medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Phyllis,
Thank you for your fidelity in providing our daily hagiography lesson. I
fear your source for Radegund is a little too polite in imagining that
Chlothar waited for "his wife" to die before wedding Radegund. Chlotar had
at least five wives and married two of them at roughly the same time (the
sisters Ingund and Aregund). There is no reason to imagine that he had no
other wife at the time he married Radegund. Indeed, his ultimate
willingness to agree to let her live in the monastery at Poitiers (which he
financed) may probably be explained by the availability of other wives to
keep him company. She, however, was "his public queen" according to
Fortunatus which seems to have been unique situation.
Since she was a married woman when she asked for consecration and one who
was in full flight from a husband who had certainly not at that time agreed
to release her from her marriage vows, she could not have been consecrated
as a nun. Faced with her threat that God would demand her soul of him and
the threat of the king's pursuing soldiers, Bishop Medard seems to have done
a little quick thinking and consecrated her as a deaconess. There is no
reason to think that she ever became a nun though some years later Chlothar
did agree not to demand her return as his wife. I am not sure whether it
was a desire to display humility or a conviction that virgins made more
suitable abbesses that led her to appoint Agnes as head of her community.
In any case, "simple nun" hardly does justice to the impressive public role
she played until her death.
Jo Ann
>
>
>Radegunde of Thuringia (d. 587) Radegunde, the daughter of Thuringian king
>Berthachar, was born in 518. In 531 she was taken as a hostage by the
>Frankish king Chlothar I, who had conquered Thuringian and killed most of
>Radegunde's family. After Chlothar's wife died, Radegunde was forced to
>marry him in 536. When Chlothar had Radegunde's brother murdered in 555,
>she abandoned the court and fled to Bishop Medard of Noyon, who consecrated
>her as a nun. To avoid her husband, in 560 Radegunde went on t Poitiers,
>where she founded a nunnery, which she herself entered as a simple nun.
>
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