Kinga and Yolanda
Persons, originating from Poland

Kinga and Yolanda

Kinga of Poland
Born: March 5, 1224 in Esztergom, Hungary
Died: July 24, 1292 in Sandec (Stary Sącz), Poland
Mentioned in Polish as Święta Kinga
Mentioned in Hungarian as Szent Kinga

Kinga (1224 – 1292) married Boleslaw V, Duke of Poland, which influenced Hungarian-Polish relations favourably. She helped Poland in many ways, contributing her whole dowry to defending the country against the Mongols, opening the salt mines at Wieliczka, founding a Poor Clares convent at Sandec (today Stary Sącz) and building hospitals and churches. After her husband’s death she withdrew to the convent at Sandec, where she was elected mother superior. She is the patron saint of Poland and Lithuania. She was canonised by Pope John Paul II in 1999 and from that moment on known as Saint Kinga.
        Kinga, depicted by Włodzimierz Tetmajer

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Yolanda
Born: 1235/1239 in Esztergom, Hungary
Died: June 11, 1298 in Gniezno, Poland
Mentioned in Polish as Jolenta Helena or błogosławiona Jolenta
Mentioned in Hungarian as Boldog Jolán
Yolanda (1235 or 1239 – 1298) married Boleslaw the Pious, Prince of Kalisz and Gniezno, in 1256. After her husband’s death in 1279, she gave away her wealth to the Church and her relatives, and joined her widowed sister Kinga in the Poor Clares convent at Sandec. After her sister’s demise in 1292 she moved to the Gniezno monastery founded by her husband and became the abbess. Due to miraculous healings at her grave in the monastery’s chapel, she was beatified in 1827. Since that date she is mentioned as Blessed Yolanda.
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        Yolanda, depicted by S. Andrzejewski


Polonica stamps:

Hungary 2017, 02 IX