EDVIGE di SLESIA, saint. — Duchess of Silesia,
b. at Andechs (Bavaria) in 1174, d. at Trebnitz on
15 October 1243. Her father was Bertoldo di Andechs,
count of Tyrol, margrave of Merano, duke of
Carinthia and Istria. She was married, at the age of
12, in 1186, to Enrico I, duke of Silesia in Poland, by
whom she had 3 sons and 3 daughters.
She took a considerable part in political life, but above all
in the Christianization of the Slavic peoples of Silesia and
Poland, particularly through the foundation of the
monasteries of Naumburg (1217), Heinrichau (1227),
Kamena (1210), Bunzmau (1212), Breslau (1212), Gold-
berg (1212), and Trebnitz (1202), to which she retired
when she was widowed. She was canonized on 26 March
1267 by Pope Clement IV. Feast day: 17 October.