Stone & Incense Search
Start hereCurious, or no faithEvangelical, Pentecostal or ProtestantFrom another faithSomeone I love is CatholicBecoming CatholicI was Catholic once Today in the ChurchLibraryHard questionsVoices of the revivalTake the next stepAboutSources & methodSupport the site
The saints

St. Henry

A Holy Roman Emperor who ruled hard and well, and prayed harder.

Feast: 13 July · 972 to 1024 · The Middle Ages · Bavaria and the Holy Roman Empire

Read the story 1 min read
Medieval image of St. Henry enthroned as emperor, wearing a crown, inside a circle of lettering.

Wikimedia Commons, 2019. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Home / The saints / St. Henry

Bamberg, Germany, the early 1000s

Henry was duke of Bavaria, then king of Germany, then Holy Roman Emperor.1

He was a serious ruler who fought wars and worked to keep the empire together.1

He also founded the cathedral and diocese of Bamberg and supported reform of the monasteries.

Patronage No official patronage we can cite yet. The Church remembers him as a holy emperor of the Middle Ages.

01St. Henry

Power and prayer

He and his wife, Cunigunde, are both honored as saints.1

Live it this week

Pray before you use authority

Henry held huge power and tried to use it for God. Before every decision you make for others this week (at work, as a parent, as a coach), pause and pray one sentence first.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Henry”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.