorable mystery of our altars, accompanied by Saint Lawrence as deacon and Saint Vincent as subdeacon, and followed by the blessed Virgin Mary, his mother, and an innumerable multitude of Virgins, Apostles, Martyrs, and Confessors. When everyone had taken their place and all things were arranged, the angels began to intone with an admirable symphony the Introit of the Mass: Suscepimus, Deus, misericordiam tuam; and when the choir of these celestial singers had arrived at these words: justitia plena est dextera tua, the Savior, the Blessed Virgin, and the entire celestial court laid their hands upon the emperor, who, by the excess of sacred delights that such an extraordinary vision spread in his soul, believed himself already in the midst of paradise and in the fullness of eternal happiness. After the Gospel, an angel approached the Blessed Virgin with deep respect and offered her the book to kiss: she signaled him to present it also to Henry, saying these words: "Give the kiss of peace to him whose virginity pleases me so much." But, as he was completely beside himself, through the transports of joy that penetrated him and because he was not paying enough attention to all that was happening, the angel touched one of the nerves of his thigh and said to him: "This shall be the sign of the love that the Son of God and his divine Mother bear for you because of your chastity and your justice." The vision disappeared and then the holy emperor, like another Israel, found himself slightly lame, which has caused him to be nicknamed Henry the Lame.

He may in some way be considered an Apostle with regard to Hungary. These peoples had been infidels until then; it was he who made them embrace the Catholic faith. To more easily achieve this design, he gave the princess Giselle, his sister, as a wife Étienne King of Hungary who welcomed Gervin during his pilgrimage. to Stephen, their king, so that, according to the precept of the Apostle, the unbelieving husband might be sanctified by the believing wife. Subsequently, this king was baptized, and his entire kingdom, following his example, received the word of life; and thus, by a surprising novelty, this people had kings for apostles and evangelists. The union of these two princes, in the function of the apostolate, is a great glory for the Church; and one must greatly revere their holiness, since God used them to sanctify so many souls and help them gain heaven. This king of Hungary was so fervent in piety, and performed, until the end of his life, so many good works that he merited to perform great miracles during his life and after his death, and the Church recognizes him as one of its most glorious Confessors.

When Saint Henry had performed so many brilliant deeds and spread the reputation of his virtue on all sides, God wished to call him to Himself to give him an immortal crown. When he felt the day of his death approaching, he did two more things worthy of note: he provided a good successor to the empire, who was Conrad, Duke of Worms; and he advantageously repaired the suspicion he had formerly conceived against the purity of Empress Cunigunde. To this end, he had the relatives of this blessed princess and some princes of his court called, and, taking her by the hand, he recommended her to them with these words: "Here is she whom you all, after Jesus Christ, gave to me as a wife; know that, as I received her a virgin, I return her a virgin into His hands and into yours."

This holy emperor died on July 14, 1024, at the age of fifty-two, in the twenty-fourth year of his reign and the eleventh of his empire. He was buried with extraordinary honors in Bamberg, in the church of the blessed apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, where God showed, through several miracles, what was the glory he enjoyed in heaven.

Bruno, Bishop of Augsburg, his brother, undertook to ruin the bishopric of Bamberg, which our Saint had loved so much. To succeed in this, he promised Gisela, Queen of Hungary, their sister, to give all the property he had as a patrimony to Prince Henry, her son, if she would assist him in this sacrilegious design. The day and place of the assembly to carry it out were agreed upon; but the night before, Saint Henry, appearing to him with a face half-disfigured, filled him with terror and made him tremble. Bruno, recovering a little, asked him who could have been bold enough to treat him in such a way; he replied: "It is you yourself who have done it, when you undertook to strip me, and the Saints, of the goods that I gave to the church of Bamberg. Do not be so rash as to persist in this resolution, if you do not wish to be punished for it with the utmost severity." Bruno awoke at these words with a great trembling of his whole body, and his heart was so changed that, after having confessed his sin publicly, he desisted from his enterprise.

There are so many miracles of Saint Henry, such as the possessed delivered, paralytics healed, and the blind who have recovered their sight, that it would be too long to detail them here. A canon of the church of Bamberg, named Lupold, having doubted these wonders, and at the same time the holiness of the blessed Confessor, became blind at that very instant. He had recourse to Saint Wolfgang, for whom he had great devotion, in order to be healed; but the Saint, appearing to him, said: "Pray to Henry, confessor of Jesus Christ, and he will make you recover your sight: for you have only lost it for having doubted his holiness." When he was awake, he felt great regret for his sin and went to the tomb of the Saint, where, prostrate on the ground and melting into tears, he asked for forgiveness for his fault. He was heard at that very hour, and, his eyes having opened, he gave thanks to God and to Saint Henry, Emperor.

Our Lord, showing by such certain proofs, which increased every day, what was the holiness of this glorious Confessor, envoys from the church of Bamberg went to Rome with letters from Emperor Conrad and the princes of the empire, to inform Pope Eugene and the Roman court of the wonders that God was working through his intercession. The Pope and the cardinals felt extreme joy at this, and applied themselves with great care to the matter of his canonization. One cardinal, however, opposed it with heat, and, forgetting all fear of God, he was not even ashamed to blacken, by his speeches, the reputation of the holy Confessor. But he did not take long to feel the effect of divine vengeance; he immediately became blind: which astonished and humiliated him in such a way that, finding himself tormented by the remorse of his conscience, he publicly confessed that, by his fault, he had well deserved such a punishment: as much as he had previously tried to tear this great Saint apart by his slander, so much did he subsequently publish his praises and his merit. This change of his heart and his penance were promptly followed by forgiveness: as God, by a just judgment, had made him lose his sight to avenge the honor of Saint Henry, He also wished to restore it to him through his intercession. Saint Henry was canonized on March 14, 1152, by Pope Eugene III. His feast is celebrated on July 15. He is the patron of the d iocese of Eugène III Pope who transferred the relics of Saint Vannes in 1147. Basel, where his office is of the double rite of the first class with an Octave. His memory was held in great veneration in the cathedral of Strasbourg, where the canons inscribed his name in the necrology, among those of the benefactors of this church.

He is represented, in Bamberg, with Saint Cunigunde, together carrying the model of the cathedral, because they are its joint founders. — One formerly saw, at the entrance to the cloister of Saint-Vanne, in Verdun, a painting where he was represented leaving the scepter and the crown, and asking for the monastic habit from the holy abbot Richard. The abbot, having made him promise obedience, ordered him to resume the government of the empire; upon which a distich was composed whose meaning amounted to this: "The emperor has come here to live in obedience, and he practices this virtue while reigning." — He was also given as an attribute, either an imperial globe with a cross; or a lily, emblem of his love for chastity; or a discipline, indicating his mortifications; sometimes a shirt of iron mail on his body and a palm. — He can also be represented at the moment when he comes to visit the abbey of Monte Cassino. — He is also seen surrounded by people on their knees to whom he grants their lives after the siege of a city; sometimes, seated in heaven, holding a small church and his scepter.

This life has been mainly drawn from a manuscript in the library of the monastery of Windeberg, in Bavaria, reported by Canisius in his sixth volume, and by Surius on this day; we have completed it with the History of the Saints of Alsace, by the Abbé Hancéler.