King Henry I "The Fowler" and
Saint Matilda, Queen of Germany
I LOVE the saints of the early middle ages, especially since I am descended from or otherwise related to a good number of them. Many were of the nobility, which married into one another, and so I am a cousin to myself a hundred times over!
Saint Matilda,whose feast day is the 14th of March, is my 31st great grandmother. I am descended from TWO of her daughters, which is not such an unusual thing, given that the nobility marries the nobility and a lot can happen in 30 generations!
The thing that struck me when refreshing myself by reading about my ancestor Saint Matilda, (who was married to King Henry I "The Fowler" of East Francia (Germany) my 31st great grandfather), is that, without fail, these saintly noble ancestors, in addition to discharging duties of government, were often extremely pious people who worked hard to make sure that the spiritual needs of their people were met, to an equal or greater degree than even their efforts to consolidate their power and influence over their country - which is something that we do not see very much in modern times.
With regard to my holy grandmothers, they very often established and/or built up and repaired great monastic institutions for both men and women. In the case of Matilda, there were several monasteries for women, the most famous being Quedlinburg Abbey that she founded in 936. One day I hope to study the history of the self-ruling "Imperial Abbeys of the Holy Roman Empire."
Unfortunately, Quedlinburg was disestablished in 1802 or 1803, but in the nearly 900 years of its existence, it was a place of great prestige and influence. Currently, it is now used by the Lutherans in Germany. Apparently, the castle, abbey, church and outbuildings, which are considered masterpieces of Romanesque architecture, are in excellent shape. Consequently, the site is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is a shame for the Catholic Church to have lost it, but at least it hasn't been turned into a mosque! Will ANYTHING Donald Trump creates still be standing a thousand years from now?
As a Catholic convert, I feel I have missed the best of times in the history of the church. It would have been grand to see Quedlinburg in its heyday, wouldn't it? My great grandparents are buried there, and I would love to have been able to see it. Too late, though. I am too old and disabled to travel anywhere.
QUEDLINBURG OLD TOWN
Queen Matilda initiated and supported numerous charitable endeavors, and she formed religious institutions, the remnants of which are still standing to this day, as impressive but quiet reminders of the glory days of the Catholic Church and of my sainted ancestors' great contributions to it.
At the same time, Saint Matilda was a dutiful wife and an exemplar of saintly love to her children, making her an icon of motherhood as she supported her family's temporal and spiritual needs.
She was so famous for her piety, humility, and steady devotion to the Lord that her husband, the king, regularly sought her advice on all important matters of state. He trusted her discretion and judgment to such an extent, that he constantly bestowed upon her the riches of his position so that she could care for the needy, as well as establish monasteries throughout the city for the many folks who wished to devote their entire lives to the service of the Lord.
After King Henry's death, Matilda continued to honor him and pray for him, interring his body at Quedlinburg and thereafter creating the monastery at that location, where she reigned as abbess, while at the same time attending to matters of state and the business affairs of her family, which were quite complicated.
Children Of Saint Matilda
Matilda's Daughter
Hedwig of Saxony
(1) Her daughter, Hedwig of Saxony, married Hugh Magnus of Paris ("Hugh the Great"), who was Duke of the Franks and the Count of Paris. (They are my 30th Great Grandparents.) Hugh was a descendant of Charlemagne, and this is one of the lines of descent from Charlemagne to me. You can well imagine the intensity of the marriage negotiations and other affairs of state in connection with this section of the family.
Her son, Otto the Great,
Holy Roman Emperor
(2) Matilda's son Otto "The Great" was most prominent in history books, first inheriting the Duchy of Saxony and kingship of the Germans upon his father's death, and then continuing the efforts to unify the Germanic tribes into a single kingdom while expanding the king's powers and reducing the aristocracy's grasp. I imagine that Matilda may have been ambivalent at her son's subjection of the clergy to his control, and his conflicts with the papacy. At the same time, he was credited as being the savior of Christendom because of his victory against the pagan Magyars in 955. In 962, he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII in Rome. I suppose these complexities are worthy of entire books, rather than a short mention in a blog post about his mother!
Matilda's daughter, Gerberga
(3) Matilda's daughter Gerberga first married Duke Gilbert of Lorraine, and together they had 4 children. He fought against Gerberga's brother Otto I, who defeated him at the Battle of Andernach, from which battle Gilbert was trying to escape when he drowned in the River Rhine.
Gerberga next married King Louis IV of France and together they are ALSO my 30th Great Grandparents. She is credited with having a very high native intelligence and was well educated. As such, she became a figure to be reckoned with in the court of King Louis IV. At the same time, they had 8 children together, one of whom was Mathilda, who married Conrad I "The Peaceful" of Burgundy and became his Queen. (They are my 29th Great Grandparents.)
I would love to see a film made about Gerberga and King Louis IV, at the very least. I think it is worth my time to at least study these famous great-grandparents of mine.
Her Son, Duke Henry von Bayern
(4) Matilda's son, Duke Henry von Bayern, Duke of Bavaria, has a life story rife with fighting, much of it with his older brother, Otto, from whom he hoped to wrest the crown but was unsuccessful. Their relationship flipped back and forth, with Duke Henry at one time trying to have his brother poisoned, then the two of them reconciling, and then fighting with one another once more. He seems the unhappiest of all her children, and it proves to me that fighting for the sake of power is ultimately an exercise in despair. He had 3 children with his wife Judith, daughter of Arnulf I of Bavaria and Judith of Friuli (a 32nd great grandaunt of mine from her father, Saint Eberhard of Friulu, my 33rd great grandfather.)
(5) Saint Bruno "The Great," was probably the second most interesting of Saint Matilda's children, as far as I am concerned. At a very young age, it was decided that he would be dedicated to the religious life and pursue a clerical career. He had the advantage of being educated in Trier by the famous Israel the Grammarian. (I admit to some envy when I read this because I was raised without any religion whatsoever and I often wonder how much better I might have turned out, had I the advantage of early education in religion.) In addition, Bruno had the benefit of the support of his older brother, Otto (Holy Roman Emperor) who made him Duke of Lotharingia. He was also archbishop, so was an "archduke," a powerful position and the combination of rulership both temporal and religious. Bruno also behaved as the regent for Otto when he was out of the country. His court was primarily artistic and intellectual, which was a great boon to Germany at the time. Many great ecclesiastical leaders were educated in Bruno's court, including Theodoric, Bishop of Metz, who is a cousin of mine of some sort, though there are so many named "Theodoric" it is hard to say exactly WHICH Theodoric it was, and where he fits into my family tree.
One of the improvements wrought by Bruno was the remarkable improvement and expansion of the Cathedral in Cologne. According to Wikipedia, it was considered to rival that of St. Peter's in Rome. Imagine having the wherewithal to erect such a gorgeous vehicle of worship as something such as this cathedral!
Cathedral of Cologne, built on the original site
Today I am thinking how wonderful it would have been if our religion and our government were NOT separate, and I know I will probably get a lot of flack for saying this, but I have come to the conclusion that the separation of Church and State has some drawbacks. It may have been a bad call that was more reactionary than well-considered.
Although our system of government and laws were originally based upon Christian principles, we have gradually deviated further and further away from these principles. The far right is fond of claiming that it is only "the left" that has done this, but they are only thinking of their own hobby horses when they make this claim. Each political party has its own area where it deviates from Christian principles. It is as if the Christian fundamentals were divvied up and each party picked its favorite Christian principles, while retaining some Satanic ones as well!
This fracturing of the faith, and the divvying-up in which was decided which Christian values belong to which political party, has gradually, over the years, perverted our society because the culture has been regulated by a twisted set of expectations that are not cohesive. No matter WHICH political party is in power, the goals of that party are contorted so that members are forced to support vile sins in order to "own" certain other aspects of Christian belief.
There is no unitary, complementary set of values that all the political parties share with one another. It did not used to be as bad as it is now, but over the years the parties have grown further and further apart, each going in its own direction. According to the statistics I've seen, most Americans are in the middle somewhere, yet the news programs feature extremes of the right and left, depending on who you watch.
Accompanying this political reality is the advent of wacky evangelical "Dominion theory" in which Christians are exhorted to "take dominion over" the various spheres of the world that are directly ruled by government, thus "necessitating" a hostile takeover of the government. This has ultimately resulted in the MAGA movement and partially explains twice divorced, 34-times felon, graft-inclined, Russian-corrupted Donald Trump being accepted as the God-ordained leader, despite his total moral and ethical bankruptcy.
If you are not familiar with Evangelical "dominion theory," I encourage you to watch the following two videos that discuss it and related theories.
VIDEO PART ONE: Two Pastors Discuss the Book "The Violent Take it by Force." LINK TO PART ONE
VIDEO PART TWO: Two Pastors Discuss the Book "The Violent Take it by Force." LINK TO PART TWO
These misguided Christians ("Protestants"), who already belong to a group that only exists because of rebellion against the Catholic faith, allow themselves to be led down various garden paths because that is what PROTESTants do. They are always remaking the church and opening up new churches with new versions of the theology. Every guy who becomes convinced that his beef against his own PROTESTant version of the faith is the RIGHT version then goes and hangs up his church shingle and advertises whatever bright idea he has about how Jesus should be explained to the population and how the Christian theology should be changed to accommodate his particular vision. The only thing constant about the various Protestant churches is the constant change.
(The thing that I appreciate about the Catholic faith is that it has been THE faith of Christ since Jesus was on earth. The theology of The Faith has not changed much since Christ gave the keys of the Church to Peter, whom we recognize as the first Pope. We have had our scandals and our failings but we have not changed our theology and opened up a new church with every celebrity preacher that comes along with yet another new and bright idea. UNFORTUNATELY, at times throughout its history, unscrupulous and, sometimes debauched clerics have subjected The Church to their perversions, graft and corruptions. But our saving grace is that The Faith has remained unsullied, though our history has frequently endured disgraceful ages. I say I prefer this situation to that of the Protestants, whose only constancy is constant proliferation of "churches.")
After the evangelicals anointed Trump as their God-destined leader, he used the political clout of their votes in order to take power, but none of those evangelicals have been given the "dominion" they crave. Instead, Trump has handed the government over to the filthy rich oligarchs like Elon Musk, who is using that power to punish the agencies that were investigating his business practices, on the one hand, and ripping up all the agencies that exist to help people both here and in the rest of the world, thereby freeing up money to fund tax breaks for the uber-wealthy at the expense of the vulnerable, the poor, the hungry, the veterans, the seniors, and the homeless.
This is approximately how "The Right" has ultimately been hijacked by a handful of individual authoritarians who are one of the small group of wealthiest Americans looking to swing the government in their favor, to both eliminate all remaining taxes for themselves and to, ultimately, control the government directly through a super-sized executive branch that, instead of cooperating in government with the other two co-equal branches, as provided for in the Constitution, has now taken to itself the powers of a dictator over all the branches of government.
The overarching goal of this tight band of oligarchs is the protection and increase of their own personal wealth. Whatever high-minded ideals that prompted the Evangelicals to support Trump and his MAGA movement are completely absent from what Trump is enacting.
But the Evangelicals made it all possible and most of them are defending the vile cruelty that this administration is enacting. Trump is ruling exclusively by executive order, instead of operating within the legal, official, and customary procedures and, as usual, I take exception to his methods. He is punishing and deporting and firing people without due process. Nixon tried to do the same thing. The only way to combat this maneuver is through court cases, which take time. However, like Nixon, Trump is losing every case that comes before a judge, at which point, Trump lashes out at the individual judges and slanders them in public, saying that they are "very bad judges" and using other ridiculous slurs.
Trump disobeys the direct orders of the court but immediately publicly proclaims that he has never disobeyed a court order. He just denies reality and his cult members believe him absolutely, while the rest of us watch the videos that SHOW the action being done, like the child caught with his hand in the cookie jar!
The evangelical movers and shakers have served up America to Trump on a plate. He and his wealthy cohort are eating us alive.
The only legal process by which to stop Trump is impeachment, but the House and Senate are packed with Republican cowards who will not vote to protect our Constitutional form of government if it could possibly interfere with their political aspirations. They are prepared to go down with the sinking ship of our democracy that they have taken apart, plank by precious historical plank.
A growing number of Republican voters, however, are beginning to experience the natural consequences of enabling Trump to pull the trigger on his royal fantasies. They may have been duped into voting against their own interests, but they are not so deluded or brainwashed that they cannot see how they and their loved ones are quickly being irreparably damaged by Trump's destructive methods.
If Trump only knew what is required of a real king, he wouldn't be so quick to claim to be one, because the great kings are expected to protect their people. They don't go to war against them.
Donald Trump recently posted a fake picture of himself on a fictional "Time" Magazine cover, wearing the crown of a king, with the words "Long Live the King" printed in large letters underneath that portrait, and I object to him thinking that he could ever be a king. He bears no resemblance to my holy ancestors whose monuments to The God of my faith still stand today, hundreds of years later, as testament to their devotion to and service of The Faith and their people.
Just look at the situation in which we find ourselves today. Our president, frustrated by the restraints put on his perverse will, has recently decided to just do whatever he wants, and is disobeying the direct orders of the highest courts in the land. His party has traveled so far away from the values they used to revere that they no longer adhere, even marginally, to our customs, our laws or our Constitutional code of conduct. Power and control are all that matters to them, and the Christian values and aspirations are no longer their own. They are imposters. Their connection to the Christian faith that originally informed our government, and to which most of them claim allegiance, has become so frayed over the years that it has finally become split apart and it is "anything goes" at this point.
In subservience to Trump and his demand for unquestioning loyalty, I watch these political figureheads tell brazen, egregious lies so preposterous, they might as well be covered over with a single transparent piece of tissue paper. Their enthusiastic surrender to Trump, like dogs happily exposing their bellies to their master, is a repugnant sight.
Those on the right are fond of touting their Christianity, and Trump claims to be a Christian but he is enacting some of the cruelest and most dangerous actions that we have seen since Hitler. You can't even call them "policies" since he has gone rogue and behaves as if the Executive Branch is at the head of the other two branches of government that were designed to be co-equal.
Christ said that His most important commandments were to love God and to love one's neighbor as oneself, but we have reached the point, for the second time in our American history, that we are terribly divided and half of the country is cheering on the cruelty of Donald Trump, who is firing thousands of people without cause or due process and illegally shutting down entire agencies that were designed to feed the hungry, house the homeless, and treat our neighbors with love.
When I started typing this blog post, planes were landing in El Salvador, full of Venezuelan prisoners - on their way to the most dangerous, dirtiest, most unsafe prison in the Western hemisphere. Against the orders of the Federal court, Trump deported these men without cause and without due process.
According to reliable reports, some (if not all of the prisoners) were in our country legally, with green cards, at least. At least one I know of for sure had no criminal record AT ALL and was never a member of any gang. (The reason we know this is that relatives of these men have started appearing. Their husbands, brothers and fathers disappeared, and it wasn't until they caught sight of them on television that they realized they had been ambushed and sent to an infamous prison in a foreign country not their own.
There has been no due process that would allow deportation. There was no trial and no judgment. We can't say that none of them should be deported either. Trump is acting as judge and jury, and no one knows the facts because he is hiding the facts.
When the court asked the Trump attorneys what are the names of the people he deported to El Salvador, Trump's attorneys refused to give the judge the information. When the judge asked them which LAW they are depending upon which allows them to hide this information, they refused to tell the judge what is the law! They are operating as dictator, pure and simple.
In order to justify the ambush, kidnapping and illegal transportation of these people, Trump is citing a war-time law that was last used in World War II as justification for the mass deportation, when he does not have the right to do so. We are not at war, unless Trump is at war with the American people.
The court had ordered that the planes turn around and return to the USA but Trump just ignored the court and did what he wanted to do. Our country is operating as a fascist state, with an elected dictator at its helm. Before this dictatorship is solidified, we must do something about it, otherwise the Constitution has been permanently trashed.
Even before he took office, I have been warning everyone that Trump is dangerous. but a large portion of MAGA think he is a big Christian because of the dominion theory touted widely by Evangelicals. He made a dark bargain with protestant leaders, promising certain things, mostly the destruction of Roe v. Wade, but Trump's stated values and behavior show that he is not even remotely Christian.
Modern "Christians" seem willing to support all manner of despicable sins of his because these wacky new theories make the claim that Trump is like King David who also did a lot of very bad, sinful things, so therefor Trump can do the same, which makes no sense for many reasons, but we just do not have the TIME to delve into that, nor am I an expert on the Evangelicals so that I can adequately explain it all.
Don't imagine that because I am finding fault with Trump and his methods that I am an enthusiastic Democrat. No. I am not. The left has gone far too far to the left.
The latest surveys tell us that about 70% of the culture WANTS some restrictions to abortions. They do not want unfettered access and they are not comfortable with people using abortion as a method of birth control. I happen to think that abortions are too easily given. I am also not buying into the whole "trans" fad. You can make a man look like a woman but you can't turns a man's body into a woman's body, and that's a fact, but I don't like the METHODS of Trump.
I think the left has let individual freedoms interfere with the welfare of the rest of the population. When the population conflates "freedom" with licentiousness, it hurts society as a whole. Individual freedoms should end at the point at which the exercise of these individual freedoms results in damage to society and/or culture.
I remember when Roe v. Wade was being put into law, and the lawmakers said that abortion would be RARE. It has not proved to be rare. It has just given women more confidence that they need not plan for the logical consequences of having sex.
Between "The Pill" and abortion, women no longer have to "worry" about becoming pregnant, but it makes me sorry for them because it weakens their position when they would really rather say "no" to sex when someone they are dating is pushing for it. Marriages have suffered because of it, and the birth rate has plummeted, which is not good for our society, because we are now top-heavy with baby boomers retiring and there are few young people to care for them or to populate the work force. People were not meant to be killing the majority of the babies they conceive. The numbers do not work for the benefit of the society. It is simple math.
The exalted nature of human marriage and sex life is in the trash heap. The glory of human relationship has been demeaned. No one waits for marriage to have sex, including the Catholics, and more than 90% of couples are using (or have used) contraception and have NO compunction about having sex prior to marriage, and usually even flaunt their condition by living together prior to marriage. There is an awful lot of presumption of forgiveness going on, and I can't remember the last time I heard a homily about the sanctity of the sexual act. No one seems to be talking about saving sex for marriage.
The degradation and diminishment of the majesty of women is evident everywhere. Fashions make them look like prostitutes, exposing so much skin on the public streets and on social media that I find it embarrassing.
It has become impossible for me to find anything suitable to watch for entertainment because the ethics and standards of conduct in all of the movies and television programs are just vulgar. Women are pictured as being enthusiastic participants in their own abasement.
This disintegration of our culture has surprised me because the culture HAD seemed to be moving in the direction of protecting the condition of women, when I was young. I saw how damaging our misogynistic customs were to us. I marched for the ERA, convinced that it would eventually pass, but it did not happen. Our insistence upon being treated with respect somehow failed - probably because women let themselves down
I was raised by the most misogynistic man I ever met - my father - who treated women like possessions and cheated on every one of them.
Raised without any stability, and with a complete lack of religious instruction, it took me a few decades to get myself on the right path, having made a LOT of mistakes in the interim, giving in to societal pressures that were not good for me. I knew there was something better, and I searched for God for many years, through many paths. It was a VERY stressful search, due to the vulgar, unloving nature of my natal family and the culture into which I was dumped. I feel like much of my life was an utter waste because of it.
This is exactly why our authoritative structures, from our natal families to our societal groups and our government bodies would probably have been better guided by religious and spiritual principles. If children grow up in the religious framework, there is at least SOME support for growing in a holy direction. But, with no guardrails in place, there is very little to inspire children to grow toward God.
Yes, I realize that many people in the Catholic Church made a terrible hash of things and there were horrible sins committed, but this does not mean that it is wrong to aspire to becoming holy, now does it?
Isn't it better to aspire to holiness and risk failure than to aspire to nothing more than financial wealth? Look at Donald Trump. He is a perfect example of what happens when a person is devoted only to money, fame and extravagance.
Because of my sorry family and sad introduction to our warped society, I find myself fantasizing what it would have been like, had we never separated church from state. I imagine what it would be like to live in a Catholic culture and that every day at Six, Noon and Six the church bells would ring loudly across every town and city so that everyone could stop and pray The Angelus together. I picture crowded churches on Sundays, and a culture that pays its workers enough so that mothers could stay home with their children and raise them if they chose to do that. I wish that I could stream a movie and not have to turn it off halfway through so as to avoid coarse, filthy entertainments. I wish that kindness was the norm, and that vulnerable people were protected by the culture at large.
I wish that "love thy neighbor" was understood and practiced and that, instead of spreading hateful lies about people from neighboring countries, our president would speak in an honorable, kind and loving manner about all human beings.
I wish I could get on social media and, instead of impolite, crude people calling me filthy and demeaning names, polite people would register their disagreements with decent language.
AS A SIDE NOTE: I have often observed that it is women themselves who have coarsened themselves. Often, they claim to be Christian while at the same time using vulgarity that even men would blush to use in years gone by. Whatever strides we have made in our freedoms have resulted in more of a tawdry mess. We may be able to wear pants to school; we may be able to have our own credit cards and buy our own property, but we still do not make the same salaries as men.
I know many folks will laugh at me, and some would become furious (because that seems to be the trend these days) - but just the idea of a cohesive Catholic Church and culture makes the endorphins flow through my system. It makes me so happy.
This is probably why I love to study my ancestor saints of the Middle Ages and picture myself living in that environment.
But there is no way to legislate the vision that I have. Even The Lord insists that his children come to Him willingly. He does not force us to love Him.
If wishes were horses, there would be a lot of horse poo on the street, and we cannot go back in time. All I can do is read the stories of my ancient ancestors who were Catholic monarchs and who used the benefits of their royal station to become saints instead of despotic oppressors. These kings and queens trod a holy path, and practiced spiritual disciplines alongside the practical necessities of their exalted station in life and despite the temptations of massive wealth and power.
What is particularly instructive is that governments that were ruled by The Church is that, even Kings, though they had all the money and resources in the world, servants to make their lives easier, fawning courtiers, and potential suitors, yet they lived up to the Catholic beliefs to such a degree that many of them were sainted.
Donald Trump isn't doing that, which is why having a morally bankrupt man at the helm is giving me pause and making me think about the separation of church and state. I wonder sometimes, if Trump had been a faithful Catholic, for instance, and if Catholicism was the official church of the land, he might have made an effort to be holy, truthful, kind and good because there would be both guidance and pressure to develop those virtues.
I pray for you. I hope you pray for me.
Silver Rose
P.S. Although this post is about historical people, the writing is entirely original and may not be copied in any part whatsoever without my EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT. I am constantly finding my writing appearing on the websites of others and I WILL pursue remedies against it. Do not steal my work. Just be grateful you are allowed to read HERE it for free.
Copyright (c) 2025
by Silver S. Parnell
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