Saint Adelaide of Burgundy

Saint Adelaide of Burgundy was queen of Italy and empress, the wife of Otto I the Great, the mother of Emperor Otto II, and at the end of her life regent of the empire on behalf of her grandson. She is remembered as a ruler inclined to peace, generous to the poor and to monasteries. The Church commemorates her on December 16.

She was born about 931, the daughter of Rudolph II, king of Burgundy, and of Bertha, daughter of the duke of Swabia. While still a child she was betrothed for political reasons to Lothair, son of Hugh, king of Italy. She married him in 947, at the age of sixteen, and bore him a daughter, Emma, later queen of France.

Lothair died in 950, and power in Italy passed to Berengar, margrave of Ivrea. He wanted to marry the young widow to his son Adalbert. Adelaide refused and was imprisoned in a castle on Lake Garda. She managed to escape, however, and found refuge at Canossa. The German king Otto I came to her aid: he entered Italy and in 951 married her in Pavia.

Four children were born of this marriage: two sons died in childhood, Otto became his father’s successor, and Matilda became abbess of Quedlinburg. In February 962 Pope John XII crowned Otto emperor in Rome, and Adelaide empress with him. She took part in her husband’s rule and accompanied him on his expeditions to Italy. She supported the renewal of monastic life that spread from the abbey of Cluny, and she was close to its abbots, Saints Majolus and Odilo.

After the death of Otto I in 973, disagreements arose between Adelaide and her son Otto II and her daughter-in-law, Empress Theophanu. Adelaide withdrew from the court and stayed in Burgundy and in Italy. Abbot Majolus brought about an agreement, and mother and son were reconciled in Pavia. When Otto II died in 983, the two empresses worked together to keep the throne for the underage Otto III. After Theophanu’s death in 991, Adelaide served as regent on behalf of her grandson until he came of age in 994.

Throughout her life she supported the poor and founded churches and monasteries, among them those at Payerne in present-day Switzerland, in Pavia, and at Seltz in Alsace. The Roman Martyrology says of her that she was kind to her household, full of dignity toward strangers, tireless in mercy toward the poor, and generous to the churches of God. When her regency ended, she settled at the monastery of Seltz. In 999 she set out once more for Burgundy to reconcile her nephew, King Rudolph III, with his opponents. She died on December 16, 999, at Seltz near Strasbourg.

Her life was written by Saint Odilo, abbot of Cluny, who accompanied her on her last journey. His account gave rise to the veneration of the empress, which the monks of Cluny spread. Pope Urban II enrolled Adelaide among the saints in 1097.