Santa Cunegunda, patron saint of Luxembourgwas born around 980 of a noble family. At the age of twenty she married St. Henry II, Duke of Bavaria, who, knowing that she was sterile, did not repudiate her, but preferred to live with her. They were crowned kings of Germany, and later in Rome they received the imperial crown from the hands of Pope Benedict VIII.
During his reign he suffered a serious illness. He vowed that if he was cured, he would found a Benedictine monastery. When she recovered, work began. Henry II died before it was finished, and she assumed the regency of the empire. She helped the poor. Widowed and childless, she retired to the monastery she had founded (Kaufungen, Hesse), and lived there as a nun, doing prayer and humble tasks, until her death in 1040.
Founders in the United States and Italy
St. Catherine Drexel (Philadelphia, U.S.A., 1858), soon perceived the terrible state in which many Indians and blacks lived, and generously helped the missionaries who cared for them. In 1887 he asked Pope Leo XIII for more missionaries, and the Pope suggested to him that he become she missionary. She gave herself to God and founded the congregation of the Religious of the Blessed Sacrament. for Indians and blacksin which he professed.
The Italian Saint Teresa Eustoquio Verzeri was born in Bergamo in 1801. Since she was a child, she followed a process of interior purification, which made her live the experience of the absence of God. She dedicated herself to teaching, and at the age of 30 she founded the Congregation of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart, which cares for young people at risk, broken homes, children without families or sick people.
Martyrs in Ethiopia
Also from the March 3 are the Franciscan priest martyrs of Gondar (Ethiopia), Blessed Liberato Weiss (Bavarian), and Blessed Samuel Marzorati and Blessed Michael Pio Fasoli (Italian). The Catholic Church was trying to re-establish full communion with the Coptic Church. In 1697, the Holy See opened the mission of Ethiopia and entrusted it to the Franciscans. The Blesseds were well received in Gondar, but were slandered and stoned in 1716.
