| Saint Jutta | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1200 Sangerhausen, Thuringia |
| Died | May 12 1260 Kulmsee, Prussia |
| Honored in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Feast | May 5 |
Saint Jutta or Saint Judith or Jutta of Kulmsee or Jutta of Sangerhausen or Jutta of Thuringia (born c. 1200 at Sangerhausen in Thuringia (now Sachsen-Anhalt); d. 1260 at Kulmsee, Prussia (now Chełmża, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland) was a Prussian anchoress and saint.
She imitated the life of Elizabeth of Hungary, who was the Duchess of Thuringia during her lifetime, and 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. He died (while they were on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and Jutta became a single mother. Each child eventually entered a monastery or convent upon reaching a suitable age, and this left Jutta able to pursue a more austere religious way of life.
She gave away or sold her property and lived the rest of her life in contemplation and in caring for the poor and the sick. She chose as her base a derelict building at Bildschön (now Bielyczny), near Kulmsee in Prussia, in the area governed by the Teutonic Knights, whose Grand Master, Anno von Sangershausen, was a relative of hers. There 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. Living on the frontier of Christian Europe, she dedicated her final days to praying for the non-Christian population of the region.
She died around 1260. According to her wishes, her priest at the local Kulmsee chapel Heidenreich von Kulm (earlier archbishop of Armagh, Ireland) had her buried at Kulmsee chapel. A cultus developed around her immediately and Kulmsee chapel became a destination for pilgrims. In the Roman Catholic Church, she is the patron saint of Prussia, and her feast day is May 5.