A blessed and happy Memorial of St. Adelaide of Italy, Holy Roman Empress

St. Adelaide of Italy, pray for us.

Heavenly Father, please help us fill our heart with love, peace and charity for our family and expel from it all divisive thoughts. Please touch the hearts of our family through the intercession of Saint Adelaide, so that we can be whole, united and dedicated to you. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.

• St. Adelaide is the patroness of a number of causes including brides, widows, princesses, second marriages, step-parents and large families.

St Adelaide (931 – 999) was born into royalty in Orbe, Switzerland – then part of France. Her father was Rudolf II of Burgundy. She married Lothair, the nominal King of Italy, when she was fifteen, in part to bring peace between her father and Lothair’s father. St Adelaide bore him a daughter but after three years of marriage, Lothair died, possibly poisoned.

St Adelaide was imprisoned by Lothair’s successor for refusing to marry his son. However, she escaped and, following an appeal to Otto the Great of Germany, was rescued and later they married. St Adelaide bore a further four children.

When Otto died in 973, St Adelaide’s religious life became her entire focus. Although she didn’t join a Religious Order, she followed a similar lifestyle and founded many Monasteries and Churches. She died at a convent which she had retired to at Seltz.

(https://www.daily-prayers.org/saints-library/adelaide-2/)