patrons - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2006 - 55 Euro Cent

Hemma, born about 980, lost her parents early. Emperor Henry II and his wife Kunigunde took them and brought them to the imperial court in Bamberg. As Countess of Friesach-Zeltschach she married Count Wilhelm von der Sann and became one of the most powerful women in Carinthia. Her high position did not save her from bitter blows. At a young age, she lost her children. Her husband, who remained loyal to the Emperor, was assassinated by the insurgent Carinthian Duke Adalbero von Eppstein in 1036. As a widow she united in her hand the rich heritage of two powerful families with possessions in Carinthia, in Styria and in the Krain. In agreement with her relatives, she used most of this heritage to found two monasteries and several churches, as well as for the welfare of the poor. In 1036 Benedictine nuns from Nonnberg in Salzburg referred to the newly founded monastery in Gurk, in which Hemma also entered as a lay sister. The donor died at the age of 65 on June 27, 1045 and found her last rest on the monastery cemetery. The nunnery in Gurk did not last long. The Archbishop Gebhard of Salzburg picked it up in 1072, founded the diocese Gurk and transferred this to the possessions of the Hemma monastery. Under him the cathedral of Gurk was built and built with the estate of St. Hemma and the Admont Abbey. The memory of the Countess von Friesach was forgotten. But in the struggle for independence from Salzburg, the bishop and cathedral chapter of Gurk remembered their true benefactress. In 1174 their bones were ceremoniously transferred and buried in the completed 100-columned crypt of the Gurk Cathedral, one of the most beautiful Romanesque churches in Austria. The oldest image of the saints shows a fresco in the cathedral of Gurk from the year 1220. Hemma is almost always portrayed as a noble lady with a strikingly large bonnet holding a church model and handing out alms. From the memory of a just mistress, the legend of fair wages thickened. Hemma, who used to pay her own workers, let those who mumbled too low wages even grab the purse. But everyone, however eager he was, only got what was intended for his wages. She sat on a serpentine stone, which is shown today in the crypt as "Hemmastein", and especially on the women who want to have a child. St. Hemma is also called for a happy birth and especially for eye diseases. Their canonization took place only on 5 January 1938 by Pope Pius XI. The day of death of the patron saint of Carinthia will be celebrated on June 27, the Hemmatag.