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Clotilde

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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] was a saint and a Queen of the Franks. She was the patron saint of France, Paris, and Les Andelys.

Biography[edit]

St Clotilde at prayer (illuminated initial)

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, Fredegarius, and 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 of Burgundy when he murdered his brothers, as well as Clotilde's mother Caretena, who was, according to Sidonius Apollinaris and Venantius Fortunatus, "a remarkable woman"[7] and her brothers. 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.[8][7] According to hagiographer Sabine Baring-Gould, Clotilde "grew up full of piety and tenderness to sufferers".[6]

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.[1]

Soon after the death of Chilperic in 493, Clovis asked and obtained the hand of Clotilde.[1] They were married in 493.

The marriage produced the following children:

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.[9]

Clotilde's victory came in 496, when Clovis converted to Christianity, baptised by Bishop 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.[10]

Later years[edit]

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.[10]

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.[11] 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.[12]

Veneration[edit]

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.[9]

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.[13]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Butler 1995, p. 462.
  4. ^ 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 Kurth, Godefroid (1908). "St. Clotilda". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  8. ^ Dunbar 1901, pp. 191–192.
  9. ^ a b Farmer, David Hugh (1997). The Oxford dictionary of saints (4. ed.). Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 9780192800589.
  10. ^ a b  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Pfister, Christian (1911). "Clotilda, Saint". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 557.
  11. ^ "Saint Clotilda". Saints.SQPN.com. 21 May 2009. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  12. ^ 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 [...].
  13. ^ ""Saint Clotilde's Fountain", Office Municipal de Tourisme des Andelys". Archived from the original on 1 April 2015. Retrieved 19 July 2014.

Works cited[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • 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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