Saint Aldegonde ( or Adelgundis) was a Frankish

Franks

The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...

 saint and abbess (c. 639–684). She was closely related to the Merovingian royal family. Her father and mother, afterwards honoured as Saint Walbert, count of Guînes

Guînes

Guînes is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France.-Geography:Guînes is located on the border of the two territories of the Boulonnais and Calaisis, at the edge of the now-drained marshes, which extend from here to the coast. The Guînes canal connects with...

, and Saint Bertilia, lived in Flanders

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

 in the province of Hainault

County of Hainaut

The County of Hainaut was a historical region in the Low Countries with its capital at Mons . In English sources it is often given the archaic spelling Hainault....

. She is the most famous of what Aline Hornaday calls the "Maubeuge Cycle" of Merovingian saints.

Aldegundis was urged to marry, but she chose the life of the convent. Then, having allegedly walked across the waters of the Sambre

Sambre

The Sambre is a river in northern France and Wallonia, southern Belgium, left tributary of the Meuse River. The ancient Romans called the river Sabis.-Course:...

, she had built on its banks a small nunnery at Malbode, which later became, under the name Maubeuge Abbey

Maubeuge Abbey

Mauberge Abbey was a women's religious house at Maubeuge, in what is now northern France, close to the present border with Belgium. It is best known today as the abbey built by Saint Aldegonde, and the educational institution for the young Jan Gossaert, a renaissance painter known as Mabuse after...

, a famous convent

Convent

A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...

 of Benedictine nuns. She bore with fortitude the breast cancer

Breast cancer

Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...

 that eventually killed her. Saint Aldegundis' Catholic liturgical feast is kept on January 30.

She has been supposed to be the sister of Saint Waltrude (Waudru).

There are several early Lives

Vita

Vita or VITA may refer to:Things:*Vita , a brief biography, often that of a saint * Vita , a character in the anime series, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's* A curriculum vitae...

, but none by contemporaries. Several of these, including the tenth-century biography by Hucbald, are printed by the Bollandists (Acta SS., January 11, 1034–35).

External links

• Aldegundis at Catholic Encyclopedia
  Catholic Encyclopedia
  The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...
  
  online
• 30 January saints at Saint Patrick's Church