Hemma of Gurk

Saint Hemma of Gurk
Portrait by Sebald Bopp, c. 1500
Born	c. 980
Died	27 June 1045
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church
Beatified	21 November 1287
Canonized	5 January 1938 by Pope Pius XI
Major shrine	Gurk Cathedral
Feast	27 June
Attributes	Depicted as a noble lady with either a model of a church, a legal deed or a rose, or distributing alms.
Patronage	Diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt; state of Carinthia; invoked during childbirth and against diseases of the eye; extreme hangovers

Hemma of Gurk (c. 980 – 27 June 1045), also called Emma of Gurk, was a noblewoman and founder of religious houses in the Duchy of Carinthia. Buried at Gurk Cathedral in 1174, beatified in 1287 and canonized in 1938, she is venerated as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church and as patroness of the current Austrian state of Carinthia.

Hemma was born Countess of Zeltschach to a noble family called Peilenstein in present-day Pilštanj, Slovenia. They were related to the Liutpoldings of Bavaria and thus to Emperor Henry II. She was brought up at the Imperial court in Bamberg by the Empress Saint Cunigunde. She married Count Wilhelm of Friesach and of the Sanngau, by whom she had two sons, Hartwig and Wilhelm. Both of her sons and her husband were murdered, the latest of them probably in 1036. Hemma became wealthy through inheritance upon the death of her husband and sons.

Countess Hemma used her great wealth for the benefit of the poor and was already venerated as a saint during her lifetime. In addition, she founded ten churches throughout present-day Carinthia, Austria. In 1043 she founded the Benedictine double monastery of Gurk Abbey, where she withdrew during the last years of her life.

After her death, Gurk Abbey was dissolved by the Archbishop of Salzburg, Gebhard, who instead used the funds to set up the Diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt in 1072. Admont Abbey, another Benedictine foundation in Austria, was founded in 1074 by the same Gebhard, and also owes its existence to Hemma's wealth.