Matilda, Queen of Germany, St.
MATILDA, QUEEN OF GERMANY, ST.
Queen of Germany; b. 895; d. Quedlinburg, March 14, 968. Matilda was the daughter of the Saxon Count Dietrich and the lady Reinhild of Danish royalty. She was reared at the Benedictine convent at Herford where her grandmother was abbess. After her marriage in 909 to Henry the Fowler (later King Henry I), she bore him five famous children: otto (i) the great; Gerberga, wife of Louis IV of France; Hedwig, mother of Hugh Capet; St. bruno of cologne; and Henry, duke of Bavaria. Upon her husband's death she at first opposed, but later supported, Otto's succession to the throne. Suffering much from the strife among her sons, she found support in works of piety and in the foundation of several monasteries, notably Nordhausen, and quedlinburg, where she was buried.
Feast: March 14.
Bibliography: Two Vitae, Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores (Berlin 1826—) 4:283–302; 10:575–582. a. potthast, Bibliotheca historica medii aevi (Graz 1954) 2:1468–69. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints. rev. ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 1:592–593. m. lintzel, "Die Mathilden-Viten und das Wahrheitsproblem in der Ueberlieferung der Ottonenzeit," Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 38 (1956) 152–166.
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