Hemma, Bl.

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HEMMA, BL.

Carolingian queen also known as Emma or Gemma; b. c. 808; d. Regensburg, Germany, Jan. 31, 876. Hemma was the sister of Empress Judith, the second wife of Charles II the Bald. The wife of Louis the German, she was the mother of seven children, including Charles III the Fat and Bl. Irmengard. She was patroness and abbess of the Benedictine convent of Obermünster, which has disputed Sankt Emmeram's claim to her body. It seems, however, that she is buried at Sankt Emmeram's, where her tombstone shows some of the best German plastic art of the 13th century.

Feast: June 29; Jan. 31 (Diocese of Regensburg).

Bibliography: Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Necrologia 3:305. g. leidinger, "Bruchstücke einer verlorenen Chronik eines unbekannten Regensburger Verfassers des 12. Jahrhunderts," Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München (1933) 172. i. weilner, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche 2 5:227.

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