The Hedgehog and the Heroine

Ask Getty curators about the cutest animals in our collection, and The Hedgehog is sure to come up.

Take a close look at the spiked critter the woman on the left is pointing to. How did it end up in a medieval illumination? Who are the people with it? Getty manuscripts curators Elizabeth Morrison and Larisa Grollemond were excited to give us answers on this small work of art with a great backstory.

Who Is This Hedgehog?

“It’s actually not a complicated story,” says Morrison. “But it’s funny and interesting, and maybe surprising for people who don't think of medieval nuns as having had senses of humor.”

Here’s the scene the manuscript recounts: it’s the 13th century, and two women spot each other in Trzebnica Abbey. The woman on the right thinks there’s absolutely nothing suspicious about the way she’s holding her left arm. But the woman on the left immediately sees the smuggled hedgehog and points it out so that the viewer can see it too.

“I love the idea of the implied conversation here,” says Grollemond, “where one of the nuns says suspiciously, ‘what's that in your sleeve?’ And the other answers, ‘I don’t know how that got in there!’”

And it’s a great image because of its specificity, adds Morrison. “This is so particular, we think this must be based in some truth, at least in part.” Manuscripts like these, that describe saints’ lives, can often have common miraculous stories and images like healing the sick. But, “I can’t think of any other saint’s story involving a hedgehog,” says Morrison.

The Real Main Character

The hedgehog is cute, but it isn’t the protagonist of this story. The real main character is the woman with the orange halo. And while this scene takes place in an abbey, the woman with a halo is not an angel. She’s actually a 13th-century duchess named Hedwig of Silesia.

And she’s not your average lady. First of all, Hedwig of Silesia commissioned the abbey in which she’s pictured. And the anecdotes in her story are less about her life as a member of the high-ranking nobility, but rather more about advocating for her subjects. She lowered feudal taxes, helped the poor, and protected and educated women under her rule.

For instance, nuns were not supposed to keep pets, and the fact that Hedwig spotted the hedgehog indicated her determination to ensure the nuns were following the rules and that she had an almost miraculous ability of perception.

A Middle-Aged Heroine

And 21st-century audiences aren’t the only ones who might find this type of heroine refreshing. Hedwig of Silesia was so popular in her own time that she was canonized as a saint shortly after her death. Married saints with children were relatively rare, and Hedwig was particularly relatable and inspiring to women of the time.

For a medieval Catholic in 14th-century Poland, the fact that Hedwig was a wife and a mother who went on to sainthood was very much viewed as a model to follow. “Contemporary women might realize that doing something holy isn’t just for virgin saints,” says Morrison.

A Heroine with Merch

Hedwig was so well known that she had merch. Here’s the backstory: oftentimes, Hedwig’s husband, irked by her pious religious fasting, would surprise her in her room to make sure she was drinking more than water and not fasting again.

So, Hedwig reportedly turned the glass of water into “rich German wine.” This miraculous act of keeping her husband from interfering in her holy business is commemorated in the form of so-called “Hedwig beakers,” sold to pilgrims going to visit her relics in Europe and as far as the Middle East.

Other stories from Hedwig’s life include the time she wouldn't let a man make her wear shoes, when she unglued a woman punished for working on a Sunday, or when she made it clear to her husband that, after having had several children, she was ready for what Grollemond calls “independently chaste lives, so rather than spending the night in bed with him, she would pray all night instead.”