The first six chapters of the Legenda maior, comprising a little over one-third of the document as a whole, concentrate on [Hedwig]'s commitment to the virtues of chastity, humility, patience, seriousness, prayerfulness, and mercy respectively. In the chapter on chastity, the author reconciles Hedwig's status as a married woman with the medieval propensity to see sexual renunciation as the sine qua non of Christian sanctity, especially among women.17 Readers are assured that while Hedwig fulfilled her marital obligations, she never gave herself over to sexual passion. After the birth of her seventh child, she persuaded her husband that they formally vow to live the rest of their lives in continence.18 In the chapter on humility one learns that Hedwig wore simple clothing and later embraced a monastic mode of life. She surrounded herself with the poor and preferred to serve rather than be served. Regarding her patience, the Legenda maior explains how Hedwig remained calm when faced with stressful and tragic circumstances, including the deaths of her husband and son.19 The chapter on seriousness details Hedwig's intense regimen of asceticism and self-mortification. Among other practices, Hedwig wore inadequate clothing, went barefoot, routinely fasted, and had her body beaten with a rod.20 In describing her prayer life, the Legenda maior relates how Hedwig was in a nearly perpetual state of prayer. She attended mass as often as possible, and she spent so much time on her knees that calluses "in the form of two eggs" developed there.21 The next chapter offers an accounting of Hedwig's many charitable endeavors. "The giftof piety and charitable love filled the heart of the servant of Christ to such a degree, that she was always ready to advance the honor of God and the saints and to help her fellow man with her body and soul."22 The remaining two-thirds of the Legenda maior is devoted to miraculous phenomena associated with Hedwig, the large majority of which involve healing people from a wide array of ailments.