Hemma of Gurk

Saint Hemma of Gurk (also called Gemma or Emma) was a devout widow of Carinthia, founder of several churches and monasteries. She reposed on 29 June 1045, at Gurk.

She was born around 980 into a noble family related to the Bavarian Luitpoldings and to Emperor Henry II. According to her hagiography, she was brought up at the imperial court in Bamberg by the Empress Saint Cunigunde. She married the Carinthian count William and had two sons. Her husband and sons were murdered, probably in 1036, by Duke Adalbero of Carinthia in revenge. Hemma was left with vast estates and used them for the benefit of the poor, and was regarded as a saint already in her lifetime.

She founded ten churches in Carinthia and, in 1043, the Benedictine double monastery of Gurk, where she withdrew in her last years and took the monastic habit. After her death Archbishop Gebhard of Salzburg dissolved the abbey and used its funds to set up the diocese of Gurk-⁠Klagenfurt in 1072; Admont Abbey, founded in 1074, also owes its existence to her wealth. Since 1174 her relics have rested in the crypt of Gurk Cathedral, to which pilgrims have come for nearly three centuries.

She is patron of Carinthia and of the diocese of Gurk, and her intercession is sought for childbirth and diseases of the eye. She was beatified in 1287 and canonized by Pope Pius XI on 5 January 1938. The Roman Catholic Church keeps her feast on 27 June, since 29 June is the day of Saints Peter and Paul; the Orthodox calendar commemorates her on 29 June as a saint of the undivided Church, by the New Calendar.