Zdislava lived a very frugal and prayerful life and cared for the poor and the people who had lost their homes. At this time pagan tribes were invading Europe and forcing many people from their homes. She allow these people to come and live in the castle where she and her husband lived. Her husband treated her somewhat brutally, but she responded with patience and gentleness that eventually caused her husband to allow her great freedom in her practices of devotion, her fasting, and her works of charity. However, he thought that her charity was excessive and one day, when he wanted to remove a sick beggar from a bed in the castle, he found not the beggar but an image of Christ crucified there instead. This seemed to change his mind about Zdislava‘s charity.

Now the count allowed Zdislava to found a Dominican convent of nuns, and she supported this convent until her death. Although many people did not receive the Eucharist except perhaps once in their life on their deathbed, Zdislava received the Eucharist almost daily. When she grew very ill, she told her husband and children that she would help them more from heaven than she could on earth. She was buried in the monastery that she founded, and she appeared in glory to her husband after her death.

Zdislava had wanted to be a hermit who spent her life in prayer. Instead she was a married woman with a family and a husband who was not always understanding. Within her lifestyle, she was able to still pray and live a poor life devoted to Jesus. She shows us that God’s ways are not always ours, but we can become saints anyway.