Glodesind

Glodesind (572−608) was a saint, nun, abbess, and founder of a convent in Metz, France, during the time of King Childebert II (575−596) of Austrasia.

Glodesind (572−608; also called Chlodsendis, Clodeswide, Closind, Closseinde, Clothsend, Clotsend, Glossine, and other names) was a saint, nun, abbess, and founder of a convent in Metz, France, during the time of King Childebert II (575−596) of Austrasia.

[3] Her father, Wintrio, was an Austrasian duke with extensive holdings in Champagne and was "one of the most formidable nobles in the east Frankish kingdom".

[1] Her parents did not use force to remove her from the church and bring her back to their home,[5] but according to her biographer, they tried to "use whatever means they could to turn her from her intended path", but she was "neither shaken by their threats nor seduced by their blandishments".

[10] Thurlkill stated that the miracles attributed to Glodesind attracted many pilgrims and "enjoyed an even more revered status among her family's dead".

[10] Thrulkill also stated, "By the seventh century holy bodies such as Glodesind's could be moved at will to illustrate their celestial status but only after the approval of the male episcopacy".

[10] Historian Jane Shulenberg stated that Glodesind's body was moved in order to accommodate the need for her nuns and other communities that were not strictly cloistered to have access to their funerary churches and their patron saints' tombs.

[note 1] One story about the miracles attributed to Glodesind was about a clerk of the monastery named Fulbert who wanted to cross the river Seille, but was unable to find a transport and sat down on the bank waiting for someone to bring him a boat.

[15] According to McNamara, Glodesind's story represents "a new theme [in medieval hagiography] … in which the heroine defies parental wishes in order to become a bride of Christ".

McNamara stated, "In this context, her cult must be seen as part of a process of sacralizing the Carolingian family that culminated in the eighth century with their sacerdotal kingship.

Thus the life of a pious nun may have been transformed into full-blown hagiography with the rise of her family in the seventh century and its ultimate construction of a monarchy based on divine sanction".

Her biographer did not mention a parallel, although it may be original to Glodesind, a story about "a desperate girl, which provided a stock theme for later writers".

[17] The story about Glodesind's veil being given to her was adapted by writers later in the ninth century, and to soften the strength of a virgin's defiance of her parents.