Jutta of Kulmsee
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Saint Jutta or Saint Judith or Jutta of Kulmsee or Jutta of Sangershausen (born c. 1200 at Sangershausen in Thuringia; d. 1260 at Kulmsee, now Chełmża in Poland) was a Prussian anchoress and saint.
She imitated the life of Elisabeth of Hungary, a contemporary of hers who is also a canonized saint. She was married at the age of fifteen to a nobleman and bore children by him. She convinced her husband of, and raised her children in, a contemplative and mystical form of Christianity. Her husband died while on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and Jutta became a single mother. Each child entered a monastery or convent upon reaching a suitable age, and this left Jutta able to pursue a cloistered life.
She gave away or sold her property and lived the rest of her life in contemplation and in caring for the sick. She chose as her base a derelict building at Bildschön or Bielyczny near Kulmsee in the area controlled by the Teutonic Knights, whose Grand Master, Anno von Sangershausen, was a relative of hers, and the knights sheltered her. Visitors came to her to receive counsel and prayers, and she quickly established a reputation as a saint. She said that there were three things that can bring one near to God: painful sickness, exile from home, and poverty voluntarily accepted for God.
She died in 1260, and a cultus developed around her immediately. In the Roman Catholic Church, she is the patron saint of Prussia, and her feast day is May 5.
