Euphemia of Racibórz

Euphemia of Ratibor (first name also Eufemia , Ofka , Ofemia ; Polish Eufemia raciborska ; * 1299/1301 probably in Ratibor ; † January 17, 1359 ibid) was by birth Duchess of Ratibor . In 1313 she joined the Dominican Sisters in Ratibor, of which she is said to have been the first prioress . Because of her pious life, she is revered as saintly .

Life

Former monastery church of the Dominican Sisters in Ratibor (city museum since 1927)

Euphemia came from the Opole branch of the Silesian Piasts . Her parents were Duke Przemislaus and Anna, daughter of Duke Conrad II of Mazovia . After 1299 her father founded the Racibórz Dominican convent of the Holy Spirit , which is also known as the virgin monastery . When he died in 1306, the monastery and monastery church were not yet completed. His son and successor, Duke Lestko , confirmed his father's foundation, which he also supported throughout his life.

Euphemia, who is said to have led a pious life as a child, entered the Dominican convent founded by her father on April 9, 1313, which at that time did not yet have a monastery church. Presumably she received spiritual assistance from the Dominican prior Peregrinus , who had also been her father's confessor and advisor. Although an early biography does not exist, her work can be conveyed on the basis of documents received:

• In 1306, Duke Przemislaus, who died in the same year, gave the Dominican women a court in Racibórz. Since Euphemia was to enter the monastery, he placed it under the special protection of the respective Ratibor dukes.
• At the request of Euphemia, Ratibor Hereditary Bailiff Wernher exempted a mill in Ratibor New Town from all city taxes on April 8, 1313. In the event that Euphenia's brother, Duke Lestko, should die without heirs, he promised that the citizens of Racibórz will only pay homage to his successor when he has received all of the income and privileges Euphemias had given her and the monastery by Duke Lestko , approved.
• When Euphemias entered the monastery on April 9, 1313, she received two bread banks and other goods and income from her brother, Duke Lestko, instead of a dowry . After Euphemias death they were to revert to the monastery, but part of it to the Duchy of Ratibor.
• In 1316 Abbot Nikolaus von Rauden sold four meat shops in Sohrau to Euphemia and her fellow sisters ; the sale was confirmed again in 1317.
• On February 25, 1317 Duke Lestko confirmed the ownership of the farmstead, which had been given to him by his father in 1306, to the virgin monastery. At the same time, he determined that the extended courtyard should be used to build the monastery church.
• In 1319 the monastery received the inheritance of a certain Johannes, which was confirmed by Duke Lestko.
• In 1331 the brothers Otto and Friedrich de Lynavia sold their property in Bieskau to Euphemia and her convent.

• The monastery church of the Holy Spirit , presumably completed in 1334, was consecrated on June 1, 1335 by the Breslau bishop Nanker .

Since the Ratibor branch of the Silesian Piasts expired with Duke Lestko's death in 1336, the Duchy of Ratibor fell to the Crown of Bohemia as a settled fief . In 1337 the Bohemian King John of Luxembourg gave it to Duke Nicholas II , who linked it with his Duchy of Opava . He came from the Troppau branch of the Přemyslids and was married to Anna († around 1340), a sister of Euphemias. He also confirmed all privileges of the Virgins' Monastery and supported it financially.

• On July 9, 1339, the Cosler Duke Casimir III approved . , who was a nephew of Euphemias, sold the village of Autischkau to the Dominican convent in Racibórz. The corresponding sale by Konrad Stosch ( Cunad Stoschouicz ), whose inheritance was Autischkau, took place on October 13, 1339. At the same time, he also sold a share of Warmunthau to the monastery. On the same day, Duke Casimir III confirmed. the sale.
• On August 19, 1340 the brothers Heinrich / Jindřich and Johann / Ješek von Krawarn on Blumenau sold their little town Bauerwitz with the villages Zülkowitz ( Sulkov / Sułków ), Tschirmkau ( Červenkov / Czerwonków ) and Eiglau ( Děhylov / Dziełów ) to Abbess Euphemia and her Convention. The sale was confirmed three days later by Duke Nicholas II. At the same time he confirmed that the rights of the other Troppau-Ratibor monastery estates Euphemia and / or his daughters or after their death the convent should be entitled to.
• In 1349 Duke Bolko von Cosel registered the sale of goods in Warmunthau to Euphemia.
• In 1351, Duke Nicholas II gave his approval for the sale of Benkowitz to Euphemia and her convent.
• In 1352 Otto and Jesco von Linauia ( Lynavia ) sold their goods in the village of Beskow ( Bieskau ) to the Dominican convent in Ratibor.
• In 1356 the Ratibor Hereditary Bailiff Nikolaus and his sisters Ysentrudis and Katharina gave the convent and the monastery an annual interest of 4 marks.
• In the same year the Wroclaw Dominican convent Euphemia sold an annual interest of 4 marks for their lifetime.

On December 8, 1358, Euphemia wrote her will in the presence of Duke Nicholas II and his son John I. In it, she determined that her nieces Elisabeth († 1386) and Agnes († 1404), daughters of Duke Nicholas II, who also belonged to the Ratibor convent, should inherit the goods they owned. Her niece Anna (* before 1345; † 1403), a daughter of Duke Siemowit / Ziemowit III. von Masowien , who was also a nun of the Dominican convent, should be entitled to inherit part of the property. After the death of the three nieces mentioned, the entire property was to belong to the monastery forever. At the same time, Euphemia asked the nuns of the virgin monastery to pray for her deceased parents and especially for her brother Lestko.

The small seal of Euphemias, which depicts Our Lady with a female figure kneeling in front of her, was attached to the will. The inscription reads: «S. SORORIS OFFCE. OORDIS. PD. "

Euphemia died on January 17, 1359. Her body was buried in the monastery church. After the secularization in 1810, Euphenias grave was opened and her bones transferred to the Ratibor parish church of St. Marien ( Church of Our Lady ), where a side altar was dedicated to her.

Adoration

Presumably soon after her death, Euphemia was worshiped as saintly. A first vita about Euphemia can only be found in a paper about the Dominican Ceslaus von Breslau, printed in Venice in 1606, with the title “Propago D. Hyacinthi thaumaturgi Poloni seu De rebus praeclare gestis in Provincia Polonia Ordinis Pradicatorum”. It was written by the Dominican Abraham Bzowski ( Bzovius ), who here describes Euphemia as the Blessed for the first time and performs the miracles attributed to her in her life and at her grave. However, no verifiable documents or sources are given for Euphemia. In addition to numerous genealogical errors, this biography also contains other inconsistencies. So z. B. mentions that Euphemia received Bauerwitz from her parents and donated it to the monastery. It is also incorrect to say that Euphemia and her convent lived in poverty because “Duke Nikolaus, a son of her uncle Johannes” robbed them of peasant wit and other goods. The errors found their way into other descriptions of Euphemia's life up to modern times.

As can be seen from Euphemia's will, the monastery was wealthy at her death and had a wealth of facilities and privileges. Only after their princely nieces had died did an economic decline after 1404 in the pre-Hussite period. Because of the Hussite Wars and the Reformation , a canonization did not take place. In 1623 Abbess Helene Otieslav von Kopenic had a picture of Euphemia painted and in the 18th century a copper engraving was made with a “Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Euphemia”.

literature

• Joseph Gottschalk: Euphemia of Ratibor († 1359). Investigation of the sources of her life story . In: Archives for Silesian Church History , Vol. 1 (1936), pp. 15–40.
• Augustin Weltzel : History of the city of Ratibor . Ratibor 1861, pp. 814–821 (digitized version )
• Pius Maria Bazan: Eufemia of Ratibor, flower from the garden of St. Dominic . Albertus-Magnus-Verlag, Vechta 1936.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Litdok
2. ↑ Hugo Weczerka (Ed.): Handbook of historical sites . Volume: Silesia (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 316). Kröner, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-520-31601-3 , p. 429.
3. ^ History of Autischkau ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
4. ^ Genealogy of the Dukes of Mazovia
5. ↑ Abraham Bzowski: Propago D. Hyacinthi thavmatvrgi Poloni, see De rebus praeclare gestis in Prouincia poloniae Ordinis Praedicatorum commentarivs , Venice 1606, online at bc.dominikanie.pl (Latin)