Enimia

Saint Enimia (Énimie) is presented by legend as a Merovingian princess, daughter of King Clothar II and sister of Dagobert I, who is said to have lived in the 7th century and to have died around 628. Our French source, however, states clearly that Enimia never existed: the hagiographic legend dates from the 12th century and no source from the early Middle Ages mentions her existence. She is nevertheless venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church and remembered on 6 October, in the place now called Sainte-⁠Enimie.

Her story is known from two much later texts: the Life, Discovery and Miracles of Saint Enimia (end of the 11th or beginning of the 12th century), written by a Latin prose writer, and a poem of 2,000 lines by the troubadour Bertran of Marseille, the Life of Saint Enimia. The legend says that, beautiful as she was, she strove to help the poor, the lame and lepers. When she had to choose a husband, she refused the suitors her father proposed, saying that she was already married, to Christ. Her monastery at Burlatis is said to have given its name to the place Sainte-⁠Enimie.