Regintrud

Regintrud (Regintrud, Reginlind or Regentrud, born about 660 to 665, died between 730 and 740) was a Frankish noblewoman of Bavaria, probably wife of Duke Theodbert of Bavaria, or of his father, Theodo, and regarded as abbess of the Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg, in the years 720 to 725. Our sources do not call her a saint of the Orthodox Church: she is venerated as a saint only locally at Nonnberg, since 1613, in the Catholic tradition. Historians do not agree about her lineage and life.

Lineage

Her origin is not certain. According to medieval authors, the wife of Duke Theodbert was the daughter of a Merovingian king. Some historians thought her a daughter of Dagobert I (died 639), which is chronologically hard to believe; King Childebert III is given as more probable. The supposition of Merovingian descent rests on her being called "queen" in documents from Salzburg, but the title is first given to her in a document of the twelfth century, so she may not have been of royal stock. The most widespread view today is that she was the daughter of the count palatine Hugobert and of Irmina of Oeren, from a charter dividing Hugobert's inheritance among three daughters: Regintrud, Adela and Plectrude.

Family and the abbey

Medieval sources call her the wife of Theodbert (sometimes called Theodo III), who held a part of the duchy of Bavaria with Salzburg. The time of his reign is not certain; the death of his father, Theodo II, is placed in 717 or 718. Some authors call her the wife of Duke Theodo II, but most historians think more credible the sources that give her as wife of Theodbert. From the marriage with Theodbert was born Hugbert, who also ruled the Bavarian lands; Guntrud, wife of the Lombard king Liutprand, is said to have been their daughter, but according to other data the daughter of Duke Theodo II. Other children have been proposed: a daughter Pilitrud from an earlier marriage with an unknown man, Tassilo II and Swanachild.

It is supposed that she may be the same Regintrud who became abbess of the Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg, perhaps after the death of her husband, the founder of the abbey, as its fourth abbess. According to church tradition she died in the 730s at Salzburg and was buried in the Nonnberg monastery, where a stone sarcophagus with her remains is still kept. Since 1613 she has been venerated at Nonnberg as a local saint.