GLODESIND OF METZ, ABBESS - 25 JULY

 

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GLODESIND OF METZ, ABBESS

One of the exterior sculptures of the
  Cathedral of Saint Stephen of Metz 

Venerable Glodesind (25 July, 20 July [8 July]) is also known as Godesludis, Glodesindis, Glodesinda, Chlodesendis, Clodesinda and Glodsendis, French Ste-Glossine. According to the Bollandists* (Febr. H. 411) she was a nun at first, and afterwards an abbess in Metz. Her older biography (vita) relates that she was born during the reign of "King Childerich" (presumably Chilperic I, who died in 584). Glodesind's father Wintron was a dux, one of the first greats at the Austrasian court - perhaps the same one whom Queen Brunhild had murdered in 598. Her mother was called Gudila and is said to have been the daughter of another Austrasian dux. Her father meant her to marry a nobleman called Obolenus, but Glodesind did not consent, for she had already secretly promised her life to the divine Saviour. However, Obolenus was summoned to the king and, after a year of imprisonment, was beheaded. The reason for the execution is not given; the records merely disclose that he was accused of having committed a great crime. 

Her father tried in vain to persuade Glodesind to accept a second fiancé. To avoid this, she fled to Metz, to the Church of Saint Stephen, the proto-martyr, which happens to be the cathedral where the relics of this holy lady are kept to this very day. Legend tells us that her father had her followed and the entrance to the church guarded for six days; but she remained inside in prayer without food or drink. On the seventh day, a Sunday, an angel appeared to her there and handed her the virginal veil.

She knelt at the foot of the altar and accepted the veil; when she looked around, the apparition had disappeared. Transfixed, the henchmen had witnessed all that happened. They immediately stopped pursuing her and asked her for forgiveness of ever having regarded her as an ordinary runaway.

After this miraculous event, Glodesind went to Trier to stay with a pious virgin (her father's sister, called Rotlindis [according to Butler* X. 51 Nothilda]), in order to cultivate the spiritual life together with her. After some time she returned to Metz and built a monastery there, which, to distinguish it from the upper monastery of Saint Arnulf, was generally known as the lower one. 

It was so richly endowed by her parents' fortune that one hundred nuns could be admitted straight away and soon after. After she had headed this monastery for six years, she died in A.D. 608 (according to Lechner* 610), at the age of 30, in her first innocence. 

In Metz, Glodesind was always venerated as a saint due to her great merits and powerful intercession. The first evidence of public veneration dates from the year 830, when the solemn elevation of her relics took place. Sauffaius* says that she is remembered on July 20; all other sources list her on July 25. According to Migne*, the Benedictine nuns who lived at the monastery in 1791 were able to protect the saint's relics from desecration during the storms of the revolution and then, after the restoration of worship, sent them to the diocesan bishop, who again exposed them to the veneration of the faithful in the episcopal chapel, where they are enclosed in a very beautiful reliquary. 

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 2, Augsburg, 1861, p. 444)

*A hagiography source used by the authors 

Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations

Sources of these articles (in the original German): books.google.co.uk, de-academic.com, zeno.org, openlibrary.org