Jolenta of Hungary, Bl.
JOLENTA OF HUNGARY, BL.
Widow, Poor Clare nun; b. Hungary, c. 1235; d. Gniezno, Poland, c. 1298–99. Jolenta (Yolande, Helena) was a grandniece of St. hedwig, a niece of St. elizabeth of hungary, and a sister of SS. margaret of hungary and kinga of Poland. Her father was King Bela IV of Hungary and her mother, Mary, a daughter of the Emperor of Constantinople. At the age of five, Jolenta was placed under the care of her sister Kinga, queen of Poland,
wife of Boleslas V the Chaste. Jolenta married Duke Boleslas VI the Pious of Kalisz. After the duke died in 1279 and two daughters had married, she and her youngest daughter joined her widowed sister Kinga in the poor clare convent at Stary Sacz. Later Jolenta moved to the Poor Clare convent she and her husband had founded at Gniezno, and there held the office of abbess. Originally authorized by urban viii, Jolenta's cult was approved by leo xii in 1827. Prior to 1961 her feast was observed by all three branches of the First Order of St. Francis.
Feast: June 15.
Bibliography: lÉon de clary, Lives of the Saints and Blessed of the Three Orders of St. Francis, 4 v. (Taunton, England 1885–87) v.2. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater, 4 v. (New York 1956) 2:550. m. a. habig, Franciscan Book of Saints (Chicago 1959) 421–423.
[m. a. habig]