St Agnes of Bohemia

March 6 is the feast day of St Agnes of Bohemia.

I have posted previously about her in pieces from 2012 hereand from last year, here
Both are based on posts by John Dillon, who again has a post today on the Medieval Religion discussion group about her with some illustrations of her and her cult:

Agnes of Bohemia (also Agnes of Prague; in Czech, Anežka Česká or Anežka Přemyslovna) was the youngest daughter of king Ottokar I of Bohemia.  A very devout person educated in Cistercian and Premonstratensian monasteries, she devoted herself to prayers and good works while waiting through a series of betrothals that never got as far as an actual marriage.  In 1231, with the assistance of Pope Gregory IX, Agnes extricated herself from the last of these to her unwelcome arrangements of state.  Agnes soon founded a hospital at Prague, next to which she established a convent of Poor Clares, entering it in 1233 or 1234 along with five other religious sent by St. Clare of Assisi, with whom she remained in correspondence.  In time she herself became its abbess, though she preferred to be called soror maior.

To manage and staff her hospital (which in 1252 moved to a new location), in 1233 Agnes founded a community of Franciscan-affiliated lay brothers, Fratres hospitalares.  The community was approved canonically in 1235, was raised to the status of an exempt Order in 1237, and in 1252 was authorized to use the differentiating symbol that made them the Crosiers of the Red Star (Ordo militaris Crucigerorum cum rubea stella; Kreuzherren mit dem Roten Stern).  Agnes died in 1282.  She was beatified in 1874 and canonized in 1989.  Her day of commemoration in the RM is March 6th, her dies natalis.

Herewith an illustrated English-language account of the deconsecrated churches and other buildings in Prague's Convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia (Klášter sv. Anežky České), built from the 1230s to the 1280s and now part of the National Gallery in Prague, housing its extensive collection of medieval art from central Europe:
http://tinyurl.com/7h3d9wh
A more detailed account is here (scroll down to "Object history"):
http://tinyurl.com/zvynu33
Other views:
http://tinyurl.com/dy3j6o

http://tinyurl.com/cbofbp

http://img.trivago.com/uploadimages/45/32/4532467_l.jpeg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tjflex/8009594135/
http://tinyurl.com/j72a69o
http://tinyurl.com/grwclp8
http://tinyurl.com/hdpy6lq


Some period-pertinent images of Agnes of Bohemia:

a) Agnes as portrayed on a late thirteenth-century column capital (c. 1270-1280) from the church of the Holy Saviour (St. Salvator) in Prague's Convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia, on display in the National Gallery of Prague's exhibition devoted to her there:

http://img.radio.cz/pictures/r/vystavy/anezka/hlavice.jpg

b) Agnes as depicted (presenting a model of a church to Grand Master Lev) in the mid-fourteenth-century Breviary of Grand Master Lev (1356; Prague, Národní knihovna České Republiky, cod. XVIII. F6):
http://tinyurl.com/zphhnw9 [grayscale]


Detail images [in colour]:

http://wwwold.nkp.cz/bp/obr/151.gif

http://www.praha.eu/public/1/57/96/839481_80681_anezka_rok_hleani_2.jpg

c) Agnes as depicted in two panels of the dismembered late fifteenth-century Nikolaus Puchner altarpiece (1482; also Crosiers' altarpiece) on display in Prague's Convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia:
1) ministering to a man sick in bed:

http://tinyurl.com/z5fmckh

2) presenting a model of a church to Grand Master Nikolaus Puchner:

http://tinyurl.com/hrom5lp

The surviving panels re-mounted:
http://tinyurl.com/havoyh9

St Agnes of Bohemia

Today is the feast or commemoration of St Agnes of Bohemia (d. 1282). John Dillon posted the following about her on the Medieval Religion discussion group;

Agnes (also Agnes of Prague; in Czech, Anežka Česká or Anežka Přemyslovna) was the youngest daughter of King Ottokar I of Bohemia. Through her mother she was a cousin of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. A very devout person, educated in Cistercian and Premonstratensian monasteries, she devoted herself to prayers and good works while waiting through a series of betrothals that never got as far as an actual marriage. In 1231, with the assistance of Pope Gregory IX, Agnes extricated herself from the last of these unwelcome arrangements of state. She soon founded a hospital at Prague, next to which she established a convent of Poor Clares, entering it in 1233 or 1234 along with five other religious sent by St. Clare of Assisi, with whom she remained in correspondence. In time Agnes herself became its abbess, though she preferred to be called soror maior.

To manage and staff her hospital, in 1233 Agnes founded a community of Franciscan-affiliated lay brothers, Fratres hospitalares. The community was approved canonically in 1235, was raised to the status of an exempt Order in 1237, and in 1252 was authorized to use the differentiating symbol that made them the Crosiers of the Red Star (Ordo militaris Crucigerorum cum rubea stella; Kreuzherren mit dem Roten Stern). In that year the hospital was moved to a new location.

Agnes was beatified in 1874 and canonized in 1989. Her _dies natalis_ would seem to have been 2. March but her day of commemoration in the RM is March 6th . Herewith an English-language account of Prague's Convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia (Klášter sv. Anežky České), built from the 1230s to the 1280s:

http://tinyurl.com/7h3d9wh

Better views:

http://tinyurl.com/dy3j6o

http://media.novinky.cz/982/249825-original1-1slkj.jpg

http://www.kudykam.com/img/mista/mid/1345-3711.jpg

Some medieval images of Agnes of Bohemia:

a) Agnes presenting to the Grand Master of the Crosiers a model of their church, as depicted in a full-page illumination the mid-fourteenth-century Breviary of Grand Master Leo (1356; Prague, National Library, sign. XVIII f. 6):

http://tinyurl.com/lxcgmhu

There's a somewhat clearer image in Gábor Klaniczay, Holy Rulers and Blessed Princesses: Dynastic Cults in Medieval Central Europe, tr. Éva Pálmai (Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 239; in Google Books at:

http://tinyurl.com/na8r9sd [click on the hotlink].

b) Agnes presenting to the Grand Master of the Crosiers a model of their church and Agnes ministering to a man sick in bed, as depicted on panels of the late fifteenth-century Kreuzherren-Altar (a.k.a. Altarpiece of Nicolas Puchner; 1482) in the National Gallery's site at her convent:

http://tinyurl.com/o3732kr

and

http://tinyurl.com/mjlelg5

http://tinyurl.com/pcubek6

Somewhat less certain images of Agnes of Bohemia are:

c) this hooded figure on a carved column capital from the altar area of the convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia's later thirteenth-century church of the Holy Savior (kostel Sv. Salvátora), also in the National Gallery site at the convent:

http://tinyurl.com/ktunbu7

and

d) the nun depicted in the lower register of the initial "S" at the outset of the Passio of St. Agnes of Rome in the later thirteenth-century Lectionary of Arnold of Meißen (the _pars hiemalis_ of the so-called Osek Lectionary of ca. 1270, dubiously thought to be of Franciscan origin), also in the National Library in Prague:

http://bajger.wz.cz/frk/img/osecky_lekcionar_low.jpg

Detail view (nun):

http://tinyurl.com/ow77tvk

Traditionally interpreted as a portrait of Agnes of Bohemia, this image could be that of Agnes of Kamenz, a nun of the Cistercian convent of Marienstern (possibly the lectionary's original home) and, on one interpretation, a daughter of its noble founder. Or that of some other Agnes.

St Agnes of Bohemia

Today is the feast, inter alia, of St Agnes of Bohemia (1211-1282).

She stands in that high and later medieval central European tradition of royal piety that includes St Elizabeth of Hungary, St Margaret of Hungary and St Casimir of Poland - determined offspring of dynasties who brought aristocratic single-mindedness to the service of the Church and the poor.

Also known as Agnes of Prague (in Czech, Anežka Česká or Anežka Přemyslovna) she was the youngest daughter of King Ottokar I of Bohemia. Very devout, educated in Cistercian and Premonstratensian monasteries, she led a life of prayer and good works while waiting through a series of betrothals that never resulted in an actual marriage. With the assistance of Pope Gregory IX, she extricated herself in 1231 from the last of these unwelcome arrangements of state. She soon founded a hospital at Prague, next to which she established a convent of Poor Clares, entering it in 1233 or 1234 along with five other religious sent by St. Clare of Assisi, with whom she remained in correspondence. Agnes became its abbess, though not immediately and she preferred to be called soror maior.

To manage and staff her hospital (which in 1252 moved to a new location), in 1233 Agnes founded a community of Franciscan-affiliated lay brothers, Fratres hospitalares. The community was approved canonically in 1235, was raised to the status of an exempt Order in 1237, and in 1252 was authorized to use the differentiating symbol that made them the Crosiers of the Red Star (Ordo militaris Crucigerorum cum rubea stella; Kreuzherren mit dem Roten Stern).

Agnes was beatified in 1874 and canonized in 1989. Her dies natalis and day of commemoration falls on 6 March. There is a photograph of her as portrayed on a (?) fourteenth-century column capital in Prague in an article about the exhibition which opened last year to mark the 800th anniversary of her birth and which can be read here :
http://tinyurl.com/7p9v8e4


The surviving buildings of Prague's Convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia (Klášter sv. Anežky České), built from the 1230s to the 1280s can be seen here:

Image: John Dillon

There are other pictures of the buildings here, here and here.

The site is now part of the National Gallery. Among its holdings is the Crosiers' Altar (Kreuzherren-Altar) of 1482 with its panel painting on wood of St Agnes ministering to a patient:

St Agnes tends an invalid.
She still wears the headress appropriate to her rank over her veil.

Image: Wikipedia

What appeals about this picture are the details of daily life at the time, typical of fifteenth century Netherlandish and Germanic depictions of late medieval households. The bedding, for example, would not look amiss in a modern shop display.

With acknowledgements to John Dillon's post on the Medieval Religion discussion group