At Jablonné in Bohemia, Saint Zdislava, mother of a family, who was a great consolation to the afflicted.
Lifespan: c. 1215–1252
Beatified: 28 August 1907 by Pope Pius X
Canonized: 21 May 1995 by Pope John Paul II, Olomouc
Memoria liturgica: 1 January
“An example of conjugal fidelity, a sustainer of domestic spirituality and integrity of morals”
Pope Paul VI
Zdislava Berka was born around 1215 in Moravia. She was the daughter of Pribyslav of Krizanov, burgrave of Brno, and of Sibilla, a Sicilian noblewoman who had come to Bohemia as a lady-in-waiting to Cunegunde, niece of Frederick I Barbarossa, given in marriage to King Ottokar I Přemysl (r. 1197–1230).
Zdislava married at the age of seventeen Havel, lord of Lemberk Castle, near the town of Jablonné in Bohemia. A mother wholly devoted to her family, she was likewise distinguished by the charity she showed to those in need.
She came into contact with the Dominicans shortly after their arrival in Bohemia. She became their benefactress, founding together with her husband two convents, one of them in Jablonné itself. She also became a tertiary of the Dominican Order.
She died at the age of thirty-seven in 1252 and was buried in the convent at Jablonné.
Her cult was approved by Pius X in 1907.