In the sixth century in France, Radegunda, a queen of special beauty, shone for her very high virtues and obtained the glory of the altars.
Newsroom (December 6, 2021 1:11 PM, Gaudium Press) Radegunda was born in 518 and was the daughter of the King of Thuringia, a central region of present-day Germany.
When she was thirteen years old, Thuringia was conquered by King Clotterius I, son of Clovis and Saint Clotilde, and her parents died in massacres. Desiring to marry her, Clotary rescued her and provided her with a thorough education.
A few years later, Clotario announced the wedding, but the night before the ceremony, St. Radegunda managed to escape. On the king’s orders, knights pursued her, brought her back, and the wedding was celebrated.
Becoming queen, she donated the money she received to the monasteries and had a hospital built for the indigent. She shunned royal feasts and took great care of the sick.
On one occasion, walking along a road, accompanied by a retinue of nobles, she saw a pagan temple and had it burned down.
But soon a mob of idolaters armed with spears appeared and advanced against her. The Saint mounted a horse and with her look overpowered their anger, saying words full of unction to them. They were all converted and agreed to the destruction of the temple.
Triumphantly received in Poitiers
One day, Clotarius I had a brother of Saint Radegunda eliminated. In this way, she became the sole survivor of her family. At her entreaties, the king allowed her to become a nun and granted her the means to build a convent in Poitiers, West-Central France.
On her journey to this city, in 544, she passed through Tours, where she met St. Clotilde, her mother-in-law, with whom she stayed for some time. When the building of the religious house was finished, she went to Poitiers, where she was received triumphantly by the population, and enclosed herself in the convent, leading a life of prayer and strict penance.
Clotary I conquered the other kingdoms into which France was divided and took up residence in Paris. Despite his crimes, he did not lose his faith. One day, he went to the Basilica of Saint Martin in Tours, prostrated himself before the Saint’s tomb and asked God for mercy; he died a few months later.
A man with excellent musical gifts
At that time Providence raised up a man with excellent musical gifts: Saint Venancius Fortunatus.
He was born in 530 outside Treviso, Northern Italy, and studied in Ravenna. At the age of 30, having lost his sight, he went to an oratory dedicated to St. Martin of Tours to beg for healing; he put holy oil on his eyes and was cured. To give thanks for this miracle, he started a pilgrimage to the French city of Tours.
On his long journey, he stayed in the residences of bishops and noblemen and paid his expenses by singing hymns in which he described the churches, the monuments, the houses, the rivers, the forests, the plantations in the fields, and other beauties of nature.
In Tours, he venerated the relics of St. Martin and soon after went to Poitiers to meet St. Radegunda. He decided to become a priest and became the chaplain of the convent where she lived.
He continued to compose religious hymns that were much appreciated by Saint Radegunda and also by Saint Gregory of Tours, who wrote the famous “History of the Franks” and spread the songs of Saint Venancius.
Hymns that spread all over the world
In 569, Saint Radegunda wrote to the Emperor of the East, Justin the Younger, asking him for a part of the Holy Log that existed in Constantinople. The Emperor agreed, and with the news that the Holy Relic would soon arrive in Poitiers, Saint Radegunda ordered a procession to be made from the entrance of the city to the monastery.
During the procession, the Vexilla Regis – O banner of the King – and the Crux Fidelis – O faithful Cross – composed by Saint Venancius, were sung. The people wept; blind, dumb and paralyzed people were healed. The Relic was placed in the convent, which was renamed “Monastery of the Holy Cross”. From then on, those hymns began to be spread all over the world.
In the year 600, Saint Venancius was consecrated Bishop of Poitiers. Besides being an eminent musical composer, he wrote prose works, including the life of Saint Radegunda.
“Do not remove the light from our eyes!”
She died on August 17, 587. A nun wrote that during the Saint’s agony, the nuns, kneeling around her, shed copious tears and, beating their chests, said, “Lord, deliver us from this disaster! Do not remove the light from our eyes!”
St. Gregory of Tours, who directed the funerals, later wrote that there were 200 nuns in the convent, many of whom were princesses of royal blood, daughters of senators, of prominent officials, of noblemen.
However, after some time, a part of the nuns, led by two daughters of kings, rebelled against the abbess. Due to the firm reaction of the virtuous nuns, the rebels gathered soldiers who attacked the monastery and there was killing and looting. Finally, the Count of Poitiers, with the help of the entire population, managed to dislodge the rebels who were then excommunicated, and the faithful abbess resumed her position.
New Paganism
We are horrified by the crimes committed at that time because of the remnants of paganism. However, in today’s world more degrading heinousness occurs, as Monsignor John Cla states:
“The whole earth succumbs to a new paganism, worse than the old, where crimes of a violence that cries out to Heaven are committed: the innocence of those children who are not murdered in their mothers’ wombs is lost as soon as possible; amorality reigns in most hearts; injustice, atheism and pragmatism dominate almost all laws and customs; in short, the world has touched, so to speak, the deepest abyss of baseness.”
Let us ask Saint Radegunda and Saint Venancius Fortunato to help us fight with denouement against these evils, certain that soon there will be the triumph of the Sapiential and Immaculate Heart of Mary.
By Paulo Francisco Martos
Notions of Church History
Compiled by Zephania Gangl
