Vincent Madelgarius

Venerable Vincent Madelgarius was a Benedictine monk of present-⁠day Belgium, founder of the monasteries of Hautmont and Soignies, who died on 14 July 677 at Soignies. He is remembered on 14 July (in some sources, on 20 September).

The Belgian sources say that he was born about 607 or 615 at Strépy, of a noble family, according to tradition of Merovingian royal blood. The young nobleman married around 635 the blessed Waltrude, daughter of Walbert IV, a relative of the Frankish royal house, and of Saint Bertilia. Together they lived a life of piety and good deeds and had four children, two sons and two daughters, all counted among the saints: Landericus, Madelberta, Aldetrudis and Dentelin. Shortly after his marriage, Madelgarius was sent by King Dagobert I to Ireland, from where he is said to have returned with many missionaries. The claim that he was of Irish origin, asserted by some Irish writers, has been refuted by Jean Mabillon and the Bollandists; the majority holds that he was from Hainaut. He was a friend of Saint Ghislain and Saint Amandus.

Madelgarius founded two monasteries: first, around 642, that at Hautmont in French Hainaut. According to an eleventh-⁠century Life, in a dream an angel instructed him to build a church in honour of Saint Peter and marked the dimensions by dragging a reed behind him like a plough. The next day Madelgarius found the plan of the church traced out upon the ground. This was the beginning of the monastery at Soignies in Belgian Hainaut, where he was the local governor. Around 656, after his fourth child, Dentelin, died aged just seven, the couple agreed to separate and go to separate monasteries. Waltrude retired to Mons, while Madelgarius went to his monastery at Hautmont, where he became a Benedictine monk and took the name Vincent. He was clothed in the monk's habit by Bishop Aubert of Cambrai. Vincent's pious life and his fame as a spiritual counsellor drew many of his former friends to the monastery, who placed themselves under his spiritual guidance. Hoping to find greater seclusion, he moved around 670 with a few monks to the second monastery, Soignies, where he became abbot. Shortly before his death he passed the monastery on to his son, Bishop Landericus of Metz. He died on 14 July, most likely in the year 677, at Soignies. In the eleventh century, several centuries after his death, a life of him was written. His wife Waltrude and the four children are also venerated as saints.