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- Year: 2011
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St Agnes of Bohemia (c. 1211 - March 6th, 1282), Czech princess and abbess of the Convent of St Francis in Prague, was the youngest daughter of Czech king Přemysl Ottokar I and Constance of Hungary. When she was three years old, she and her sister Anna were entrusted to the Cistercian order in Trzebnica and Doksany to be educated. At that time she was probably engaged to Konrad, son of duke Henry I the Bearded of Silesia and his wife Hedwig. Konrad later died and both sisters returned back to Prague. At the age of eight, Agnes was engaged by her father Přemysl Ottokar I, who wished to establish a relationship with the Hohenstaufen family, to Henry, son of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (later Henry VII of Germany). For the next six years Agnes was sent to the court of Leopold VI of Babenberg to continue her education. But Leopold managed to secure Henry for his own daughter Margaret, and the fourteen-year-old Agnes returned back to Prague again. Her father then planned for her to marry Henry III of England. Henry´s delegation was welcomed at Prague Castle a year after her return from Babenberg and Agnes was engaged to Henry, but Henry broke the engagement in 1229. Henry VII of Germany, at the time already married to Margaret of Babenberg, then showed interest in Agnes again. The last suitor was Henry´s father Frederick II, but Agnes, who was then free to decide as her father already died and her brother Wenceslaus I loved her, rejected him.
With the help of her brother Wenceslaus I, Agnes founded the Hospital of St Francis in Prague (1232) and two convents where the Franciscan friars and Clare nuns who worked at the hospital resided. She joined the Prague Clares in 1234 as their abbess. She also contributed to the promotion of the Franciscan brotherhood working at the hospital as an individual order, the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star, based on a strict compliance with the Franciscan rules, although her first attempt in 1237 failed. In 1238 she gave up the office of abbess of the Prague Clares, the office remaining vacant until her death.
Agnes played an active role in the social life of her time. Her contribution to the conciliation between Wenceslaus I and his son Přemysl was vital. During a controversy between her nephew Přemysl Ottokar II and the papal protégé Rudolf I of Habsburg, Agnes clearly took the side of her family when she accepted Přemysl´s daughter Kunhuta under the roof of the convent in 1277 and denounced the pope´s anathema placed on Přemysl by asking the nuns to pray for Přemysl during his war campaign against Rudolf before the battle on the Moravia Field.
Agnes remained highly active even prior to her death, which occurred at the then venerable age of 71 years. Her famous charitable works and involvement in the country´s affairs gave rise to numerous legends emerging immediately after her death. Although the early attempts at canonization of this pioneer of care for the poor and hospital care in the Czech lands made by Elisabeth of Bohemia and her son Charles IV failed, Agnes was beatified in 1874 and later, on November 12th, 1989, formally canonized.
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