Sunday, July 14, 2024

July 13th, Feast Of Henry II, the Emperor Turned Saint

Henry II, the Emperor Turned Saint, is a patron saint of the childless, of the handicapped, and of those who have lost parents. Saint Henry II, also known as Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor, lived from May 6, 973 AD, to July 13, 1024 AD. The Holy Roman Empire, encompassed parts of modern-day Germany, Austria, Italy, and Czech Republic.

Henry II was a Medieval King in the line of King David: His devotion to justice, charity, and the welfare of his people was a significantly different form of governance not only during the Roman empire, after its fall and even today. Just like King Henry, King David had a special rapport with God. He was known as a “man after God’s own heart.” He had trusted God to deliver him from the jaws of the bear and the lion, then most miraculously from the sword of the Philistine giant, Goliath. David was persecuted by Saul, just like the Church of Saint Henry is being persecuted by modern day Germans.


His devotion to justice, charity, and the welfare of his people makes him an inspiring figure for those seeking guidance in their personal challenges and seeking the well-being of their communitie. His legacy also serves as a reminder of the important role that leaders can play in promoting social justice and religious tolerance

After the collapse of the Roman empire, ethnic chiefs and kings, ex-Roman governors, generals, war lords, peasant leaders and bandits carved up the former Roman provinces into feudal kingdoms.

Rome continued to decline after that until AD 476 when the western Roman Empire came to an end. The eastern Roman Empire, more commonly known as the Byzantine Empire, survived until the 15th century AD. It fell when Turks took control of its capital city, Constantinople, modern day Istanbul in Turkey.in AD 1453

Another artifact of the demise of the Roman empire was the loss of technological knowledge and intellectual thought that characterized the Roman Empire. With the Empire's collapse, many aspects of Roman civil engineering, learning, and arts were lost or neglected, leading to what was later termed as the Dark Ages.

At this time Divine Providence intervened with Saint Benedict of Nursia, who saved Western Civilization. According to Bishop Barron”at a time when Roman order had collapsed and barbarian invaders were picking through the rabble of a once great civilization Benedict founded the religious community that would, in time, preserve the best of the old and allow for the emergence of a particularly Christian way of life. And so it is absolutely no exaggeration to say that without Benedict, there would not be Thomas Aquinas, no Catherine of Siena, no Ignatius of Loyola, no Michelangelo, and no John Henry Newman.” Saint Benedict relentlessly preserved Seneca, Cicero, Plato, Aristotle, Aristophanes, Caesar – in fact, practically everything of value that we have from the ancient world



Saint Henry, guided by eternal truth and daily meditation practice, was not carried away by the power and dignity of his position as king. In all things, he sought the greater glory of God and was most watchful over the welfare of the church. His zeal for the maintenance of ecclesiastical discipline in the church was unrivaled.

Henry’s fame spread at home and abroad, and so his humility. On February 14, 1014, Pope Benedict V crowned him emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.


The rule of Henry II has been characterized as a period of centralized authority throughout the Holy Roman Empire. He consolidated his power by cultivating personal and political ties with the Catholic Church. He greatly expanded the Ottonian dynasty's custom of employing clerics as counter-weights against secular nobles. Through donations to the Church and the establishment of new dioceses, Henry strengthened imperial rule across the Empire and increased control over ecclesiastical affairs. He stressed service to the Church and promoted monastic reform. For his remarkable personal piety and enthusiastic promotion of the Church, he was canonized by Pope Eugene III in 1146. He is the only medieval German monarch ever to have been honoured as a saint. Henry II's wife was the equally pious Empress Cunigunde, who was canonized in 1200 by Pope Innocent III. As the union produced no children, the German nobles elected Conrad II, a great-great-grandson of Emperor Otto I, to succeed him after his death in 1024. Conrad was the first of the Salian dynasty of emperors.




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