Rarely in history do the words of ancient prophecies come true. In Bohemia, this happened only after many centuries. Agnes of Bohemia had long been revered as a saint, but the fact that her grave has not been found to this day prevented her from officially joining the ranks of the saints. Repeatedly in difficult times, Czechs recalled the legendary saying: “Peaceful and happy times will come upon the Czech lands when the inhabitants find the body of the blessed Agnes.” Only when the forgotten relic was discovered in Spain could Agnes of Bohemia be canonised in Rome on 12 November 1989. Just a few days later, the ground-breaking events of the Velvet Revolution erupted, bringing her nation the freedom it yearned for. She was a royal daughter of the Přemyslid dynasty and founder of the first Czech convent of Poor Clares at Na Františku in Prague. She was the only woman in the world to found a male order – the Czech Order of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star. She is revered as the patron saint of the country and of Czech charity. She is often depicted as an abbess with a crown on her head treating the sick, or posing with a model church as a symbol of the founding of the Na Františku convent. The grave of Saint Agnes has not yet been found, but in the Czech lands, her feast day is celebrated on 13 November. The former St Agnes Convent, tucked away in an area enclosed by the magnificent Pařížská Street, the embankment road and Revoluční Street, is one of the most charming places in historic Prague. Behind the high wall lies a beautifully restored convent with a garden, whose premises are used by the National Gallery. One of Prague’s most important spiritual centres shone here in similar concealment and silence almost eight hundred years ago. Klášter svaté Anežky České | Zdroj: Prague City Tourism Agnes was born in 1211 as the youngest daughter of Czech King Přemysl Ottokar I and his wife Constance of Hungary. At the age of three, she was betrothed to the son of the Duke of Silesia, so she was sent to be educated at a convent in Třebnice, Poland, founded by her aunt, the future Saint Hedwig of Silesia. Unfortunately, her fiancé soon died and Agnes was sent to a convent in Doksany, a popular educational institution for noble Czech girls. For two years, Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen had been seeking a bride for his son Henry, and Agnes travelled to Vienna to receive an education and learn the customs befitting a future empress at the court of the Austrian emperor. She lived there for seven years. Yet even this nuptial plan failed, and Agnes returned to Prague. She was the object of everyone’s ridicule or pity. An angry King Přemysl Ottokar I plundered the Austrian lands in a fit of rage and arranged for Agnes to marry the King Henry III Plantagenet. Not even this came to fruition. When Agnes’s brother Wenceslas I took the throne, she was offered marriage by the German emperor and again by Henry, who had already repudiated the Austrian duchess. But noble life had long since ceased to appeal to Agnes. She had learned about the lives of St Francis and St Clare of Assisi, Italy, from the Franciscans who had begun working in Prague at St James’s Church. Their new, simple and joyful way of serving God inspired her. She became passionate about the idea of spiritual life according to Franciscan rules. Doubtless, she was also influenced by the example of her noble cousin, later Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, founder of the hospital in Marburg. In 1233, Agnes also founded a hospital for the poor, the first in Bohemia, located in Prague’s Old Town. That same year, she founded the Na Františku convent, devoting her royal dowry to its construction. The compound, comprising two churches, two chapels, a convent and the abbess’s house, is now the oldest early Gothic monument in Prague, built under the influence of French architecture. Finally, Agnes took the final step: in 1234, she and her companions left Prague Castle on foot in a ceremonial procession and entered her convent. Forever. Klášter svaté Anežky České | Zdroj: Prague City Tourism The decision of the Czech king’s daughter caused a stir throughout Europe: not only had she refused to marry the emperor himself, but she also chose the then new Order of Saint Clare, nicknamed the “Order of Poor Virgins” for its strict rules of poverty. This meant that she would be equal to the other sisters in the Franciscan community, scrubbing floors and washing dishes just like them, something that had been unthinkable for noble nuns until then. The hospital and convent named after the local church of St Francis soon became a refuge for hundreds of people in need. The crippled, the sick and the homeless beggars came to its gate for food, treatment and comfort. Agnes could not help them personally because she was bound by strict cloister rules, but she secretly and selflessly performed the roughest work. She became an abbess, but she was not enthusiastic about it; she would rather serve the poorest, as Francis and Clare did in Assisi. The abbess later resigned from her office out of humility, but thanks to the enormous respect she enjoyed, she remained the leading figure of the convent until her death. She followed the strictest rules in clothing and diet, was a vegetarian, and tortured her body with fasting and flagellation. Even Clare of Assisi, with whom she corresponded, strove to moderate her asceticism. From the seclusion of the convent, Agnes continued to assist the Přemyslid government in various ways. She was highly educated, writing and reading in Czech, Latin, German and Italian. She became a mediator between the Czech king and the Pope, with whom she also corresponded. In 1249, she resolutely intervened in the dispute between her brother Wenceslas I and his son Přemysl Ottokar II, bringing an end to the civil war in the Czech lands. Klášter svaté Anežky České | Zdroj: Prague City Tourism She was revered as a saint even during her lifetime. She had the gift of clairvoyance; for instance, she predicted the death of her nephew, King Přemysl Ottokar II, in the Battle of Moravian Field. She also possessed healing abilities, and is said to have relieved one of the Poor Clares of severe headaches by placing her veil on her head. Miracles attributed to Agnes’s intercession have also been recorded, such as when food suddenly appeared in the convent at a time when there was great poverty in the country and the sisters were starving. Agnes’s convent fell upon truly hard times after the death of Přemysl Ottokar II in 1278. Having lost the battle of Moravian Field, the Czech kingdom fell under the rule of Rudolf Habsburg, from whom Otto of Brandenburg demanded control of the country. He used his power to oppress and plunder the Czech lands, culminating in the cruel famine of 1282. In Prague alone, the dead numbered in the thousands. At the end of her long life, Agnes was forced to witness the profound humiliation of the Přemyslid dynasty, which had been among the most important in Europe during her youth. She died at her convent on 2 March 1282. Her remains were laid to rest in a niche in the convent chapel of the Virgin Mary. However, the convent’s proximity to the Vltava River meant that it was often threatened by flooding, so the remains had to be moved to safety on numerous occasions. During the Hussite Wars, the Na Františku convent was completely ransacked. When the Poor Clares returned to it in 1439, they were unable to find Agnes’s body in the ruins. Eliška Přemyslovna had already sought the canonisation of her great-aunt, believing that it was only thanks to prayers to Agnes that her sick son, the future King Charles IV, had been healed. As an adult, in his position as Holy Roman Emperor, he likewise urged the Pope to canonise Agnes, but was unsuccessful – her remains were missing. It was only in the year 1874 that Agnes of Bohemia was finally sainted. And it was not until more than a hundred years later that the Czech Church managed to obtain part of Agnes’s authentic remains, stored in a church of the Escorial Palace in Spain, and the process of canonisation could begin. Svatá Anežka Česká | Zdroj: www.kudyznudy.cz Pope John Paul II announced the canonisation of the Czech royal princess on 12 November 1989. At that time, many believers from Bohemia and Moravia travelled to Rome to attend the ceremony, despite the various difficulties imposed on them by the communist regime. Those who were unable to attend knelt on the crowded Hradčanské Square in front of the Archbishop’s Palace, where the Czech Primate and Cardinal František Tomášek announced the canonisation of the Czech royal daughter and nun. Just five days later, the words of an ancient prophecy came true – on 17 November 1989, the momentous events began that then led to the Velvet Revolution. After decades of communist rule, the Czech lands finally achieved freedom and democracy. Cover photo | Saint Agnes of Bohemia | Source: www.wikipedia.cz