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Clotilde's grandfather was [[Gondioc]], who had four sons, [[Gundobad]], Clotilde's father [[Chilperic II of Burgundy]], [[Gundemar|Gondemar]], and [[Godegisel]].{{Sfn|Dunbar|1901|p=191}}{{Sfn|Baring-Gould|1897|p=23}} After Gondioc's death, Burgundy was divided up among them, but Gundobald gained power over Burgundy when he murdered his brothers. Gundobald also killed Clotide's brothers and her mother Caretena, who might have converted her husband to Christianity{{Sfn|McNamara|Halborg|Whatley|1992|p=38}} and was called "a remarkable woman" by [[Sidonius Apollinaris]] and [[Venantius Fortunatus]].<ref name="cathencyclopedia1">{{Cite book |last=Kurth |first=Godefroid |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04066a.htm |title=The Catholic Encyclopedia |date=1908 |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |volume=4 |location=New York |chapter=St. Clotilda |access-date=31 May 2024}}</ref>{{Efn|As scholar JoAnne McNamara put it, Clothild and her mother "set a pattern for a chain of Catholic female missionaries to the courts of the pagan and Arian kings they married".{{sfn|McNamara|Halborg|Whatley|1992|p=38}}}} Clotilde and her sister, Sedeleuba (or Chrona), who became a nun and founded the church of Saint-Victor in [[Geneva]], were raised at the court of Gundobad. They were educated as Catholics, even through Gundobad, like most of the Burgundian kings, were [[Arianism|Arians]].{{Sfn|Dunbar|1901|pp=191-192}}<ref name="cathencyclopedia1" />{{Efn|Gundobad's son was later converted to Catholicism, although he was killed by Clotilde's sons.{{sfn|McNamara|Halborg|Whatley|1992|p=39}}}} According to hagiographer [[Sabine Baring-Gould]], Clotilde "grew up full of piety and tenderness to sufferers".{{Sfn|Baring-Gould|1897|p=23}}
Clotilde's grandfather was [[Gondioc]], who had four sons, [[Gundobad]], Clotilde's father [[Chilperic II of Burgundy]], [[Gundemar|Gondemar]], and [[Godegisel]].{{Sfn|Dunbar|1901|p=191}}{{Sfn|Baring-Gould|1897|p=23}} After Gondioc's death, Burgundy was divided up among them, but Gundobald gained power over Burgundy when he murdered his brothers. Gundobald also killed Clotide's brothers and her mother Caretena, who might have converted her husband to Christianity{{Sfn|McNamara|Halborg|Whatley|1992|p=38}} and was called "a remarkable woman" by [[Sidonius Apollinaris]] and [[Venantius Fortunatus]].<ref name="cathencyclopedia1">{{Cite book |last=Kurth |first=Godefroid |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04066a.htm |title=The Catholic Encyclopedia |date=1908 |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |volume=4 |location=New York |chapter=St. Clotilda |access-date=31 May 2024}}</ref>{{Efn|As scholar JoAnne McNamara put it, Clothild and her mother "set a pattern for a chain of Catholic female missionaries to the courts of the pagan and Arian kings they married".{{sfn|McNamara|Halborg|Whatley|1992|p=38}}}} Clotilde and her sister, Sedeleuba (or Chrona), who became a nun and founded the church of Saint-Victor in [[Geneva]], were raised at the court of Gundobad. They were educated as Catholics, even through Gundobad, like most of the Burgundian kings, were [[Arianism|Arians]].{{Sfn|Dunbar|1901|pp=191-192}}<ref name="cathencyclopedia1" />{{Efn|Gundobad's son was later converted to Catholicism, although he was killed by Clotilde's sons.{{sfn|McNamara|Halborg|Whatley|1992|p=39}}}} According to hagiographer [[Sabine Baring-Gould]], Clotilde "grew up full of piety and tenderness to sufferers".{{Sfn|Baring-Gould|1897|p=23}}


=== Later life and marriage ===
From the sixth century on, the marriage of Clovis and Clotilde was made the theme of epic narratives, in which the original facts were materially altered and the various versions found their way into the works of different Frankish chroniclers.<ref name="Cath Ency" />
Shortly after Caretena's death, Clotilde and [[Clovis I]], the first [[List of Frankish kings|king of the Franks]], were married, in 492 or 493.<ref name="cathencyclopedia" />{{Sfn|Butler|1995|p=462}} As Farmer put it, Clovis was "impressed by her beauty and wisdom".<ref name="farmer" /> Their marriage, from the 6th century on, "was made the theme of epic narratives, in which the original facts were materially altered".<ref name="farmer" /> Clotilde's story fascinated later generations because it was "the centerpiece of a struggle between the old Catholic, Roman population against the [[Arianism]] of the Germanic tribes",{{Sfn|McNamara|1992|p=39}} although there is no evidence that Clovis was an Arian sympathizer before his marriage and conversion to Catholicism.{{Sfn|Dunbar|1904|p=192}} Clotilde had influence over Clovis and actively encouraged him to convert to Catholicism.{{Sfn|Butler|1995|p=462}}<ref name="farmer" /> He allowed the baptism of their oldest son, Ingomir, who died in infancy, and of their next son, Clodomir, but he blamed their oldest child's death on Clotilde's faith and resisted her attempts to convert him.<ref name="farmer" />{{Sfn|Butler|1995|p=462}} Clodomir also became ill, but recovered and they had five children in all: four sons, Ingomir; and Clodomir, Childebert, and Clotaire, who all became kings; and one daughter, named Clotilde after her mother.<ref name="cathencyclopedia" /> Clotilde's ''vita'' describes her daughter's life, who married a [[Visigoths|Visigothic]] man named Amalaric, who she unsuccessfully tried to convert to Catholicism{{Sfn|McNamara|1992|p=38}} and who "cruelly treated".{{Sfn|Butler|1995|p=462}} Little is known about her mother during Clovis' lifetime and about their marriage, but she might have been involved with his intervention of the quarrel between the Burgundian kings at the time and Clovis' support of [[Gundobad|Gondobad]].<ref name="cathencyclopedia" />{{Sfn|Butler|1995|p=462}}<ref name="farmer" /> Historian Godefroid Kurth said, about Clotilde, that she was "saddened by cruel trials".<ref name="cathencyclopedia" />


Clovis was baptized by [[Saint Remigius|St. Remigius]] at [[Reims]] in 496, along with 3,000 of the Frankish people, after a battle with the [[Alemanni]]. His army was losing, but he appealed to his wife's God for help, promising that if he won, he would accept the Christian faith.<ref name="cathencyclopedia" />{{Sfn|Butler|1995|p=29}}<ref name="farmer" />{{Sfn|Baring-Gould|1897|p=24}} According to tradition, while Clotilde was in prayer and as Clovis began to win the battle, an angel brought her three white lilies; Clovis later substituted lilies for the three frogs on the insignia on his battle shield.{{Sfn|Dunbar|1901|p=192}} Sabine Baring-Gould considers Clovis' conversion sincere and that it was not due to political considerations. Baring-Gould also did not believe that Clotilde did not influence Clovis to fight this war or others in order to revenge her family's death.{{Sfn|Baring-Gould|1897|p=25}} Clovis' subsequent military achievements against the Burgundians and Visigoths also do not seem to have been associated with Clotilde.<ref name="farmer" /> The Franks, due to Clotilde's influence, were Catholics for centuries.<ref name="cathencyclopedia" />
Soon after the death of Chilperic in 493, Clovis asked and obtained the hand of Clotilde.<ref name="Cath Ency" /> They were married in 493.

Clovis died in 511;{{Sfn|McNamara|Halborg|Whatley|1992|p=40}} Clotilde buried him at the [[Abbey of Saint Genevieve|Basilica of the Holy Apostles]], which later became the Church of Sainte-Geneviève, which they built together as a mausoleum honouring [[Genevieve|Saint Genevieve]], the patron saint of Paris. Genevieve might have been the first to suggest that Clovis build a church honouring [[Saint Peter]] and [[Paul the Apostle|Saint Paul]], which he built in deference to Clotilde's wishes; she completed the church after his death.<ref name="cathencyclopedia" /><ref>"Genovefa (423-502)". ''Sainted Women of the Dark Ages''. Edited and translated from ''Acta Sanctorum'' by McNamara, Jo Ann; Halborg, John E. Durham; with Whatley, E. Gordon, England: Duke University Press. 1992. p. 36. ISBN 0-8223-1200-X</ref>


[[File:Sainte Clotilde - gradient background 01.jpg|thumb|Statue of Saint Clotilde by [[Jean-Baptiste Claude Eugène Guillaume|Eugène Guillaume]] and [[Alexandre-Dominique Denuelle]]]]
[[File:Sainte Clotilde - gradient background 01.jpg|thumb|Statue of Saint Clotilde by [[Jean-Baptiste Claude Eugène Guillaume|Eugène Guillaume]] and [[Alexandre-Dominique Denuelle]]]]
The marriage produced the following children:
The marriage produced the following children:

* Ingomer (born and died 494).
* [[Chlodomer]] (495–524), [[List of Frankish kings|King of the Franks]] at [[Orléans]] from 511.
* [[Childebert I]] (496–558), King of the Franks at [[Paris]] from 511.
* [[Chlothar I]] (497–561), King of the Franks at [[Soissons]] from 511, King of all Franks from 558.
* [[Clotilde (died 531)|Clotilde]] (500–531), married [[Amalaric]], King of the [[Visigothic Kingdom|Visigoths]].

Clotilde was brought up as a Christian and did not rest until her husband had abjured [[paganism]] and embraced Christianity. According to Gregory of Tours' ''Historia Francorum'' (History of the Franks), when Clotilde had their first child baptised, he died soon after. Clovis upbraided her; but when Chlodomer was born, she insisted on baptising him also. Although Chlodomer did indeed fall ill, he soon after recovered. More healthy children followed.<ref name="Oxford dictionary of saints">{{cite book|last=Farmer|first=David Hugh|title=The Oxford dictionary of saints|year=1997|publisher=Oxford Univ. Press|location=Oxford [u.a.]|isbn=9780192800589|edition=4.}}</ref>

Clotilde's victory came in 496, when Clovis converted to Christianity, baptised by Bishop [[Saint Remigius|Remigius of Reims]] on [[Christmas]] Day of that year. According to tradition, on the eve of the [[Battle of Tolbiac]] against the [[Alamanni]], Clovis prayed to God, swearing to be baptised if he emerged victorious on the battlefield. When he did indeed triumph, Clovis readily took the faith. With him Clotilde built at [[Paris]] the Church of the Holy Apostles, afterwards known as the [[Abbey of St Genevieve]].<ref name="encbrit">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Clotilda, Saint|volume=6|page=557|first=Christian|last=Pfister|author-link=Christian Pfister}}</ref>


===Later years===
===Later years===

Revision as of 17:44, 20 June 2024

This article is about the saint. For other uses, see Clotilde (disambiguation).

Saint

Clotilde
A lithograph of Saint Clotilde
Queen of the Franks
Bornc. 474
Lyon, Burgundy
Died545; Aged 70–71
Tours, Francia
Venerated inEastern Orthodox Church, Catholic Church, Lutheranism
CanonizedPre-Congregation
FeastJune 3 (June 4 in France)
Attributeswearing a crown and holding a church; with a battle in the background, in memory of the Battle of Tolbiac.
Patronagebrides, adopted children, parents, exiles, notaries, widows, the lame

Clotilde (c. 474 – 3 June 545)[1][2] (also known as Clotilda (Fr.), Chlothilde (Ger.)[1] Chlothieldis, Chlotichilda, Clodechildis, Croctild, Crote-hild, Hlotild, Rhotild, and many other forms),[2] is a saint and was a Queen of the Franks. She is the patron saint of France, Paris, and Les Andelys.

Biography

St Clotilde at prayer (illuminated initial)

Early life

Clotilde, born around 474, was from Burgundy.[3] According to hagiographer Alban Butler, the only source for Clotilde's biography, which was edited by Bruno Krusch before the 10th century, is of no historical value and is mostly dependent upon a document written by a monk from Saint-Denis a couple of centuries earlier. Her history has also been pieced together by Gregory of Tours and Fredegarius, and in certain hagiographies. Butler states that the most reliable source about her life is by Belgium historian Godefroid Kurth, but David Hugh Farmer calls Gregory of Tours' hagiography about Clotilde "the principal source for her life" and said that a later hagiography "celebrated her as the saintly ancestor of the French kings".[4] Her history also appears in French hagiographies, but most of them were written before Kurth's.[5]

Clotilde's grandfather was Gondioc, who had four sons, Gundobad, Clotilde's father Chilperic II of Burgundy, Gondemar, and Godegisel.[2][6] After Gondioc's death, Burgundy was divided up among them, but Gundobald gained power over Burgundy when he murdered his brothers. Gundobald also killed Clotide's brothers and her mother Caretena, who might have converted her husband to Christianity[7] and was called "a remarkable woman" by Sidonius Apollinaris and Venantius Fortunatus.[8][a] Clotilde and her sister, Sedeleuba (or Chrona), who became a nun and founded the church of Saint-Victor in Geneva, were raised at the court of Gundobad. They were educated as Catholics, even through Gundobad, like most of the Burgundian kings, were Arians.[9][8][b] According to hagiographer Sabine Baring-Gould, Clotilde "grew up full of piety and tenderness to sufferers".[6]

Later life and marriage

Shortly after Caretena's death, Clotilde and Clovis I, the first king of the Franks, were married, in 492 or 493.[11][3] As Farmer put it, Clovis was "impressed by her beauty and wisdom".[4] Their marriage, from the 6th century on, "was made the theme of epic narratives, in which the original facts were materially altered".[4] Clotilde's story fascinated later generations because it was "the centerpiece of a struggle between the old Catholic, Roman population against the Arianism of the Germanic tribes",[12] although there is no evidence that Clovis was an Arian sympathizer before his marriage and conversion to Catholicism.[13] Clotilde had influence over Clovis and actively encouraged him to convert to Catholicism.[3][4] He allowed the baptism of their oldest son, Ingomir, who died in infancy, and of their next son, Clodomir, but he blamed their oldest child's death on Clotilde's faith and resisted her attempts to convert him.[4][3] Clodomir also became ill, but recovered and they had five children in all: four sons, Ingomir; and Clodomir, Childebert, and Clotaire, who all became kings; and one daughter, named Clotilde after her mother.[11] Clotilde's vita describes her daughter's life, who married a Visigothic man named Amalaric, who she unsuccessfully tried to convert to Catholicism[14] and who "cruelly treated".[3] Little is known about her mother during Clovis' lifetime and about their marriage, but she might have been involved with his intervention of the quarrel between the Burgundian kings at the time and Clovis' support of Gondobad.[11][3][4] Historian Godefroid Kurth said, about Clotilde, that she was "saddened by cruel trials".[11]

Clovis was baptized by St. Remigius at Reims in 496, along with 3,000 of the Frankish people, after a battle with the Alemanni. His army was losing, but he appealed to his wife's God for help, promising that if he won, he would accept the Christian faith.[11][15][4][16] According to tradition, while Clotilde was in prayer and as Clovis began to win the battle, an angel brought her three white lilies; Clovis later substituted lilies for the three frogs on the insignia on his battle shield.[17] Sabine Baring-Gould considers Clovis' conversion sincere and that it was not due to political considerations. Baring-Gould also did not believe that Clotilde did not influence Clovis to fight this war or others in order to revenge her family's death.[18] Clovis' subsequent military achievements against the Burgundians and Visigoths also do not seem to have been associated with Clotilde.[4] The Franks, due to Clotilde's influence, were Catholics for centuries.[11]

Clovis died in 511;[19] Clotilde buried him at the Basilica of the Holy Apostles, which later became the Church of Sainte-Geneviève, which they built together as a mausoleum honouring Saint Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris. Genevieve might have been the first to suggest that Clovis build a church honouring Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which he built in deference to Clotilde's wishes; she completed the church after his death.[11][20]

Statue of Saint Clotilde by Eugène Guillaume and Alexandre-Dominique Denuelle

The marriage produced the following children:

Later years

Clotilde and her sons, Grandes Chroniques de Saint-Denis

After Clovis' death in 511, Clotilde retired to the Abbey of St. Martin at Tours.

In 523 Clotilde's sons went to war against her cousin King Sigismund of Burgundy, the son of Gundobad, which led to Sigismund's deposition and imprisonment. Sigismund was assassinated the following year and his body thrown down a well in symbolic retaliation for the deaths of Clotilde's parents. Gregory of Tours claimed – echoed by many others – that Clotilde incited her sons to war to revenge the supposed murder of her parents by Gundobad; but others, such as Godefroid Kurth, find this unconvincing. Subsequently, her eldest son Chlodomer was killed during the subsequent Burgundian campaign under Sigismund's successor King Godomar at the Battle of Vézeronce. Her daughter, also named Clotilde, also died in 531. Clotilde tried in vain to protect the rights of her three grandsons, the children of Chlodomer, against the claims of her surviving sons Childebert and Chlothar. Chlothar had two of them killed, while only Clodoald (Cloud) managed to escape and later chose an ecclesiastical career. She was equally unsuccessful in her efforts to prevent the civil discords between her children.[21]

After these failures, Clotilde appeared to dedicate herself to a saintly life. She occupied herself with the building of churches and monasteries, preferring to distance herself from the power struggles of the court.[22] Churches associated with her are located at Laon and Rouen.

On 3 June 545, Clotilde died at the tomb of St. Martin of Tours, of natural causes. Her body was transported by her sons Chlothar and Childebert in a funeral procession to the Basilica of the Holy Apostles (now the Abbey of St Genevieve), and buried alongside her husband Clovis I.[23]

Veneration

Clotilde's veneration made her the patron of queens, widows, brides and exiles. In Normandy especially she was venerated as the patroness of the lame, those who came to a violent death, and women who suffered under ill-tempered husbands. In art she is often depicted presiding over the baptism of Clovis, or as a suppliant at the shrine of Saint Martin. Several fine images of her remain, particularly in the 16th-century stained glass window at Andelys. Her relics survived the French Revolution, and are housed in the Église Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles in Paris.[24]

Clotilde is the patron saint of Les Andelys, Normandy. In 511, the Queen founded a convent for young girls of the nobility there, which was destroyed by the Normans in 911. In its place was erected Our Lady's Collegiate Church, which contains a statue of Saint Clotilde. Also in Les Andelys is Saint Clotilde's Fountain, popularly believed to heal skin diseases.[25]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ As scholar JoAnne McNamara put it, Clothild and her mother "set a pattern for a chain of Catholic female missionaries to the courts of the pagan and Arian kings they married".[7]
  2. ^ Gundobad's son was later converted to Catholicism, although he was killed by Clotilde's sons.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b Kurth, Godefroid (1908). "St. Clotilda". The Catholic Encyclopedia (4 ed.). New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Dunbar 1901, p. 191.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Butler 1995, p. 462.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Farmer, David Hugh (1997). The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 95. ISBN 9780192800589. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  5. ^ Butler 1995, p. 463.
  6. ^ a b Baring-Gould 1897, p. 23.
  7. ^ a b McNamara, Halborg & Whatley 1992, p. 38.
  8. ^ a b Kurth, Godefroid (1908). "St. Clotilda". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  9. ^ Dunbar 1901, pp. 191–192.
  10. ^ McNamara, Halborg & Whatley 1992, p. 39.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Cite error: The named reference cathencyclopedia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ McNamara 1992, p. 39.
  13. ^ Dunbar 1904, p. 192.
  14. ^ McNamara 1992, p. 38.
  15. ^ Butler 1995, p. 29.
  16. ^ Baring-Gould 1897, p. 24.
  17. ^ Dunbar 1901, p. 192.
  18. ^ Baring-Gould 1897, p. 25.
  19. ^ McNamara, Halborg & Whatley 1992, p. 40.
  20. ^ "Genovefa (423-502)". Sainted Women of the Dark Ages. Edited and translated from Acta Sanctorum by McNamara, Jo Ann; Halborg, John E. Durham; with Whatley, E. Gordon, England: Duke University Press. 1992. p. 36. ISBN 0-8223-1200-X
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference encbrit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ "Saint Clotilda". Saints.SQPN.com. 21 May 2009. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  23. ^ Online, Catholic. "St. Clotilde – Saints & Angels – Catholic Online". Catholic Online. Retrieved 29 November 2017. St. Clotilde (c. 474- 545) and her husband King Clovis (c. 466-511) founded the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Franks for over 200 years. [...] She died at the tomb of St. Martin of Tours and was buried in Sainte-Genevieve in Paris [...].
  24. ^ Cite error: The named reference Oxford dictionary of saints was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  25. ^ ""Saint Clotilde's Fountain", Office Municipal de Tourisme des Andelys". Archived from the original on 1 April 2015. Retrieved 19 July 2014.

Works cited

  • Baring-Gould, Sabine (1897). The Lives of the Saints. Vol. 1. John C. Nimbo Publishers. Retrieved 6 June 2024.
  • Butler, Alban (1995). "St Clotilda, Widow". In Thurston, Herbert J.; Attwater, Donald (eds.). Butler's Lives of the Saints. Westminster, Maryland: Christian Classics. pp. 462–463.
  • Dunbar, Agnes B.C. (1901). A Dictionary of Saintly Women. Vol. 1. London: George Bell & Sons. pp. 191–193.
  • McNamara, Jo Ann; Halborg, John E.; Whatley, E. Gordon, eds. (1992). Sainted Women of the Dark Ages. Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-1200-X.

Further reading

  • Kynast, Birgit (2021). "Das Ideal einer christlichen Königin? Königin Chrodechilde bei Gregor von Tours und die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen weiblicher Herrschaft im früheren Mittelalter". Historisches Jahrbuch, vol. 141, pp. 3–42.
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