Ermelinde, St.
ERMELINDE, ST.
Belgian recluse; d. Oct. 29 c. 595. She belonged to a rich family in Brabant; her traditional connections with the Carolingian family of Pepin I derive from a unreliable 11th-century vita. According to this legend Ermelinde cut her hair and fled from home to avoid a marriage arranged by her parents. She took up a life of mortification and asceticism in a hermitage, first at Beauvechain and then at Meldaert, near Tirlemont, Belgium. It was later alleged that she founded a monastery at Chaumont near Meldaert. After her death at the age of 48, she was buried at Meldaert, where a chapel was later built in her honor.
Feast: Oct. 29.
Bibliography: Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae ct mediae aetatis (Brussels 1898–1901) 1:2605–07. Acta Sanctorum Oct. 12:843–872. s. balau, Les Sources de l'histoire de Liège au moyen âge: Étude critique (Brussels 1903). l. van der essen, Étude critique … des saints mérovingiens de l'ancienne Belgique (Louvain 1907) 307–309. É. de moreau, Histoire de l'Église en Belgique (2d ed. Brussels 1945) 1:196; 2:253, 286; 3:569. j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienheueux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes (Paris 1935–56) 10:976–977.
[c. p. loughran]