WALDETRUD, ST.

Benedictine abbess; b. Cousolre, Belgium, 628?; d. April 9, 688? Her family is remarkable for its sanctity; her parents were St. Bertilia and St. Walbert (Count of Hainaut); her sister St. Aldegund, foundress-abbess of Maubeuge. Waldetrud married the nobleman St. vincent madelgarius, and became the mother of four who became saints: landry, Dentilinus, Madelberta, and aldetrude. She persuaded her husband to retire to Hautmont Abbey, which he had founded. Two years later Waldetrud herself withdrew as a recluse to a site called Castrilocus in Monte, around which the abbey and city of Mons (Belgium) developed. Her relics are kept in a rich shrine, the head in a special reliquary, and are carried through the city of Mons each year on the Monday after Trinity Sunday.

Feasts: April 9 (death); Feb. 3 (translation); Nov. 2 (canonization); Aug. 12 (separation of head from body, 1250).

Bibliography: e. reusens et al., eds., Analectes pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique de la Belgique 4 (1867) 218–231, oldest known vita, 11th-century MS of 8th–9th-century work. Acta Sanctorum April 1:826–833. j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienheureux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes, ed. by the Benedictines of Paris, 12 v. (Paris 1935–56); v. 13, suppl. and table générale (1959) 4:213–216. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, rev. ed. h. thurston and d. attwater, 4v. (New York 1956) 2:58–59. l. van der essen, Étude critique et littéraire sur les vitae des saints mérovingiens de l'ancienne Belgique (Louvain 1907) 231–237.

[h. e. aikins]