RADEGUNDA, SAINT

died Aug. 13, 587, Poitiers [now in France]; feast day August 13 also spelled Radegund, or Radegundis, French Sainte Radegonde queen of the Merovingian king Chlotar I, who left her husband to become a nun and later founded a monastery at Poitiers. She was one of the first of the Merovingian saints. A Thuringian princess, Radegunda was captured about 531 by Chlotar I during an expedition against the Thuringians. She was educated in letters at his court; and, although she is said to have hoped from an early age to be a martyr, she eventually married the king. Her piety and continence were such, however, that he complained of having a nun rather than a wife for his queen. Despite her rank, she displayed great humility, tending the poor and the sick. Gregory of Tours reported in his History of the Franks that Chlotar unjustly killed Radegunda's brother; perhaps this was the occasion for her asking Mdard, bishop of Noyon, to allow her to become a nun. Mdard finally agreed, and she entered a convent; later she founded the nunnery of the Holy Cross at Poitiers. It was said that Radegunda performed numerous miracles and that Christ appeared to her a year before her death.