Adalbald of Ostrevent

Adalbald (Adalbert I) of Ostrevent was a Frankish nobleman of the seventh century at the court of King Clovis II, husband of Saint Rictrude and father of four saints. He was killed in 652 in Aquitaine and is venerated in the West as a martyr, but his name does not appear today in the liturgical calendars of Cambrai and Lille. He is a saint of Western Christendom, and our sources show no Orthodox act of canonization. He is commemorated on 2 February, the day of his martyrdom, and on 2 May, the day of the translation of his relics to Douai, in 1221.

Life

Adalbald was the son of Gerberga, daughter of the master of the soldiers Richomer, and grandson of Saint Gertrude of Hamage († 649), who founded a nunnery at Wandignies-⁠Hamage near Douai. According to Alban Butler he had two brothers, Sigefrid, count of Ponthieu, and Archenald, mayor of the palace of Clovis II. His link with the Merovingian king Dagobert has been explained through his mother, but Karine Ugé considers that the connection between Adalbald and Erchinoald is a fiction developed by the canons of Saint-⁠Amé at Douai to strengthen the link with Rictrude. He was a leading noble and lord of Douai, a disciple of Saint Amand of Maastricht. In 630 he founded Marchiennes Abbey. During a military expedition in Gascony he met and married Rictrude of Marchiennes, daughter of Ernold, lord of Toulouse, despite the opposition of both families. The marriage was said to be happy. They had four children, all venerated as saints: Maurant, abbot of Breuil († 702), Eusebia of Douai (Ysoie), abbess of Hamage († about 680), Adalsinda, a nun at Hamage († 714), and Clotsinda († 714). The couple opened their castle to the poor and the disadvantaged, and the hermit Richarius was a family friend. Rictrude made Marchiennes a double monastery in 643.

Martyrdom

Adalbald was assassinated in obscure circumstances in 652, near Périgueux, in a later expedition to Aquitaine, probably by his wife's relatives, still bitter over the marriage to an enemy of their people. His body was brought to Flanders and buried at Saint-⁠Amand Abbey, where he was venerated as a martyr, since his death had taken place in a region that for the most part had not yet accepted Christianity. After his death his brother Archenald rebuilt the castle of Douai, from which the town arose, and founded the church of Our Lady, now dedicated to Saint Amatus.