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Clothild notes

McNamara

p. 38:

After Genevieve's death, Clothild was able to honour her grave for Genevieve's part in the conversion of Clothild's husband Clovis I.

Daughter of a Gallo-Roman woman and Chilperic, a Burgundian king, who might have been converted to Christianity by his wife. "She and her daughter, Clothild, set a pattern for a chain of Catholic female missionaries to the courts of the pagan and Arian kings they married".

"Clothild's life includes the sad story of her daughter and namesake, who vainly tried to win over her Visigothic husband".

p. 39:

Clothild's vita makes brief references to Clovis' relations with her Burgundian relatives "and gives no hint that [Clovis] he himself may have been an Arian sympathizer before his marriage".

Her uncle Gundobad was an Arian and probably had a "reasonably friendly relationship with the Gallo-Roman bishops in his kingdom". He sometimes was at war with Clovis, and sometimes was his ally, "but his religion does not appear to have hampered control of his own kingdom". Gundobad's son was converted to Catholicism, but he was killed by Clothild's sons.

"Clothild's story continued to fascinate succeeding generations as the centerpiece of a struggle between the old Catholic, Roman population against the Arianism of the Germanic tribes".

p. 40:

After Clovis' death, Clothild "became closely associated with the diocese of Tours, where she spent most of her time near the tomb of Saint Martin, most popular of all the Gallo-Roman saints".

Clovis died in 511; Clothild died in 544. "The vita outlines the tragic lives of some of her children but makes no mention of her daughter Telechild (Teutechild), who became a nun".

p. 23

Grandfather was Gondecar, king of Burgundy, by Attila the Hun. Left four sons, Gundebald, Chilperic, Gondemar, and Gondegisl. The brothers divided Burgundy amongst themselves, but Chilperic and Gondemar "continued to expel their brothers from Burgundy". Gundebald's army defeated them; he burnt Gondemar in his castle, and killed Chlliperic, along with his wife and sons. leaving behind two daughters, Sedelenda and Clothild. Sedelinda entered a nunnery; Clothild was raised in Gundebald's palace.

"Clothilda grew up full of piety and tenderness to sufferers".

She was from Burgundy.

Her father was Chilperic II of Burgundy. Her mother was Caretena, who was, according to Sidonius Apollinaris and Venantius Fortunatus, "a remarkable woman". Her grandfather was Gondioc.

Her uncles co-reigned with Chilperic, but one of her uncles, Gundobald, gained power of Burgundy when he murdered his brothers, as well as Clotilde's mother and brothers. Clotilde and her sister were raised at the court of Gundobald. Their mother ensured that they were educated as Catholics, even through Gundobald, like most of the Burgundian kings, were Arians.

Her sister, Sedeleuba (or Chrona), who became a nun, founded the church of Saint-Victor in Geneva.

According to hagiographer Alban Butler, the only source for Clotilde's biography, which was edited by Bruno Krusch before the 10th century, is of no historical value and is mostly dependent upon a document written by a monk from Saint-Denis a couple of centuries earlier. Her history has also been pieced together by Gregory of Tours, Fredegarius, and certain hagiographies. Butler states that the most reliable source about her life is by Belgium historian Godefroid Kurth, but David Hugh Farmer calls Gregory of Tours' hagiography about Clotilde "the principal source for her life" and said that a later hagiography "celebrated her as the saintly ancestor of the French kings". Her history also appears in French hagiographies, but most of them were written before Kurth's.

Cath. Encyclopedia

Queen of the Franks.

Died at Tours, 3 June 545. Feast day June 3. Wife of Clovis I, daughter of Chilperic II of Burgundy.

Shortly after Caretena's death, Clovis and Clotilde were married.

The marriage of Clovis and Clotilde, from the 6th century on, "was made the theme of epic narratives, in which the original facts were materially altered". These versions made their way into the works of Frankish chroniclers, such as Gregory of Tours, Fredegarius, and in the Liber Historiae Francorum.

Clotilde persuaded Clovis to convert to Catholicism. She was able to persuade him to allow the baptism of their two eldest sons, the oldest of which died in infancy before his conversion, which occurred "under highly dramatic circumstances". Clovis was baptized by St. Remigius at Reims in 496. The Franks, due to Clotilde's influence, were Catholics for centuries.

Clotilde and Clovis had five children: four sons, Ingomir, who died in infancy, and Kings Clodomir, Childebert, and Clotaire, and one daughter, named Clotilde after her mother. Little is known about Clotilde during Clovis' lifetime, but she might have been involved with his intervention of the quarrel between the Burgundian kings at the time and Clovis' support of Gondobad.

Clovis died in 511; Clotilde buried him at the Basilica of the Holy Apostles, which later became the Church of Sainte-Geneviève, which they built together as a mausoleum, and which Clothild completed after his death.

She was "saddened by cruel trials".

"Her son Clodomir, son-in-law of Gondebad, made war against his cousin Sigismund, who had succeeded Gondebad on the throne of Burgundy, captured him, and put him to death with his wife and children at Coulmiers, near Orléans. According to the popular epic of the Franks, he was incited to this war by Clotilda, who thought to avenge upon Sigismund the murder of her parents; but, as has already been seen Clotilda had nothing to avenge, and, on the contrary, it was probably she who arranged the alliance between Clovis and Gondebad. Here the legend is at variance with the truth, cruelly defaming the memory of Clotilda, who had the sorrow of seeing Clodomir perish in his unholy war on the Burgundians; he was vanquished and slain in the battle of Veseruntia (Vezeronce), in 524, by Godomar, brother of Sigismund. Clotilda took under her care his three sons of tender age, Theodoald, Gunther, and Clodoald. Childebert and Clotaire, however, who had divided between them the inheritance of their elder brother, did not wish the children to live, to whom later on they would have to render an account. By means of a ruse they withdrew the children from the watchful care of their mother and slew the two eldest, the third escaped and entered a cloister, to which he gave his name (Saint-Cloud, near Paris)".

St. Genevieve influenced Clovis, including granting freedom to pardoned criminals the had imprisoned, even if they were guilty ("Genovefa (423-502)". Sainted Women of the Dark Ages. Edited and translated from Acta Sanctorum by McNamara, Jo Ann; Halborg, John E. Durham; with Whatley, E. Gordon, England: Duke University Press. 1992. p. 36. ISBN 0-8223-1200-X). Genevieve might have been the first to suggest that Clovis build a church honouring Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which he built "in deference to the wishes of" Clotilde. Genevieve was enshrined there after her death c. 500.

Butler

p. 29

Clovis converted in 496.

p. 462

Died in 545, feast day June 3.

wife of Clovis, king of the Salian Franks. Married in 492 or 493. He "was still a heathen".

"From the outset Clotilda exercised great influence over her husband and made earnest efforts to win him to Christ's religion". He allowed the baptism of their oldest son, who died in infancy, and of their next son, Clodomir, "but he still hesitated to declare himself a Christian". He finally decided to become a Christian while in battle with the Alemanni; his army was losing, but appealed for help to his wife's God, promising that if he won, he would accept the Christian faith. He won, and was baptised by St. Remigius in Rheims cathedral on Christmas in 496. Little is known about their marriage, although they founded the Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul, which was later renamed St. Genevieve. Clotilda buried Clovis there after he died in 511.

"Clotilda's after life was saddened by the family feuds and fratricidal struggles in which her three sons, Clodomir, Childebert and Clotaire, became involved, and by the misfortunes of her daughter (who bore her own name), so cruelly treated by her Visigothic husband Amalaric".

Clodomir captured and executed his cousin, St. Sigismund, along with his wife and children, but he was killed by Sigismund's brother. Clotilde adopted Clodomir's three young sons, but was induced by her other sons, Childebert and Clotaire, to send the children to them. They were determined to retain Clodomir's inheritance, so Clotaire killed the oldest boys, aged ten and seven. The youngest boy, Clodoald, was saved and later became a monk in the m onastery in Nogent, later remained in his honour, near Paris.

"Broken-hearted, St Clotilda left Paris and took up her abode at Tours, where she spent the rest of her life in relieving the poor and suffering". Her two surviving sons turned against each other and "were on the verge of battle"; she spent a night in prayer. According to Butler, St. Gregory of Tours stated that her prayers delayed the fighting. "The very next day, as the armies were about to engage, there arose a tempest that all military operations had to be abandoned".

Clotilde died a month later. She was a widow for 34 years; she was buried beside Clovis and her older children. "Recent historical research has relegated to the realm of fiction many picturesque incidents in connection with St Clotilda, which successive generations of chroniclers have been content to accept unquestioningly from the uncritical pages of St Gregory of Tours and similar sources, and in so doing it has vindicated the queen from charges of ferocity and vindictiveness, little in keeping with her saintly character. In these legends she plays the part of a fury, goading her husband and sons to avenge on her uncle Gundebald and his son, St Sigismund, the murder by the former of her two parents".

Farmer, p. 95 https://books.google.com/books?id=_zJJtvK2_KsC&q=Clotilde#v=snippet&q=Clotilde&f=false

c. 475-545

Wife of Clovis, "first Christian king of the Franks".

"A Burgundian princess", she was "put forward as the possible Clovis, the powerful pagan war-leader. Impressed by her beauty and wisdom, Clovis married her c. 494".

St. Gregory of Tours claimed that she "actively encouraged Clovis to abandon his idols and become a Christian". Clotilde had their first son baptized, but he died shortly afterwards. "Naturally, Clovis reproached her, but she bore him another son, Clodomir, who was also baptized and taken ill". He recovered, and Clovis and Clotilde had two more sons and a daughter. In 496, Clovis was "in serious trouble" during a battle against the Alemanni; he prayed to "the God of Clotilde" and vowed to convert if he was victorious. He was, and on Christmas Day 498, he was baptized by Remigius, bishop of Reims. "Clovis's subsequent military achievements, against Burgundians and Visigoths, do not seem to have been associated with Clotilde, but the building at Paris (his capital) of a church of the Apostles was their joint enterprise, and Clovis, who died in 511, was buried there".

"Now Clotilde retired to Tours, but still exercised a political role in the violent Merovingian world, mainly through her sons. Two of these were assassinated and her daughter, married to the Visigoth Amalric, died at about the same time. Thenceforward she led a devout life, serving in Martin's basilica at Tours, building churches and monasteries, and now totally detached from politics and power-struggles except through prayer. The churches that were claimed to be built by her included Lyon, Andelys, and Rouen".

She died on July 3, which is her feast day. Was buried in the basilica of the apostles, later called St Genevieve.

Artists from several centuries depicted her presiding at the baptism of Clovis or as a supplicant at the shrine of St Martin. Andelys has a fine 16th-century stained-glass window devoted to her life, and in Normandy especially she was the patron of the lame, and invoked against sudden death and iniquitous husbands. In spite of the Revolution, her relics have survived at the church of Saint-Leu at Paris".

Dunbar, pp. 191-193 https://archive.org/details/DictionaryOfSaintlyWomenV1/page/191/mode/1up

First queen of France. Founded the monastery of St. Mary of les Audelya in Touraine and a monastery in Chelles. Daughter of Chilperic, king of the Burgundians. Wife of Clovis I, first Christian king of the Franks. Mother of the kings Clodomir, Childebert, and Clothaire I, and of Clotilda, queen of the Visigoths. Represented as a praying queen and as a nun, with a crown on her head or beside her.

Feast day June 3.

Picture of Clothild in the Bedford Missal, probably by Van Eyck: "a beautiful and brilliant representation of the granting of the lilies to Clovis".

"It is in three parts: the upper division shows God the Father between two angels, to one of whom He is giving a blue robe ornamented with three fleurs-de-lys ; in the middle part, an aged man, wearing the halo of a saint and kneeling at Clotilda's feet, presents the robe to her, — ladies stand behind her, holding her train ; the third scene represents Clotilda presenting to Clovis, armed and crowned, a shield on which she has stretched the blue robe, displaying its three large golden fleurs-de-lys, — she wears a crown and a halo. This book was made for John, duke of Bedford, brother of Henry V., and given by him and his wife Anne of Burgundy, to Henry VL of England, on his being crowned King of France, in 1431".

p. 192:

"In 402 or 403 Clotilda was married at Soissons. On her journey thither she set fire to every village for the last two leagues of her uncle's country, and when she crossed the frontier at Chalons, she looked back upon the flames and thanked God that her vengeance was begun. A year after her marriage, Clotilda had a son, and obtained her husband's consent to have him christened. The child immediately died. Clovis was angry, and said this misfortune had happened because his wife had placed her son under the care of an inefficient God. The following year the queen had another son, and again persuaded the king to let him be baptized. The infant was taken dangerously ill, and Clovis bitterly reproached his wife with sacrificing his children to her gods and priests. But the agonized prayers of the mother were answered by the speedy recovery of the babe. Not long after this, in 496, Clovis fought against the Alemanni, at Tolbiac. The battle was going against him, when he remembered the God of Clotilda, and turning to Him in his need, vowed that if He would give him this victory, he would worship no other thenceforward. That moment the enemy turned and fled, and at the same time tradition says that three white lilies were brought by an angel to Clotilda while she prayed. These Clovis substituted for the three frogs which had previously been the badge on his shield. In the same year he took Paris. St. Genevieve advised the Parisians to submit to the King of the Franks. At the same time she bespoke his clemency, and joined with Clotilda in urging him to fulfil his vow and become a Christian. He was baptized at Rheims by St. Rémi, with his sister Alboflede, and three thousand of his warriors".

Amalaric, son of Alaric II, who Clovis defeated and had killed in 507 at the battle of Vouille, or Voullon, near Poitiers during Clovis' war with the Arian Visigoths in Aquitaine, married Clothild and Clovis' daughter, also named Clothild.

[Note: Decide what to do with last long paragraph on p. 192 to rest of article on p. 193.]

Baring-Gould, pp. 23-27 https://books.google.com/books?id=TLjviiA7UtUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

p. 23

Grandfather was Gondecar, king of Burgundy, by Attila the Hun. Left four sons, Gundebald, Chilperic, Gondemar, and Gondegisl. The brothers divided Burgundy amongst themselves, but Chilperic and Gondemar "continued to expel their brothers from Burgundy". Gundebald's army defeated them; he burnt Gondemar in his castle, and killed Chlliperic, along with his wife and sons. leaving behind two daughters, Sedelenda and Clothild. Sedelinda entered a nunnery; Clothild was raised in Gundebald's palace.

"Clothilda grew up full of piety and tenderness to sufferers". She married Clovis I in about 492. Their first son was baptism, but died shortly afterwards. Clovis blamed his son's death on the baptism, but agreed "with hesitation" to allow their second son, Clodomir, to be baptized. "Shortly after it fell ill, and the king was furious". "Clothilda prayed fervently, and obtained the life of the child". They also had a daughter, also named Clothild, who married Amalaric, king of the Visigoths.

"The gentle influence of Clothilda was daily softening the prejudices of her husband, and breaking down the barriers which prevented his conversion. But it was not to be in the palace, but in the battle-field, that the warlike king"...

p. 24:

"would yield". Clovis called out to his wife's God for help while they were losing a battle against the Alemanni, vowing that if he won, he would be baptized and become a Christian. They won, after consulting his people, who agreed to convert as well, he was baptized by Saint Remigius, bishop of Rheims; "the ceremony was performed with the utmost pomp". 3,000 Franks were also baptized. He was the only Frankish king who was Christian.

p. 24-25:

Baring-Gould believes in the sincerity of Clovis' conversion, and that it wasn't because of political considerations. He attributed the sincerity to Clothild's influence.

"Clothilda is said to have stimulated Clovis into engaging in this war, whether to advance the Gospel or to avenge the death of her parents and brothers, is not as manifest as we might desire".

Clothild retired to Tours, "where she spent her days in devotion", after Clovis' death in 514. "She still, however, maintained an influence and interest in public affairs, and stirred up her sons to make war on Sigismund, king of Burgundy".

She wanted her sons to avenge the murders of her parents.

She died at Tours on June 3; the year of her death is uncertain.

Her relics are preserved at Vivières, where "a famous pilgrimage and procession is made bearing them" every June 3. Portions of her relics are also preserved at Cœuvres, Andelys, Joyenval, and Longpont near Paris; also in the Church of St Genevieve in Paris.

Les Andelys Tourist office https://web.archive.org/web/20150401070133/http://www.lesandelys-tourisme.fr/en/decouverte/le-grand-andely/saint-clotildes-fountain/

Clothild founded a convent for young noble girls in 511, where the present collegiate church now stands. "One day, the workers who were building the monastery complained about heat and thirst. Not far from there Queen Clotilde started to pray and her wish was granted: the water from the neighbouring fountain had ‘the power and the taste of wine’ for the workers".

"The water of the fountain was known as being miraculous in the popular imagination and the space in front of the fountain was probably larger than it is now so that the spring was more accessible to the huge crowd of pilgrims coming from the surroundings to get healed of their infirmities when going into the basin. Some healings reinforced the belief in its power".

The spring is known for healing skin diseases. Clothild is the patron saint of Les Andelys. The fountain is currently located in Le Grand Andely, in the town centre, near the Nicolas Poussin Museum. Access is free of charge.

Works cited

• Butler, Alban (1995). "St Clotilda, Widow". In Thurston, Herbert J.; Attwater, Donald (eds.). Butler's Lives of the Saints. Westminster, Maryland: Christian Classics. pp. 462–463.

Common citations:

Watkins

Butler

Saintly Women

Baring-Gould