St. Henry

St. Henry II was born on 6 May 973 in Bavaria, and died on 13 July 1024 near Göttingen. Duke of Bavaria, then King of Germany, he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the pope in 1014. Devout from his upbringing under saintly tutors, he governed his vast realm with a deep sense of Christian responsibility, seeing his imperial office as a service to God and the Church rather than merely to his own glory.

He was a generous patron and reformer of the Church, founding the diocese of Bamberg with its great cathedral and supporting monastic renewal, all while defending and unifying the empire through many campaigns. His marriage to St. Cunigunde was, according to tradition, lived in mutual chastity, and because the couple had no children he is invoked as a patron of the childless. Canonized in 1146, he is honored as a rare example of a ruler who pursued holiness in the exercise of earthly power, and is a patron of Benedictine oblates.