Saint Hemma of Gurk

Saint Hemma of Gurk was a countess in Carinthia, in present-day Austria, a wife and a mother. After losing those closest to her, she gave her great wealth to the poor and to the Church, and she founded a monastery at Gurk. She is venerated as the foundress and patroness of the Church there. The Church commemorates her on June 29.

Little is known about her life. She came from the powerful family of the counts of Friesach and Zeltschach in Carinthia and was born in the second half of the tenth century; the exact year of her birth is not known. She was related to Emperor Henry II. She married Count William of Sanngau, a land on the Savinja River in present-day Slovenia.

According to a decree of the Holy See from 1938, she was widowed before 1016, and twenty years later her son, also named William, was killed in war. The Roman Martyrology states that she lived as a widow for forty years. The circumstances of her loved ones’ deaths are not certain, however, and a later legend tells of sons killed by rebellious miners. John Paul II said at Gurk that the violent death of those closest to her was a hard trial for her, yet her grief gave rise to neither doubt nor hatred: faith turned her suffering into compassion and help for the poor.

After her son’s death she inherited the whole vast domain and an enormous fortune, which she generously devoted to the good of the people and of the Church. With the consent of the Archbishop of Salzburg she built and endowed nine parish churches, and she also put up houses for those in need. At Gurk she founded a monastery of Benedictine nuns, whose first church was consecrated to the Mother of God in 1042 or 1043. She also saw to it that the archbishop would build a monastery for monks in the valley of Admont. The Benedictine abbey of Admont, endowed from her estates, came into being in 1074, after her death.

According to tradition she died on June 29, 1045, although this date is not certain. She was buried in the church she had founded at Gurk. From her estates the Archbishop of Salzburg endowed the new Diocese of Gurk in 1072, and in 1174 Hemma’s body was moved to the crypt of the new cathedral, where it rests to this day.

From the thirteenth century on, pilgrims came to her tomb, and in the following century a liturgical office was composed in her honor. In 1466 Emperor Frederick III and the nobles of Carinthia asked Pope Paul II for a canonization process; it was carried out, but political unrest prevented its completion. Only on January 5, 1938, did Pius XI confirm the cult paid to her from time immemorial. The decree calls her Blessed Hemma, called Saint, and the Roman Martyrology lists her among the saints. On June 25, 1988, John Paul II came to Gurk as a pilgrim and celebrated Mass in her honor.