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| Saint Ludger |
After the death of the noble Wursing, his son Thiadgrim became lord of his father's estate and married Liafburga, a Christian, daughter of a certain Nodradus and Adelburga.
Liafburga had been rescued from certain death as a newborn child by a miraculous act of providence. Adelburga's mother-in-law, a bitter pagan, reproached her Christian daughter-in-law for bearing only daughters and no male heirs; she claimed this was a just punishment for her having turned her back on the ancient pagan gods by becoming a Christian. When the young Liafburga was born, the mother-in-law gave orders to some servants, snorting with rage, to tear the child away from its mother and to kill it immediately, before it had even suckled at her mother's breast.
According to Frisian law, it was permissible to kill a child as long as it had not yet consumed any earthly food, a strange regulation that was still found in Frisian law under Charlemagne. Was the idea behind this perhaps that a child should not be considered a citizen of the earthly world until it had, in a sense, proven itself to be such by consuming food and drink? The servants chosen as henchmen threw the child into a tub filled with water for her to die an agonising death by drowning; but lo and behold, the baby clung to the edge of the tub with both hands, crying and wailing, when a compassionate woman passed nearby. Upon hearing the victim whimper, she snatched her from the villains and quickly took her to her house. She immediately closed the door, rushed into her room and poured honey into the little girl's mouth, which she eagerly drank.
When the dismayed executioners rushed after her, she showed them the child sucking on honey, reminding them of the law of her people. The order of her wicked mother-in-law could therefore no longer be carried out.
The executioners left. That compassionate woman secretly fed the child by pouring milk through a horn. Only the mother, Adelburga, knew about this, and she soon sent a wet nurse with everything else she needed. Only after the death of the raging heathen was little Liafburga able to return to her mother's house. Thus, the great struggle between the Christian faith and national paganism that was raging in Friesland at that time is reflected in this family. As Altfrid aptly observes, a very special shot of providence worked over Liafburga's life, for she was the mother of two holy bishops, Saint Ludger, Apostle of Friesland and Saxony, and of Saint Hildegrim. Certainly, through that miraculous rescue, Christianity gained an even stronger foothold in this family. Like the excellent Wursing, Adelburga was also very close to Saint Willibrord. She had entrusted him with the upbringing of Wullibrat and Thiatbrat, who were later received into the clergy by him. They were the first clergy of Frisian stock.
Source: L.T.W. Pingsmann, St Ludgerus, Apostle of the Frisians and Saxons, Herder'sche Verlagshandlung, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1879
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