In a culture that often emphasizes the importance of money, power, and influence, the choices made by Agnes of Bohemia might strike us as being very out of step with the world.  However, her example, though at times quite austere, serves as a reminder that there is an alternative way to live out the will of God if one has the courage to pursue it.

 

Agnes was born in Prague, the capital of the modern-day Czech Republic, in 1200.  She was the daughter of royalty, her parents being Queen Constance of Hungary and King Ottokar of Bohemia.  She was also related to a different kind of royalty on her mother’s side; St. Elizabeth of Hungary was a cousin, the daughter of Constance’s older brother, Andrew II of Hungary.  As was befitting her rank in society, Agnes was sent to the Cistercians nuns at the monastery of Treinitz for her early education. Like most such royal daughters at the time, Agnes was betrothed quite young to the Duke of Silesia.  However, because of his death three years later, the marriage never took place.

 

Soon, many other suitors stepped up to take his place, as such a union would bring with it great political and material advantages to both parties.  By this time, however, Agnes was finding herself drawn more and more to the religious life; as such, she turned down the proposals of both King Henry VII of Germany and King Henry III of England.   A crisis was reached when Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor, also desired a marriage with her.  When she also refused him, Frederick was incensed and Agnes appealed to Pope Gregory IX to intervene.  When it was explained to him that Agnes desired to enter religious life, Frederick is reported to have said that he “cannot take offense because in preference to me she has chosen the King of Heaven.”

 

Freed from the requirement to marry, Agnes set about to do what she felt called to do.  Like her cousin Elizabeth, she used her position to aid those in need, first building a hospital for the poor as well as two Franciscan friaries.  In time, she began a correspondence with St. Clare, companion to St. Francis of Assisi and foundress of the Poor Clares.  Agnes soon oversaw the building of a Poor Clare monastery in Prague.  In 1236, she and seven other noblewomen professed their vows as Poor Clares and entered the monastery with Agnes serving as the first abbess.  St. Clare soon sent five sisters from San Damiano to join them, and wrote four letters to Agnes about “the beauty of her vocation and her duties as abbess.”

 

Agnes became known for her prayer, obedience and mortification.  Despite her title as abbess, Agnes referred to herself as a “senior sister’, cooking for the other sisters and mending the clothing of lepers.  Although kind, she was very strict in her observance of poverty.

 

Agnes died in 1282.  Patroness of Prague, her feast day is March 2.