Glossinde de Metz

Glodesind (572−608) was a saint, nun, abbess, and founder of a convent in Metz, France, during the time of King Childebert II (575−596) of Austrasia. She was a member of the Carolingian nobility. When she was 11 or 12 years old, she married a young nobleman, who was arrested by the French government shortly after their wedding and executed a year later. Instead of remarrying as her family wanted, she fled to Metz and took refuge at the Church of St. Stephen. Her family gave up forcing her to marry, and she became a nun and later, the abbess of a convent that was built by her parents. She was abbess for six years until her death in 608 at the age of 30. Her feast day is 8 July.

The miracles that established her sainthood did not begin to occur until 25 years after her death, after the first time her body was reinterred. Glodesind was initially interred on the grounds of a church dedicated to Saint Arnulf, but was moved two more times; the final time at a cemetery built on the grounds of her convent in 830, over 200 years after her death. Her sepulcher became a pilgrimage site, and numerous miracles and healings were reported there.

Life

Glodesind (572−608; also called Chlodsendis, Clodeswide, Closind, Closseinde, Clothsend, Clotsend, Glossine, and other names) was a saint, nun, abbess, and founder of a convent in Metz, France, during the time of King Childebert II (575−596) of Austrasia. According to hagiographer Jo Ann McNamara, Glodesind was first in the chain of saints associated with the Austrasian nobility. Her father, Wintrio, was an Austrasian duke with extensive holdings in Champagne and was "one of the most formidable nobles in the east Frankish kingdom". although she was too young to consummate the marriage. Her husband was arrested after bringing her to his castle for his alleged involvement in the attempted assassination and conspiracy against the king. He was imprisoned for a year before he was executed; McNamara speculated that the delay in the execution was "an effort to hold him hostage against his father-in-law's good behavior". ) Baring-Gould stated that Glodesind and her husband "loved each other tenderly" and that "the shock [of his death] broke all Glodesind's ties to earth". They posted a guard at the doors of the church to take her and punish her if she left on her own.

Glodesind was later instructed in monastic observances by her aunt Rotlinda in Treves (now Trier), Germany. Glodesind's body remained there for several months; her biographer reported that another nun received a vision in which she was told that a mouse had entered Glodesind's sepulcher and when it was opened to investigate, they found that the vision was accurate and that Glodesind's right toe, despite her death decades earlier, was bloody. They removed the mouse and sealed up the hole to prevent it from happening again. Her biographer also reported that "countless people were cured there of various infirmities through her merits", until her body was moved to the monastery's cemetery.

In 830, over 200 years after Glodesind's death, Pope Gregory IV ordered that her sepulcher be moved to its third and final resting place, at the convent's church, behind its altar, which had been built and dedicated to the virgin Mary, Saint Peter, and Saint Sulpictius. Thurlkill stated that the miracles attributed to Glodesind attracted many pilgrims and "enjoyed an even more revered status among her family's dead".

Glodesind's biographer reported that a series of miracles occurred after she was reinterred to the convent's cemetery. Another of the miracle stories was about a poor man who wanted to visit the monastery, but hesitated because he had no money to donate to the monastery's warden. The man caught a large fish, but it escaped out of the net; he prayed to God, and the same fish miraculously returned to the net, so the man gave it to the warden. Glodesind's biographer reported that Glodesind protected Metz with oil that miraculously flowed, starting at her feet, spreading to her head, and flowed down from her sepulcher in a stream to the pavement below. Not only did the oil heal many people from illnesses, the town "suffered no loss from ruin at that time".

According to McNamara, Glodesind's story represents "a new theme [in medieval hagiography] … in which the heroine defies parental wishes in order to become a bride of Christ". Also according to McNamara, the anonymous, Carolingian monk and hagiographer who recorded her life and subsequent cult history believed that Glodesind had some connection with Saint Arnulf, and as McNamara put it, "was clearly anxious to claim some kinship with him to enhance the reputation of his heroine". The story about Glodesind's veil being given to her was adapted by writers later in the ninth century, and to soften the strength of a virgin's defiance of her parents. McNamara states, however, that Glodesind's biography was probably authentic due to her father Wintrio's violence towards Metz in 591.