Hunegundis, St.
HUNEGUNDIS, ST.
Virgin, monastic foundress (known also as Hunégonde); b. Lemblais (Picardy, France), first half of seventh century; d. Homblières, c. 690. She was compelled by her parents to marry, but simultaneously took a vow of virginity and promised to enter a convent. She persuaded her bridegroom to accompany her on a pilgrimage to Rome and there vowed perpetual virginity before the Pope St. vitalian and asked him for the veil. On her return to France she founded the monastery of Homblières near Saint-Quentin. She was widely venerated in the West Frankish kingdom as early as the ninth century.
Feast: Aug. 25.
Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum Aug. 5:223–240, Vita by berengar of hombliÈres. j. mabillon, Acta sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti, 9 v. (Paris 1668–1701; 2d ed. Venice 1733–40) 2:977–983; 5:216–224. m. manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, 3 v. (Munich 1911–31) 2: 417–420. a.m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum: Die Heiligen und Seligen des Benediktinerorderns und seiner Zweige, 4 v. (Metten 1933–38) 2:618, 620–. The Book of Saints (4th ed. New York 1947) 301. j. van der straeten, "S. Hunégonde d'Homblières," Analecta Bollandiana 72 (1954) 39–74. l. rÉau, Iconographie de l'art chrétien, 6 v. (Paris 1955–59) 3.2:667.
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