Saint Matilda

Matilda was born around 895 in Westphalia, of the family of the Saxon leader Widukind, and was raised by her grandmother, abbess of Herford. In 909 she married Henry, Duke of Saxony, who became King Henry I of Germany in 919. Their marriage was a happy one, and Matilda used her position to help prisoners, the sick and the poor. They had five children, among them the future Emperor Otto I, Henry, Duke of Bavaria, and Saint Bruno, Archbishop of Cologne.

After Henry's death in 936, her sons Otto and Henry quarreled, and both accused their mother of wasting royal money on charity; for a time she was forced to retire from court. She bore this with patience, was later reconciled with them and went on founding churches and monasteries, including those of Quedlinburg and Nordhausen. She died at Quedlinburg on March 14, 968, and was buried beside her husband.

In Germany she is remembered at Quedlinburg, where her tomb lies in the crypt of the Collegiate Church of Saint Servatius. Mothers with grown children who have strayed often ask her help, as do families with many children.