AGNES OF BOHEMIA, Blessed. - B. in Prague in 1208 and d. there on 2 March 1282. Daughter of Ottokar I, king of Bohemia, and of Constance of Hungary, a relative of St. Elizabeth, she received, according to the custom of the time, an appropriate education in the monastery of Trebnitz (Silesia) and then in that of Doxan (Bohemia). Sought in marriage by Frederick II, emperor of Germany, who had been left a widower, she refused to consent, having first vowed herself to Christ; and in order to defend her refusal she had to have recourse to the intervention of Pope Gregory IX, who sent a legate for the purpose. Remaining free, she devoted herself to works of piety and founded a hospital for the poor, entrusting it to the Brothers of the Cross (a knightly order, whose members wore a cross and a red star on their habit, approved by Gregory IX in 1237 and confirmed by Nicholas IV in 1282) and two convents, one for the Franciscans and the other for the Poor Clares. To this one St. Clare of Assisi sent five of her nuns. A. took the veil there in 1235, according to others in 1236, and later was elected abbess there.
Wishing to establish the full spirit of poverty, of which the monastery of St. Damiano in Assisi, where St. Clare was abbess, was an example, A. renounced the revenues of the hospital she had founded and preferred to live on alms; but this restriction was not approved until the time of Innocent IV. Her holiness was crowned by the gift of miracles; she foretold, among other things, the victory of her brother Wenceslaus over the duke of Austria. The four letters of St. Clare to A., which have come down to us, attest to us the affection of the foundress for A., whom she called "the half of her soul," and to whom she sent several poor gifts as a remembrance. Pius IX confirmed her cult on 3 Dec. 1874. Her feast is on 2 March.
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