Zdislava Berka

Zdislava Berka (also Zdislava of Lemberk; c. 1220–1252, in what is now the northern part of Czech Republic) was the wife of Havel of Markvartice, Duke of Lemberk, and is a Czech saint of the Roman Catholic Church. She was a "wife, mother, and one of the earliest lay Dominicans". She was a "precociously pious child", running away at the age of seven to the forest to become a hermit. She was forced by her family to return home, and when she was 15, they forced her to marry wealthy nobleman Havel of Markvartice. He treated her brutally, but she was eventually able to perform acts of charity, give refuge to the poor and dispossessed at their home, found and support two priories, and join the Third Order of St. Dominic as a layperson. She died in 1252. She is the patron saint of Bohemia, of dif

Zdislava Berka

Zdislava Berka (also Zdislava of Lemberk; c. 1220–1252, in what is now the northern part of Czech Republic) was the wife of Havel of Markvartice, Duke of Lemberk, and is a Czech saint of the Roman Catholic Church. She was a "wife, mother, and one of the earliest lay Dominicans". She was a "precociously pious child", running away at the age of seven to the forest to become a hermit. She was forced by her family to return home, and when she was 15, they forced her to marry wealthy nobleman Havel of Markvartice. He treated her brutally, but she was eventually able to perform acts of charity, give refuge to the poor and dispossessed at their home, found and support two priories, and join the Third Order of St. Dominic as a layperson. She died in 1252. She is the patron saint of Bohemia, of dif