Clotilde

Saint Clotilde, the devout queen, was a Burgundian princess and the wife of King Clovis of the Franks, whom she urged toward the Christian faith. According to tradition, through her the Frankish kingdom received the Nicene faith and not the Arian. She is honoured as a saint of the undivided Church and commemorated on 3 June.

The Burgundian princess

She was born around 474, the daughter of King Chilperic II of Burgundy. Her uncle Gundobad, who became master of Burgundy after killing his brothers, also had her brothers killed, and her mother Caretena perished as well. Clotilde and her sister grew up at Gundobad's court. He was an Arian, like most Burgundian kings, but the girls were raised in the Catholic faith. Her sister became a nun and founded the church of Saint Victor in Geneva.

Wife of Clovis

In 492 or 493 Clotilde married Clovis I, the first king of the Franks, who was a pagan. She pressed her husband to become a Christian. She had their first son, Ingomer, baptized, and he died as an infant, and Clovis blamed her faith for it. She had the next son, Chlodomer, baptized too, and he fell ill but recovered. They had five children: four sons, Ingomer, Chlodomer, Childebert and Clotaire, and a daughter, also named Clotilde.

According to tradition, in a hard battle against the Alemanni Clovis called on his wife's God and vowed to accept the faith if he won. He was baptized by Saint Remigius at Reims in 496 with three thousand Franks. Historians debate the date. Tradition adds that while Clotilde was praying, an angel brought her three white lilies, from which the lilies on the arms of the kings of France are said to come.

Foundations and widowhood

Clotilde built churches and monasteries. At Paris she and Clovis raised the church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, where Saint Genevieve was buried, and then Clovis, who died in 511. The church was later dedicated to Saint Genevieve. At Les Andelys she founded a convent for girls of noble birth.

Her life was marked by bloodshed and strife in the royal house. Her daughter Clotilde, married to the Visigoth Amalaric, was ill treated by him and died on the road to Paris after her brother Childebert freed her. Chlodomer fell in battle, and Clotilde took in his three young sons. She was persuaded to send them to her other sons, who had two of them killed. The youngest, Clodoald, was saved and became a monk.

After these trials she withdrew to Tours, to the tomb of Saint Martin, where she spent her days in prayer, fasting and almsgiving, giving the poor all she had. According to Gregory of Tours, her prayers held back a war between her sons. She fell asleep in the Lord on 3 June 545 at Tours and was buried at Paris in the church of the Holy Apostles, beside Clovis and Saint Genevieve.