Radegund

Radegund (c.520 – 13 August 587) was another wife of Clothar I. She was a princess, daughter of Bertachar, a king of Thuringia who co-ruled with his two brothers, Hermanfrid and Baderic (Baderic was the father of two of Clothar's wives).

The co-rule was not always peaceful. Hermanfrid killed Bertachar and took Radegund into his household. Hermanfrid made an alliance with King Theuderic of the Franks to share Thuringia, and together they defeated Baderic. Hemanfrid then went back on his old to share with Theuderic, who went to Thuringia in 531 with his brother, Clothar. They defeated Hermanfrid and Clothar took Radegund (then a pre-teen) back to Gaul. Clothar had her educated in Picardy until 540, when he married her.

Radegund was a Roman Catholic, whereas Clothar was a Chalcedonian Catholic. Chalcedonians upheld the 451 decree that Christ had two distinct, unconfused natures (human and divine) in one person. Radegund (tradition says) wanted to be a martyr, and marriage may not have suited her—especially to a man who had been an enemy of her people. They had no children. In 545 when Clothar killed the last surviving male member of the Thuringia royal family, Radegund fled to the bishop of Noyon, asking to be ordained as a deaconess.

She founded the monastery of Sainte-Croix in Poitiers, living under the Rule for Virgins of Cæsarius of Arles. It was named Sainte-Croix for a relic of the True Cross that she had obtained from Byzantine Emperor Justin II. (There was some controversy about the relic. The bishops of Poitiers refused the ceremony to add it to her monastery, but Sigebert I of Austrasia sent the bishop of Tours instead to make it happen. The hymn Vexilla regis prodeunt ("the royal banner goes forward"), sung on Good Friday, Palm Sunday, and at the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, was one of the hymns composed specifically for this ceremony by Venantius Fortunatus (c.530 – c. 600/609).

Radegund was an extreme ascetic, eating only legumes and green vegetables and drinking only water.

She is believed to be the author of poems originally ascribed to Venantius, with whom she was close. At her death, she was buried in a church in Poitiers now called the Church of St. Radegund, where her tomb can be visited in the crypt. There are many places in France named for her, as well as five English parish churches.

But next wee will return to Clothar and his post-Radegund activities.