Ragenfreda

Ragenfreda was a Benedictine nun and the first abbess of the abbey of Denain in northern France, born in the 8th century in the county of Ostrevant. She reposed around 805 at Denain. She is honored regionally as a saint and is remembered on 8 October.

The convent of Saint Mary and Saint Martin at Denain, on the Scheldt, was founded in 764 in the time of King Pepin the Short. Ragenfreda is attested as its founder and first abbess. No other sources from her time exist. The story of her life rests on traditions of the 11th century: she is said to have been a daughter of the couple Adalbert and Regina of Ostrevant, themselves honored as saints, relatives and servants of King Pepin. The parents had ten daughters and founded Denain for their earthly good and salvation. Ragenfreda and her parents were soon honored as saints, and their bones were raised.

She was invoked for diseases of the eyes and linked with a wonder-⁠working spring. The abbey of Denain founded, probably in the 9th century, a daughter house at Hönnepel on the lower Rhine, whose church still bears her name. In France she is called Remfroye.

She is a local saint of the West; no Orthodox synodal canonization is known.