Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/189

ST. RADEGUND 177 was buried at Soissons by his four snr- yiyiog sons. One of his grandsons (the son of Clothairo's yonngest son Sigebert and the famous Queen Brunehaut) was Childebert II., who, on the death of his father and uncles, succeeded to the whole kingdom, during the life of Radegund, and was a reverent disciple and dutiful friend and patron of that holy woman and her monastery. The queen, who had hastily built her- self a house as soon as she received the king's permission to do so, in time made important additions to it, and built be- side it a church and a college for monks to attend to the church. This was the first of those great double monasteries that so soon abounded in France and England. It soon became famous as the Monastery of the Holy Cross of Poitiers. Over two hundred maidens of different ranks and nations were gathered in the nunnery, among them were Merovingian princesses, but the greater number were Gallo-Romans, some of senatorial rank and others of less distinction. Rade- gund, accompanied by Agnes (6) went to Aries to learn the rule wnich St. Cesarius had compiled for his sister St. Cesaria (3). They stayed in her monas- tery, and she had the rule copied for them. Radegund having made over the government of the community to Agnes, subsided into the rank and file of the nuns, and took her turn with them in performing all the work of the house and attending with redoubled zeal to the poor and suffering. She only reserved to herself the pri^ege of passing Lent alone and with special asceticism. During her whole life she continued her diligent study of the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers. When the monastery was finished and all in order, she sent to the Emperor Justin to beg for a piece of the cross of Christ, with which to enrich her church. The priceless relic arrived in 569. She received it vrith. raptures of devotion, and Fortunatus, her chaplain, secretary, and almoner, composed for the occasion, the famous hymns Vexilla Begis and Pange Lingua. St. Gregory records, as an eye-witness, the miracles wrought when the holy relic was carried through Tours. VOL. n. In the stillness of her happy solitude, Radegund did not forget the interests of her adopted country. The tragic fate of two of the wives of her stepson Chil- peric, AuDovERA and Galswintha, must have appealed strongly to her sympa- thies, for she regarded all the Merovin- gians as her family. She wrote a poem about Galswintha. Time and death had softened the memory of her wrongs, and from her peaceful cloister, she endea- voured to make peace between her four stepsons who now shared the kingdom amongst them. She was universally respected and trusted. In cases of con- flicting evidence, her word was accepted and put an end to all uncertainty. She received into her monastery the wretched Basine, a daughter of Chil- peric. Chrodielde, too, another princess of the same family, came among the peaceful nuns of Ste. Croix as a dis- turber and firebrand, bringing with her an unwilling and worldly heart. After the death of Radegund and Agnes (6), these bad nuns gave a great deal of trouble in the monastery and caused much scandal. A full account of the affair is given in Mezeray's History of France. Fortunatus represents Radegund as longing affectionately for tidings of her cousin Amalafroi. He was at Con- stantinople, living in peace and civiliza- tion, having long abandoned any idea of attempting to regain the throne of his ancestors. His silence and the death of all her other relations only concen- trated her affections more intensely on her nuDS. Besides Fortunatus, she had a friend named Junian, a nobleman of Poitou who became a monk of the Order of St. Benedict. His charity rivalled that of Radegund. His clothing was all spun for him by the hands of the cloistered queen. On his part, he pre- sented her with a penitential chain which she wore as long as she lived. They mutually promised that whichever sur- vived should pray for the other, but they died in the same hour on the 13th of August, 587, and the messengers bearing the news of each death met half way between the houses. St. Gregory of Tours, who buried Radegund, records N