Dorothea of Montau
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Saint Dorothea of Montau (German: Dorothea von Montau; Polish: Dorota z Mątowów; 6 February 1347 – 25 June 1394), also known as Dorothy of Montau, was a German visionary and recluse. After centuries of veneration in Central Europe, she was canonized in 1976.
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[edit] Life
Dorothea was born at Groß Montau near Marienburg (Malbork) to a wealthy farmer from Holland, Willem Swarte (Schwartze). She was married at the age of 16 or 17 to the swordsmith Adalbrecht of Danzig (Gdańsk), an ill-tempered man in his 40s. Almost immediately after marrying she began to experience visions. Her husband had little patience with her spiritual experiences and abused her. Later, both made pilgrimages to Cologne, Aachen, and Einsiedeln. While Dorothea, with her husband's permission, was on pilgrimage to Rome, he died in 1389 or 1390. Of their nine children eight died, four in infancy, and four during a plague in 1383. The surviving daughter, Gertrud, joined the Benedictines.
In the summer of 1391 Dorothea moved to Marienwerder (Kwidzyn), and on 2 May 1393, with the permission of the chapter and of the Teutonic Order, established a hermit's cell against the wall of the cathedral.
Dorothea led a very austere life. Numerous visitors sought her advice and consolation, and she had visions and revelations. Her confessor, the deacon Johannes of Marienwerder, a learned theologian, wrote down her communications and composed a Latin biography in seven books, "Septililium", besides a German life in four books.
Dorothea died in Marienwerder in 1394.
[edit] Veneration
Dorothea was venerated popularly from the moment of her death as the guardian of the country of the Teutonic Knights and patron saint of Prussia. The formal process of canonisation, however, was broken off in 1404, and not resumed until 1955; she was finally canonised in 1976.
Dorothea's feast day is celebrated on 25 June or 30 October. Her relics were lost, probably during the Protestant Reformation.
[edit] Literature
Her life, seen from the viewpoint of her embittered husband, is the subject of the novel Der Butt (The Flounder) (1979) by Günter Grass.
[edit] References
This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia.
- Stargardt, Ute (ed.), 1997. "The life of Dorothea von Montau, a fourteenth-century recluse" (original text by Johannes of Marienwerder, d. 1417). Lewiston: E. Mellen Press. ISBN 0-7734-8568-6
