St Radegund

Saint Radegund was born around the year 520, the daughter of Berthaire, one of three Thuringian kings. When she was a child, her father was murdered by her uncle, Hermanfred, who then brought up Radegund and her brother, until the Frankish invasion of Thuringia in 531. Following the defeat and virtual destruction of the Thuringian royal family, Radegund and her brother were captured by the Frankish King Clothaire I, who carried them off, as spoils of war, to his royal estate near Athies, where Radegund remained until she was aged eighteen. Then, despite a vain attempt at flight, she was taken by Clothaire to his court at Soissons to be his queen. Radegund was reluctant to marry Clothaire, partly because of his brutal and dissolute character, but also on account of to her resistance to the married state itself, an early sign of her attraction to a monastic vocation. She eventually consented to the wedding (c.540), but continued to lead an austere and devout existence, thus goading Clothaire to fury. Her first biographer, Venantius Fortunatus, reports that: 'Because of this, people said that the king had yoked himself to a nun rather than a queen. Her goodness provoked him to harsh irritation, but she either soothed him to the best of her ability or bore her husband's brawling modestly.' She used the revenues of the lands she was granted at her wedding to found hospices and do other charitable work on behalf of the poor. One such hospice, dedicated to Saint Radegund, still exists at Athies.

After she had lived for ten years at Clothaire's court, Radegund's brother was murdered by Clothaire since, as the last surviving male member of the Thuringian royal family, he was a threat to Clothaire's rule over Thuringia. When she learned of her brother's murder, Radegund fled from Clothaire's court (c.550) and took sanctuary in the church at Noyon, where she persuaded Medard, Bishop of Noyon, to overcome his initial reluctance and consecrate her as a deaconess. She then managed to escape from her husband's territory, fleeing first to her estate at Saix, and then to Poitiers. Clothaire made several attempts to reclaim his wife, but she now had the power of the church behind her, and, in 560, fearing another attempt to recapture her, she sent a letter to Germanus, bishop of Paris, asking him to exert his influence with her husband. Eventually Clothaire capitulated, sending Germanus to Poitiers to ask the queen's pardon, which was readily granted. Clothaire died in 561, and thus Radegund was released from any further claims.

It was during these years that Radegund founded the Convent of Our Lady of Poitiers, a mile or so from the city (c.552). This convent was completed by 560, with the help of Clothaire and the revenues of the lands granted to her at her wedding. When she had established the new convent, Radegund sent a letter of foundation to the bishops of the Poitiers area. In this document, which was later transcribed by Gregory of Tours, in his `History of the Franks', Radegund laid down the organisation of the convent: that it was to abide by the Rule of Caesaria of Arles; that the Lady Agnes (a close friend of Radegund since her childhood at Athies) was to be the Mother Superior; and that it had been founded with the complete approval of the prelates in the area of Poitiers, as well as of the heirs of Clothaire. The most notable aspect of the Caesarian Rule was its rigid requirement that, once cloistered, a nun was never, under any circumstances, to leave the convent. It further required that the cloistered sisters be able to read and write, and that they devote several hours of the day to reading the scriptures and copying manuscripts, as well as to such traditionally female tasks as weaving and needlework. The community of nuns numbered about two hundred, many of them being, like the foundress, of the highest social rank. A community of monks, abiding by a similar rule, was also instituted at the same time. Radegund soon began to petition the Byzantine Emperor for relics from the Holy Land to sanctify her convent. The first petition she sent him was for a relic of the Cappadocian martyr, St. Mamas of Caesarea. The Patriarch of Jerusalem eventually authorised the transfer of the little finger of the saint's right hand from Jerusalem to Poitiers. The second petition was for a fragment of the True Cross, i.e. the cross on which Christ was crucified. In response, the Emperor sent not only a large piece of wood from the cross, but also some gospels studded with gold and gems. Euphronius, Bishop of Tours, deposited these relics in the convent in the year 569. Following the acquisition of these relics, Radegund had the convent renamed the Abbey of the Holy Cross, and it became the destination of pilgrimages from throughout the Frankish lands and beyond. In her last years, Radegund took her habitual practice of asceticism still further. She shut herself off from the day-to-day life of the convent, and isolated herself in a walled-up cell, where she devoted her hours to prayer and meditation. She died on 13th August 587 and her funeral was conducted by her friend Gregory of Tours. Since the nuns were forbidden, by the Caesarian Rule, ever to set foot outside the convent, they stood on its walls, wailing, as Radegund's body passed beneath them.

After Radegund's death, the convent fell into decay, due partly to the refusal of Maroveus, Bishop of Poitiers, to perform his ecclesiastical duty to supervise it. Eventually a revolt by some of the nuns led to the convening of a council of bishops to investigate the allegations made by the nuns. Many of these were found to be without merit, but Maroveus was ordered to attend to the spiritual needs of the convent. The first lives of Radegund were written by two people who had been close to her during her lifetime: her chaplain, Venantius Fortunatus, and one of her nuns, Baudonivia. In the ninth century, both Radegund and her Mother Superior, Sister Agnes, were canonised as saints. Five English parish churches are dedicated to her, and she had a chapel in the old St Paul's Cathedral, as well as in Gloucester, Lichfield, and Exeter Cathedrals. Saint Radegund's Abbey, near Dover, was founded in her honour in 1191. She is also the patron saint of Jesus College Cambridge, which was founded on the site of the twelfth-century nunnery of Saint Mary and Saint Radegund. One of the stained glass windows in Jesus College Chapel represents scenes from the life of Saint Radegund, and there is also a statue of Saint Radegund which looks out down Morgan Avenue to the Victoria Avenue gate. This is a companion to the statues of Saint John the Evangelist and the Blessed Virgin Mary, which can be seen on the West and South sides of the Carpenter Building.

Further Reading:

  1. Brittain, F. Saint Radegund (1928)
  2. Cross, F. and Livingstone, E. The Oxford dictionary of the Christian Church 3rd ed. (1997)
  3. Duvall, O. 'Radegund of Poitiers (c. 518-587)' in On-line reference books for medieval studies (1996)
  4. Farmer, D.H. The Oxford Dictionary of Saints 2nd ed. (1987)
  5. Favreau, R La vie de Sainte Radegonde par Fortunat (1995)
  6. Gray, A. and Brittain, F. A history of Jesus College Cambridge (1988)
  7. McNamara, J. and Halborg, J. Sainted women of the dark ages (1992)
  8. Wace, H and Piercy, W. A dictionary of Christian biography and literature (1911)

Alex Perkins