Hedwig of Silesia

Saint Hedwig of Silesia
Saint Hedwig of Silesia with Duke Louis I of Brzeg and Duchess Agnés, Hedwig Codex, Lubin, 1353 (now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, California)
Widow
Born	1174 Andechs, Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire
Died	15 October 1243 (aged 68–69) Trzebnica Abbey, Silesia, Poland
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Canonized	26 March 1267 by Pope Clement IV
Major shrine	Andechs Abbey and St. Hedwig's Cathedral in Berlin
Feast	16 October (17 October until 1969; moved to Oct. 20 in Canada)
Patronage	of Andechs Abbey, Brandenburg, Berlin, Kraków, Poland, Silesia, its capital Wrocław, Trzebnica, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Görlitz, orphans

Saint Hedwig of Silesia (Polish: Święta Jadwiga Śląska), also Saint Hedwig of Andechs (German: Heilige Hedwig von Andechs, Latin: Hedvigis; 1174 – 15 October 1243), a member of the Bavarian comital House of Andechs, was Duchess of Silesia from 1201 and of Greater Poland from 1231 as well as High Duchess consort of Poland from 1232 until 1238. She was reported in the two-volume historical atlas of Herman Kinder and another author to have been great in war and defended from the Teutonic Knights. She was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1267.

The daughter of Count Berthold IV of Andechs and his second wife Agnes of Wettin, she was born at Andechs Castle in the Duchy of Bavaria. Her elder sister, Agnes married King Philip II of France (annulled in 1200) and her sister, Gertrude (killed in 1213) King Andrew II of Hungary, while the youngest Matilda, (Mechtild) became abbess at the Benedictine Abbey of Kitzingen in Franconia, where Hedwig also received her education. Hedwig's brother was Bishop Ekbert of Bamberg (), Count of Andechs-Meranien. Another brother was Berthold, Archbishop of Kalocsa und Patriarch of Aquileia. Through her sister Gertrude, she was the aunt of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary.