GISELA, BL.

Queen of Hungary; b. c. 973; d. c. 1060. She was the daughter of St. Henry II (d. 995), duke of Bavaria, and became the wife of St. stephen i, king of Hungary. The tradition according to which she died in 1095 in Passau cannot be taken seriously, nor can the tombstone preserved there be regarded as hers. She died probably in exile or in the seclusion of a convent at an uncertain date. She married Stephen c. 996 and gave birth to several children, including St. emeric of hungary. After the death of her husband she became deeply involved in the intrigues created by the problems of his succession. Stephen's successor, the Italian Peter I (d. 1041), is traditionally depicted as a villain, and it is possible that many of the virtues ascribed to Gisela were meant to emphasize the shortcomings of Peter, with whom she came in growing conflict. Gisela has not been canonized and is not normally honored as a saint, although her case is still under consideration by the Holy See.

Feast: May 7.

Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum May 2 (1863) 132. j. mabillon, Acta sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti, 9 v. (Paris 1668–1701; 2d ed. Venice 1733–40) 7:803. a. m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum: Die Heiligen und Seligen des Benediktinerorderns und seiner Zweige, 4 v. (Metten 1933–38) 2:159, 161. j. szalay, Catholicisme 5:36. j. roka, Leben der heil. Gisela (Vienna 1777). w. m. schmid, Das Grab der Königin Gisela von Ungarn, Gemahlin Stephans I. des Heiligen (Munich 1912). f. zsuzsa, ed., Gizella és kora: felolvasóülések az Árpád-korból (Veszprém, Hungary 1993).

[d. sinor]