BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Wednesday, March 14, Third Week of Lent

ST. MATHILDE OF SAXONY (Germany, d 968), Queen, Mother, Widow
Born to noble parents, Mathilde was raised by her grandmother, the Abbess of Erfurt convent. In 909, she married Otto the Fowler, who became Duke of Saxony when his father died, then succeeded to the German throne in 919. As queen, she was noted for her piety and charitable works. Widowed in 936, she supported her younger son Henry against her firstborn Otto to succeed to their father. But Otto prevailed, and would become known as Otto the Great when he became the first Holy Roman Emperor. Mathilda, criticized by her sons for her extravagant charities, gave over her inheritance to them and retired to her country home. She had to intervene many times when her younger son led uprisings against Otto, eventually dying in 955. She went on to build three convents and a monastery, and was left in charge of the kingdom when Otto went to Rome to be crowned Emperor. She spent the declining years of her life in the Nordhausen convent she had built but died at the monastery in Oedlinburg where she was buried beside her husband.
Readings for today's Mass: usccb.org/bible/readings/031412.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

General Audience - The Holy Father started a new chapter in his catecheses on Christian prayer to reflect on prayers found in the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters of St. Paul. Today's catechesis, in St. Peter's square, was devoted to Mary as the exemplar of prayer in recollection. Among those he met after the catechesis was an Irish delegation led by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin who came to report on preparations for the 50th Eucharistic Congress to be held in Dublin this June.