Portal:Catholicism/Patron Archive/April 19

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Saint Emma of Lesum (stained glass window in St. John's Church, Bremen)

Emma of Lesum or Emma of Stiepel (also known as Hemma and Imma) (b. in about 975-980 in Saxony; d. 3 December 1038 in Lesum, now Bremen-Burglesum, Germany) was a countess popularly venerated as a saint for her good works; she is also the first female inhabitant of Bremen to be known by name.Emma was born into the Saxon noble family of the Immedinger, descendants of Widukind. She was the daughter of Count Immed from the diocese of Utrecht and also, according to Adam of Bremen, the sister of Meinwerk, Bishop of Paderborn. She married Liudger, a son of the Saxon duke Hermann Billung and brother of Bernard I, Duke of Saxony. Emperor Otto III made the couple a present in 1001 of the Pfalz or palatium in Stiepel (now Bochum-Stiepel), where in 1008 Emma had a church built dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which later became a popular place of pilgrimage. The only child of the marriage was Imad, consecrated Bishop of Paderborn in 1051.After the early death of her husband in 1011, Emma withdrew to the estate of Lesum and with her fortune generously supported Bremen Cathedral, where Archbishop Unwan was another of her relatives, and granted the cathedral chapter her property at Stiepel with its church.
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