ZDISLAVA OF LEMBERK, ST.

Married member of the Dominican lay tertiary; b. Krizanov, Moravia (now Letomerice, Bohemia, Czech Republic), c. 1220; d. Jablonné v Podjestìdí, Bohemia, Jan. 1, 1252. Zdislava, daughter of Privislav, was born into the Czech aristocracy. Her mother Sibila was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Cunegunda of Hohenstaufen. About 1236, Zdislava married Count Havel of Lemberk (d.1253), a soldier in command of the frontier fortress at Gabel (Jablonné v Podjestìdí), to whom she bore four children (Havel, Margarita, Jaroslav, and Zadislav).

Through the preaching of St. hyacinth and Bl. ceslaus of silesia, Zdislava became the first Slavic Dominican tertiary. She encouraged her husband to build a hostel for homeless pilgrims, visited and interceded for prisoners, cared for the poor, taught the faith to her servants' children, and built a church and priories at Turnov and Jablonné.

Not content with merely funding charitable works, she personally bathed the sick and carried some of the materials for the church. During the Mongol invasions she eased the distress of the suffering who sought refuge with her.

According to her fourteenth-century chronicler Dalimil, Zdislava raised five dead men to life, healed many through her touch, and was gifted with visions and ecstasies. Her body is venerated in the church she had built, now called SS. Lawrence and Zdislava at Jablonné v Podjestìdí. Her cultus as a beata was confirmed in 1907. Zdislava was canonized by Pope John Paul II at Olomouc, Czech Republic, May 21, 1995, during his second pastoral visit. She is the patroness of the sick and poor of Bohemia, and of families in Bohemia and Moravia.

Feast: Jan. 4 (Dominicans); May 30 (Czech Republic).

Bibliography: m. j. dorcy, Saint Dominic's Family (Dubuque, Iowa 1964), 47–48. j. durych, Svetlo ve tmách: blahoslaven' Zdislava (Rím, Czech Rep. 1988). t. edel, Príbeh ztraceného klóstera blahoslavené Zdislavy (Prague 1993). z. kalista, Blahoslavená Zdislava z Lemberka (Rím 1969). j. sallmann, Festschrift zum 200 jährigen Jubiläum der Dekanalkirche zum Hl. Laurentius in Deutsch Gabel (Gabel 1929). L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, no. 21 (1995): 1–2, 12; no. 23 (1995): 9.

[k. i. rabenstein]