Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/199

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ST. RICTRUDE 187 the community of nnns in the Benedictine monastery of Hohenwart in Bavaria, nnder its first abbess, B. Wiltrude (2), bnt lived apart in a little cell ontside the house, as was the custom of reclnses at that time. She attained to so great a repntntion for holiness that she was buried under the high altar, and by-and- by was translated into her cell, which was transformed into a chapel, and be- came a favourite resort of pilgrims. Although no decree of Beatification was ever pronounced, the popularity of her worship continues to the present day. AA.S8. Stadler. St. Richinna. (See Cinna and CiNNENUM.) St. Richissa, Bixa. Ven. Richlind, Deo. 26, abbess of Odilienberg, O.S.B. In 1140 she was called from Berg in the diocese of Eich- stadt, to reform Odilienberg. Stadler. B. Richmera, Oct. 17, nun at Pr6- montr^ AA,SS., Preeter. B. Richmunda, Oct. 23, V. Nun in the Cistercian monastery of St. Wal- BUROA, near Cologne. She had heavenly visions, and is called Saint, Blessed, and Venerable by many writers, but there is no authority for her worship. Buoeli- nus, Chalemot, and Henriquez called her Blejtsed. AA,SS. St. Ricinne. {See Cinna and Cin- NENUM.) B. Ricovera or Bicweba, May 23, + 1136. The first FrsBmonstratensian canoness. She was the wife of Raymond de Clastres, who belonged, like herself, to the nobility of Yermandois. She had a great desire to lead a holier life and received the veil from St. Norbert, the founder of the Prtemonstratensian Order. The rule was very severe ; the canonesses kept perpetual silence, not even singing in church ; their clothing was of the coarsest woollen stuff. Having once entered the convent, they could never leave it, and if they received a visitor, even if it were a near relation, the inter- view was hedged round with so many difficulties and precautions that there was little temptation to repeat the in- dulgence. So many women followed the example of Ricovera that before the death of the founder, in 1134, there were ten thousand canonesses of the Order. Ricovera was set over the hospital of the poor, where she shone with the combined virtues of Martha and Mary. The more loathsome the affliction of any patient, the more anxious was she to minister to it with her own hands. She was buried in the cemetery of the poor at PrSmontre. AA,SS, Le Paige, Hist. Ord, Prsem. Helyot. St. Rictrith or RicTimmr, Sept. 21, Abbess, + 786. Queen of Northumber- land. She was wife perhaps of Egbert, king of Northumberland (738-759), who after a tolerably prosperous and popular reign, resigned the crown and became a monk, and died in 768 ; or she may have been the] wife of Egbert's son Oswulf,who succeeded his father, and was murdered by his own servants in less than a year after his accession. Hoveden. Strutt. Lappenberg. British Mart,, supplement. St. Rictrude, May 12, c. 614-688. Abbess, founder and patron of Marchi- ennes in Hainault, and mother of four saints. Bom in Gascony. Her parents Emold and Lichia, were heathens ; they were descended from the Yisigothic kings who had possessed all that country. St. Amandus being banished by King Dagobert to the south of France, was received by them and converted, and ho instructed Rictrude. She married St. Adalbald, one of the chief nobles at the Court of the king of the Franks ; he was the son or grandson of St. Gertrude (4) and perhaps brother of Sigfried, whose wife St. Bertha (3), was abbess of Blangy. Adalbald had great posses- sions in Flanders and founded a monas- tery at Douai, but notwithstanding his rank, wealth, and good qualities, some of Rictrude's relations did not consider him a fit match for a daughter of their house, as he came of the hated race of Franks who had wrested the power from the Visigoths. Accordingly, as he was returning from a visit to his estates in Flanders, they caused him to be assassi- nated. Clovis II., king of the Franks, tried to insist on Rictrude's marriage with another of his nobles, as she was still young and beautiful, and her wealth was immense. She invited the king to a feast, and when