Gudula

Saint Gudula was a virgin of Brabant, in present-⁠day Belgium, the patron of the city of Brussels, who reposed around 712. In Brabant she is called Goedele or Goule.

She was born around 646, the daughter of Duke Witger and Saint Amalberga. She had three sisters, Saints Pharaildis, Reineldis and Ermelinde, and a brother, Saint Emebertus. She received the veil from the hand of Saint Aubert, bishop of Cambrai, and was educated at the monastery of Nivelles by her godmother, Saint Gertrude. After Gertrude's death she returned home to Moorsel, where she lived in good works and prayer, giving generous alms to the poor and often going to the village church. It is told that she went to church before cockcrow, and that a demon put out her light, which God rekindled at her prayer; for this reason she is depicted with a lantern.

She was buried at Hamme in East Flanders. Her relics were moved to the church of Saint Salvator near Moorsel and then, in the time of Duke Charles of Lower Lorraine (977 to 992), to the chapel of Saint Gaugericus in Brussels, where a chapter was founded in her honour in 1047. Her skull is kept at Eibingen in Germany. She is a saint of the undivided Church, commemorated on 8 January (new style); in the diocese of Ghent her feast is on 19 January.