Saint Kinga — canonized by John Paul II in 1999 — was a 13th-century Hungarian princess who became abbess of the Poor Clares at Stary Sącz in what is now southern Poland. Hungarian gold coinage in her honor carries particular resonance given the persistent legend that she dropped her engagement ring into a salt mine at Máramaros before her marriage to Bolesław V of Kraków, and the ring was said to have reappeared in the Wieliczka salt mine — a story that made her the patron saint of Polish miners for centuries.
Saint Kinga — canonized by John Paul II in 1999 — was a 13th-century Hungarian princess who became abbess of the Poor Clares at Stary Sącz in what is now southern Poland. Hungarian gold coinage in her honor carries particular resonance given the persistent legend that she dropped her engagement ring into a salt mine at Máramaros before her marriage to Bolesław V of Kraków, and the ring was said to have reappeared in the Wieliczka salt mine — a story that made her the patron saint of Polish miners for centuries.