Saint Bathildis
Matron
Queen of the Franks, wife and mother, foundress of the abbeys of Corbie and Chelles
Saint Bathildis was queen of the Franks, the wife of Clovis II and the mother of three kings. She came to the Frankish kingdom as a slave, and as regent she became known for her care for the poor, for captives, and for monasteries. The Church commemorates her on January 30.
It is not known when or where she was born. The earliest life, written soon after her death, says that she came from across the sea, from the people of the Saxons, that is, most probably from Anglo-Saxon Britain, and that as a young girl she was sold for a low price into the household of Erchinoald, mayor of the palace of Neustria. A later tradition gave her royal descent, but there is no sure evidence for it. In the mayor’s household she was valued for her prudence and modesty. According to the life, after his wife’s death Erchinoald wanted to marry her, but Bathildis kept herself hidden until he had married another.
About 649 Clovis II, king of Neustria and Burgundy, married her. She bore him three sons, Chlothar, Childeric, and Theuderic, who wore the crown one after another. As queen she remained modest, gave much time to prayer, and generously supported the poor. When the king died about 657, Chlothar III, a child of only a few years, came to the throne, and Bathildis took up the government in his name.
In governing she was supported by bishops, among them Saints Eligius of Noyon and Ouen of Rouen. She forbade the trade in Christian slaves and herself ransomed many captives, especially those who came from her own people. She fought simony, that is, the buying of church offices, and opposed unjust taxes.
She founded the abbey of Corbie, to which monks came from Luxeuil, and a monastery of nuns at Chelles on the Marne, not far from Paris. Its first abbess was Saint Bertilla, brought from Jouarre. She also gave generously to other abbeys, among them Saint-Denis, Jumièges, and Luxeuil. The Roman Martyrology remembers her as a queen who established monasteries living under the Rule of Saint Benedict.
About 665, when Chlothar III began to rule on his own, Bathildis left the court and settled at Chelles. The life says that she had long desired this. Historians add that she was induced to leave by the magnates, led by Ebroin, mayor of the palace. In the monastery she wanted no distinctions: she obeyed the abbess like any of the sisters, did the humblest tasks, and cared for the sick. She died at Chelles on January 30, about 680, and was buried there.
Her life was written not long after her death, and at Chelles she was venerated as a saint already in the early Middle Ages, long before canonization processes took shape. In 833, in the reign of Emperor Louis the Pious, her relics were moved to the abbey’s new church. They are kept at Chelles to this day.