Gisela of Hungary (or Gisele, Gizella and of Bavaria; 985 – 7 May 1065) was the first queen consort of

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

by marriage to

Stephen I of Hungary Stephen I, also known as King Saint Stephen ( hu, Szent István király ; la, Sanctus Stephanus; sk, Štefan I. or Štefan Veľký; 975 – 15 August 1038), was the last Grand Prince of the Hungarians between 997 and 1000 or 1001, and the ...

, and the sister of

Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor Henry II (german: Heinrich II; it, Enrico II; 6 May 973 – 13 July 1024), also known as Saint Henry the Exuberant, Obl. S. B., was Holy Roman Emperor ("Romanorum Imperator") from 1014. He died without an heir in 1024, and was the last ruler ...

. She has been

beatified Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

by the Catholic Church.

Biography

Gisela was a daughter of

Henry II, Duke of Bavaria Henry II (951 – 28 August 995), called the Wrangler or the Quarrelsome (german: Heinrich der Zänker), a member of the German royal Ottonian dynasty, was Duke of Bavaria from 955 to 976 and again from 985 to 995, as well as Duke of Carinthia ...

and

Gisela of Burgundy Gisela is the name of: People Full name * Gisela, Abbess of Chelles (757–810), daughter of Pepin the Short, sister of Charlemagne ** Gisela, daughter of Charlemagne (781–808) * Gisela, daughter of Louis the Pious (born 821), consort of Eberha ...

. Gisela was raised very devout, most likely with bishop Wolfgang of Regensburg as her mentor and governor. She married King

in 996 as a part of Hungary's policy of opening up to the West. The couple had a son,

Saint Emeric Emeric ( hu, Szent Imre herceg), also ''Emericus,'' ''Emerick, Emery, Emory'', and venerated as Saint Emeric (c. 1007 – 2 September 1031) was the son of King Stephen I of Hungary and Giselle of Bavaria. Life Family Emeric is assumedSause ...

, who died on 2 September 1031, while hunting boar.Ott, Michael. "St. Stephen." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 12 April 2013 The wedding of Stephen and Gisela marked a turning point in Hungary's history. Queen Gisela played a fundamental role in spreading the Christian faith and

Western culture Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

in Hungary. When

Edmund Ironside Edmund Ironside (30 November 1016; , ; sometimes also known as Edmund II) was King of the English from 23 April to 30 November 1016. He was the son of King Æthelred the Unready and his first wife, Ælfgifu of York. Edmund's reign was marred by ...

of England died, he was succeeded by

Cnut Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norwa ...

. Edmund's infant sons were sent abroad and ended up under the protection of King Stephen of Hungary. One of the twins died young, but the other, Edward Atheling, was brought up as a protégé of Queen Gisela, and regarded in that foreign court as the heir to the Anglo-Saxon throne."St. Margaret Queen of Scotland", St.Margaret of Scotland Church, Selden, New York
King Stephen died in 1038. In 1046 Gisela, her attendants, and a number of many Bavarian settlers left Hungary to return to Bavaria, where she joined Niederburg convent in Passau and became the abbess. She lived in the nunnery of Niederburg in Passau, where she died.

Veneration

Gisela's

canonisation Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of s ...

was attempted in the 18th century but failed. She was

in 1975. Her memorial days are 7 May and 1 February. Gisela and her husband were not buried together. On 4 May 1996, the remains of King Stephen's right hand was preserved, and it was brought back together with a bone taken from the arm of Gisela. Both are now safely protected in glass and gold cases, and are displayed in the basilica in the western Hungarian town of

Veszprém Veszprém (; german: Weißbrunn, sl, Belomost) is one of the oldest urban areas in Hungary, and a city with county rights. It lies approximately north of the Lake Balaton. It is the administrative center of the county (comitatus or 'megye') of ...

, where Gisela once lived. Her grave is well known, and regarded as a holy place. The cross was commissioned by Queen Gisela for the tomb of her mother, who died in 1006 and was buried in the Niedermünster in Regensburg. Blessed Gisela is depicted on a white limestone panel by Hungarian artist Sandor Kiss on the wall of the Chapel of Our Lady – Queen of Hungary in

St. Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal e ...

, Rome.

References

Sources

* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Giselle Of Bavaria 980s births 11th-century deaths Hungarian queens consort Hungarian people of German descent German beatified people Hungarian Roman Catholic saints Roman Catholic royal saints 10th-century German women 11th-century German abbesses 10th-century Hungarian women 11th-century Hungarian women