st. radegund ...

patron saint of weavers and potters, today is st radegund's memorial day.  considering her spiritual strength from such a young age and her amazing accomplishments, i am personally encouraged.  as john wesley wrote in 1756, *How superstitious are they who scruple giving God solemn thanks for the lives and death of his saints!*  perhaps you would join me in giving God thanks for the incredible examples of faith lived before us, remembering radegund's in particular today.  many thanks and blessings on you for the example of faith each of you are leaving for next generations ...

Feast Day -- August 13

Saints are getting a lot of press these days. We moderns are intrigued by people who lived lives of virtue and moral excellence. They seem so different from the rest of us. Observing saints more closely reveals that they were ordinary people just like us. They struggled with anger, fear, doubt, inadequacies, boredom and depression. What set them apart was their life purpose. More than anything else, they wanted to know God. So despite their faults and frailties, they have much to teach us.

St. Radegund was born in AD 518, and when she was twelve years old was kidnapped from her native Germany by Frankish raiders. Shortly thereafter, she was married to King Clothaire, who mistreated her severely. She endured his beatings and mockings of her ethics stoically, but when the king had her brother murdered, she left the court in a great display of bravery.

Radegund then went to Poitiers, where she founded a monastery that welcomed both men and women in 557. When she heard that a war was raging nearby, she wrote to both sides of the struggle, urging a peaceful resolution to the violence. Radegund's most famous achievement was securing a piece of Christ's cross for the newly built church at the monastery. On August 13, 587, Radegund passed away peacefully, surrounded by two hundred of her sisters.

If St. Radegund had taken the Spiritual Types Test, she probably would have been a Prophet. Radegund is remembered on August 13.

with permission from the Upper Room http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/

in other research, i discovered radegund was the daughter of the king of thuringia, but had lost both parents before 12 years of age.  radegund's was a marriage forced against her will and followed clothaire's four previous women.  their marriage was childless.  clothaire had murdered his own brother leaving behind infant sons, so murdering radegund's brother would not have bothered his conscience.  her efforts at peacemaking and justice evidence her heart and character that were so at odds with the wickedness which surrounded her personal life.  what value must radegund have placed on Christ to have requested a piece of His cross for her monastery church...

1862 Lawrence Alma-Tadema - Venantius Fortunatus Reading His Poems to Radegonda VI

Dordrechts Museum, Netherlands

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