ALDEGUNDIS, ST.

Abbess; b. c. 630; d. Jan. 30, 695 or 700. She was the daughter of SS. Walbert, Count of Hainaut (d. c. 660), and Bertilda, and the sister of waldetrud. Aldegundis became the foundress and first abbess of the convent of Maubeuge, where her niece, aldetrude, received spiritual formation and later succeeded her in office. The many biographies of Aldegundis, all rather legendary, report numerous visions with which she is said to have been favored. There is, however, no doubt about the continuous and widespread cult of this saint, whose intercession is sought for the cure of diseases of the eye and the illnesses common to childhood. She is invoked also as the patroness of cancer victims, probably because she is reported to have suffered greatly from this malady in the last years of her life. Her cult was already well established by the tenth century.

Feast: Jan. 30.

Bibliography: Patrologia Latina, ed. j. p. migne (Paris 1878–90) 132:858–876. Acta Sanctorum Jan. 3:655–662. j. mabillon, Acta sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti (Venice 1733–40) 2:773–782. Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 6:85–90. e. leroy, Histoire de sainte Aldegonde (Valenciennes 1883). l. van der essen, Étude critique et littéraire sur Les Vitae des Saints Mérovingiens (Louvain 1907) 219–231. h. dubrulle, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 2:46–47. a. m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum (Metten 1933–38) 1:144–146. a. m. zimmermann, Lexicon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 1:141. j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienhereux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes (Paris 1935–56) 1:619–621. j. dubois, Analecta Bollandiana 79 (1961) 270, 287. m. coens, ibid. 80 (1962) 149. r. aigrain, Catholicisme 1:285.

[h. dressler]