St. Hunna of Strasbourg

St. Hunna was a noblewoman of Alsace in the seventh century, the daughter of a duke and the wife of a nobleman of the region around Strasbourg, in present-day France. Though of high birth and married rank, she was moved by a spirit of profound humility and charity to devote herself to the personal service of the poor and the sick of her district, especially of the poor women and their families.

She is remembered above all for undertaking with her own hands the humblest of labors on behalf of the needy: she would go to the poor, wash their clothes and their persons, and care for them in their sickness, so that she earned the affectionate title of "the Holy Washerwoman." Her son also came to be venerated for holiness. By her humble and hidden works of mercy she gave a striking example of the Gospel lived in charity across the barriers of class. She died about 679, and her veneration was confirmed by the Church centuries later, in 1520. Her memory is kept on 15 April.