Adela, St.
ADELA, ST.
Benedictine abbess; b. c. 675; d. near Trier, c. 734. Probably the daughter of Dagobert II, she is quite surely identical with the abbess Adola, to whom a letter of Abbess Alffled (Monumenta Germaniae Epistolae selectae 1.3: letter 8) is addressed. She is said to have founded the Abbey of Pfalzel at Trier. In 722 boniface visited her and took her grandson (later Gregory of Utrecht) away as a student. She died about 734, but her remains were not discovered until 1072. Other information about Adela is based on a will, regarded as unauthentic by Pertz, but accepted by some scholars today. Her cult has not been confirmed, and she is not generally venerated in the liturgy of the Church.
Feast: Dec. 24.
Bibliography: m. werner, Adelsfamilien im Umkreis der frühen Karolinger (Sigmaringen 1982). r. aigrain, Catholicisme 1:136–137. a. heintz, Lexicon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 1:140.
[l. meagher]