Its author claims to be writing at the behest of Sadalberga's daughter and successor as abbess, Anstrude, but the date and reliability of the Vita are disputed by scholars.
The Vita's 19th-century editor, Bruno Krusch, argued that it was a forgery of the 9th century and of no historical value.
He claimed that it invented numerous details, such as Sadalberga's forced marriage and children, and believed that the only reliable source for the saint's life was her contemporary, Jonas of Bobbio, author of the Vita sancti Columbani.
[1] More recently, Hans Hummer has argued that it was written in the late 7th or early 8th century, within a lifetime of the events it describes.
Since there is no evidence of a cult of Sadalberga at Laon, it is not clear who would have sponsored or profited from the production of a literary forgery in the 9th century.