SAINT KINGA OF POLAND, MY COUSIN - July 24, 2022

 

Saint Kinga of Poland

Depicted holding her monastery

at Stary Sacz

b. 5 March 1224 - d. 24 July 1292

My 7th cousin, 25 times removed

My 7th cousin, 25 times removed, is Saint Cunegunde, also called Zinga, Kioga, or, more popularly, Saint Kinga of Poland. Saint Kinga of Poland, Patroness of Poland and Lithuania, was born 5 March 1224 In Esztergom, Hungary.  She was the princess daughter of King Bela IV of Hungary and was a niece of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and the great niece of Saint Hedwig.  An illustrious and pious family, her sisters were Saint Margaret of Hungary and Blessed Jolenta of Poland.

The sisters:
Saint Margaret of Hungary, Saint Kinga of Poland, 

and Blessed Jolenta of Poland

Both Kinga and her husband, Boleslaw V "the Chaste" embarked upon a marriage in which both parties were vowed to perpetual chastity.  Boleslaw's family was similarly pious and sincere.  His sister was blessed Salome of Cracow.  When he ascended to the throne as Prince of Cracow, Kinga became his princess.  Kinga soon began to devote herself to the care of the poor and the lepers and was known, both for her deep concern for the people, and her obedience and devotion to Christ and His Church.

Saint Kinga's husband

Boleslaw V "The Chaste"

Duke of Poland

b. 21 June 1226 - d. 7 December 1279

The storyline in which a saintly person vows lifelong chastity is common in Orthodox Church,  Catholicism , as well as other major religious traditions. In the Hindu faith, it is linked with the path of Enlightenment through meditation. Without celibacy, progress on the path toward spiritual enlightenment is considered negligible. Each religion has its own narrative of exactly WHY this is true. I just think it is interesting that the focus on restraint of the sex urge is an important one in all major religious traditions.

Kinga is patron saint of the salt miners, and the salt mine of Wieliczka in Poland has a large chapel dedicated to her that is 101 meters under ground.  It is a remarkably beautiful Cathedral that is able to accommodate about 400 people.

Poor Clare's Monastery

at Stary Sacz

When her husband died in 1279, Kinga sold all her possessions and gave the money to the poor.  Not long after that, she joined the Poor Clares monastery at Sandec (Stary Sacz).  Matters of state, and the prestige of her royal position, held no interest for her.  She was too modest and humble to have any taste for such power. Her heart belonged to Christ alone.  In fact, she would allow no one to call her by her official title of Grand Duchess of Poland.

Hers is a beautiful comment on the reality of the emptiness of fame, wealth, status and prestige. None of it comes close to the experience of the Lord in our hearts. Touched by the grandest force of all, humility would naturally occur, don't you think? It is from her humility that I surmise that she had a profound mystical experience of the Lord at some point.

While her life with the prince had been characterized by charitable works and service, her time in the monastery was spent in silent contemplation.  In 1292, at the age of 68, she passed from this world. In 1690, she was beatified, and in 1999 she was sainted.

Saint Kinga's convent, the Monastery of the Poor Clares, in Stary Sacz, Poland, remains a much-beloved landmark in the oldest section of this historic little town.

Poor Clares Monastery

Stary Sacz

On June 16, 1999, Pope John Paul II visited Stary Sacz, the town of his birth, for the proclamation of the canonization of beloved Saint Kinga.  A papal altar was erected on the common outside of the monastery that Kinga created and in which she had died.

Wooden altar at Stary Sacz

built for Pope John Paul II's visit

When suffering from headache, I recommend very simple rote prayers, such as the Jesus Prayer or the Rosary

Jesus Prayer

Lord, Jesus Christ,

son of God,

have mercy upon me,

a poor sinner.

Saint Kinga would have been familiar with the Jesus Prayer. It is a prayer used very much by Orthodox monastics and often "counted" on rope prayer beads. I have a set of these myself.

My prayer rope

I keep it in a box with my

Chaplet of Divine Mercy

The Jesus Prayer was probably first set out in the Philokalia, that great Orthodox spiritual work, in a discourse on Abba Philimon. What I have written out, above, is the "long" version that can be reduced to the shortest form: "Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me," but the version in the Philokalia only omits "a poor sinner" from its text.

Here we have another example of how the major religious traditions mirror one another in certain spiritual practices. The Jesus Prayer of the Orthodox faith, counted on knotted rope strands, is reminiscent of the Zen Koan's and the Hindu Mantra, and a little less similar to the Rosary, which is far more complex and involves meditations upon a variety of concepts.

Contrasting the role of Jesus as "son of God" with our own, "a poor sinner," sets us up for a more humble frame of mine. I imagine it is probably always good to keep in mind the difference between ourselves and The Lord.

Care has to be taken not to become attached to these things as a sort of magic talisman, of course. Advanced spiritual aspirants realize this without being told. I DO like to advocate for the beauty of the rosaries, chaplets, prayer ropes and the like, because beauty DOES attract us and, if it can attract us to something good and holy, then beauty serves a divine purpose. This is why I am not one of those people that blabs about how we should live so simply that we do not allow ourselves any beauty at all. That philosophy is the death of art and just causes stress, as far as I am concerned. Some Protestant sects are overly concerned with making things as PLAIN as possible. Certainly, a plain rosary is absolutely fine to use - but must we all have the same? No.

Rosary I made for myself

with my 29th Great Grandmother,

Saint Margaret of Scotland,

in the center piece

(Design is my original and copyrighted!)

A few years ago, I made myself a nice rosary of St. Margaret of Scotland, with her centerpiece and some lovely beads and charms that remind me of my Celtic, English and Scottish heritage. I did something unique with the bead caps to help keep me going in the right direction so that as my vision recedes more and more, I am able to follow the rosary without a problem.

There is nothing wrong with incorporating beauty into one's spiritual accoutrements. Certainly one can achieve the same result with a wood rosary or a silver one, but it's a matter of style, as far as I can see, and we shouldn't judge one another by it. Everyone has their own taste and inclinations.

This coming week, I have another eye doctor appointment. It seems like I was just there yesterday! I am praying that I do not have to have another shot in my eyeball, as I did last time! The doctor keeps lobbying to just give me the shots every month, and he gives me a headache with the pressure. My blood pressure goes up after he gives me one of these shots, and I just don't want to have them unless something is happening in my retina that calls for it. I am not fond of the anaphylactic approach.  Besides which, if I know that I am definitely getting a shot in my eye, I tend to apprehend it and my anxiety level rises. It's just what happens with PTSD. There is no magic bullet to make this stop. It's just one of the symptoms I have to deal with.  Anyway, please pray for me that the necessity for the shots will disappear and that I can stop doing this every month! I do know someone who had three shots and then never had to do it again, so it is not unreasonable to hope that I may do likewise.

Please pray for me as I pray for you, dear friends!

Next month is my birthday, and I have made an Amazon birthday wish list. I am still trying to do something positive with my diet, but food is so very expensive at the moment, it is hard to do! Ordering is easy. Amazon has my address and mails to me direct.

Here is the LINK - CLICK HERE

May we all be blessed!

Silver Rose

Sannyasini Kaliprana

P.S. All of the blog posts I write are independently researched and written by me and all of them are protected by legal copyright, so please just enjoy them here and leave them here where you found them and do not copy any of it to any other place for any purpose.

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