20 Facts About Radegund

Radegund was a Thuringian princess and Frankish queen, who founded the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers.

Radegund is the patroness saint of several churches in France and England and of Jesus College, Cambridge.

Radegund was born about 520 to Bertachar, one of the three kings of the German land Thuringia.

Clotaire I took charge of Radegund, taking her back to Merovingian Gaul with him.

Radegund sent the child to his villa of Athies in Picardy for several years, before marrying her in 540.

Radegund was one of Clotaire I's six wives or concubines.

Radegund was widely believed to have the gift of healing.

Radegund's abbey was named for the relic of the True Cross that Radegund obtained from the Byzantine Emperor Justin II.

Radegund was known for her ascetic behaviour and has been described as an "extreme ascetic".

Radegund ate nothing but legumes and green vegetables: neither fruit nor fish nor eggs.

Radegund acted against the advice of others who warned her that her extreme ascetism might make her ill.

Radegund bound her neck and arms with three iron circlets; her flesh was badly cut because of this.

The poet Venantius Fortunatus and the bishop, hagiographer, and historian, Gregory of Tours, were close friends with Radegund and wrote extensively about her.

Radegund wrote Latin poems to Fortunatus on tablets that have been lost.

Radegund was buried in what was to become the Church of St Radegonde in Poitiers.

Radegund is typically depicted "with royal robes, crown, and sceptre" and nearby there are "wolves and wild beasts" which are tame in her presence.

Radegund is a patron saint of Jesus College, Cambridge, which was founded on the site of the 12th century Priory of Saint Mary and Saint Radegund.

Sankt Radegund in Upper Austria is a municipality in the district of Braunau am Inn, situated at the western rim of the Innviertel region, where the Salzach river forms the border to the German state of Bavaria.

Saint Radegund is the namesake of Sankt Radegund bei Graz, a municipality in the district of Graz-Umgebung in the Austrian state of Styria.

Close to the ruins of the castle Muhlburg which can be dated back to 704 above the village of Muhlberg in Thuringia in Germany, the foundations of a chapel dedicated to St Radegund can be visited.