Saint Henry II, King (972-1024). Feast Day: 13Jul

Henry II, called “the Good,” was declared the patron saint of the Benedictine Oblates by Pope St. Pius X, and was probably born in Hildesheim, Bavaria, Germany. When his father died he became the duke of Bavaria in 995 and emperor in 1002 when his cousin Otto III died. His wife was St. Cunegundis and St. Herisbert was his chancellor. A patron of the Benedictines, he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Benedict VIII.

Henry’s main political aim was to nullify and consolidate the German Empire. This was largely achieved through wars in the East and in Lombardy. He used the Church for his political ends, but, after being crowned by the pope in 1014, he restored property and wealth in several sees and founded that of Bamberg, where he built both the cathedral and a monastery. He became the friend of Odilo of Cluny and promoted the movement of reform of ecclesiastical and monastic life within the Church.

As German king and Holy Roman Emperor, Henry was a practical man of affairs and energetic in consolidating his rule. He crushed rebellions and feuds. On all sides he had to deal with drawn-out disputes so as to protect his frontiers. This involved him in a number of battles, especially in the south of Italy; he also helped Pope Benedict VIII quell disturbances in Rome. Always his ultimate purpose was to establish a stable peace in Europe.

Later legend claimed that Henry’s childless marriage to Cunegund was a virgin marriage and that he pursued other ascetical ideals. Tradition states that Henry wanted to be a Benedictine and lived as an Oblate. He was also miraculously cured of an illness by the intercession of St. Benedict of Nursia. He was canonized a saint in 1146 by Pope Eugene III.

Henry II was a man of his times. He may have seemed too quick to do battle and too ready to use power to accomplish reforms. But, granted such limitations, he shows that holiness is possible in a busy secular life. It is in doing our job that we become saints.

“We deem it opportune to remind our children of their duty to take an active part in public life and to contribute toward the attainment of the common good of the entire human family as well as to that of their own political community. They should endeavor, therefore, in the light of their Christian faith and led by love, to insure that the various institutions—whether economic, social, cultural or political in purpose—should be such as not to create obstacles, but rather to facilitate or render less arduous man’s perfecting himself in both the natural order and the supernatural… Every believer in this world of ours must be a spark of light, a center of love, a vivifying leaven amidst his fellow men. And he will be this all the more perfectly, the more closely he lives in communion with God in the intimacy of his own soul” (Blessed Pope John XXII, “Peace on Earth, 146 164).

Bibliography:  

Bunson, Matthew, Margaret Bunson, and Stephen Bunson. “Encyclopedia of Saints-Revised.” Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2003.

Farmer, David. “Oxford Dictionary of Saints.” New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Foley, Leonard, O.F.M., and Pat McCloskey, O.F.M. “Saint of the Day.” Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2009.