ST RADEGUNDIS OF WELLENBURG - 13 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 13th of August

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST RADEGUNDIS OF WELLENBURG 

This Saint Radegundis is a saint of the people in the true sense of the word. Her hardworking life, her deeds of charity and her holy death are a perfect example for all people of her station. 

SHE SERVED IN THE CASTLE OF WELLENBURG

She served in the castle Wellenburg in Germany as a maid of her temporal lord in the service of  the Lord and King of eternity. The estate is said to have belonged to an Augsburg patrician, named Portner, who is documented to have bought it in 1329. At this time, therefore, (rather than in 1290, as some sources say) St Radegundis entered service there. 

Wolfratshausen, Parish Haberskirch, is named as her place of birth. She must have had a pious upbringing, for, according to all the reports we have about her, she was constantly in God's presence, and much saintly virtue was evident in her life.

MUCH SAINTLY VIRTUE WAS EVIDENT IN HER LIFE

After she had done the duty of her daily work, it was a recreation and joy to her to help the poor and sick in the neighbourhood and to give to them of the food that she had saved from her mouth. 

SHE HELPED THE SICK

The legend reports that there was a leper asylum not far from the castle, where she gave the sick spiritual and physical help and cleaned them. Legend also relates that, one day, when her suspicious master asked her what she was carrying from the castle, the pieces of bread in her apron suddenly turned into combs and the soup in the dishes turned into lye, the latter being essentials for her maid's duties.

SHE WAS ATTACKED BY WOLVES

On one of her trips to the poor she was attacked by hungry wolves and died of her wounds three days after. The landlord wanted the loyal maid to be buried in his family crypt in Augsburg, but by divine providence the hearse suddenly stopped and could not be taken any further. 

THE HEARSE STOPPED

Thereupon, two oxen were employed to pull the hearse. Those beasts brought it back to the place of the leper asylum she had so often visited. The body was buried here and a chapel was built over it, which soon received her name.

A CHAPEL WAS BUILT

In 1450 the chapel was renovated throughout and in the year 1464 consecrated in honour of St Ursula and St Radegundis by the auxiliary bishop Jodoc von Adramytum. 

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)