The New International Encyclopædia/Radegundis, Saint

RAD'EGUN'DIS, Saint (519-87). The patron saint of Poitiers, in France. She was the daughter of Berthar, a prince of Thuringia. Having been carried as a prisoner to the country of the Franks in the twelfth year of her age by Clotaire I., King of the district whose capital was Soissons, she was educated in the Christian religion, and when she reached a mature age was induced, reluctantly, to become the wife of Clotaire. Her own wish having been to become a nun, her married life was in great measure given up to works of charity and religion. In 544, her husband having murdered her brother, she fled from the palace and retired to the monastery at Noyon. Afterwards she founded a monastery at Poitiers, in which she lived as a simple sister, but which she endowed richly, not only with money and lands, but also with relics and other sacred objects. It was on the occasion of the translation to her church at Poitiers of a relic of the holy cross that the poet Vexantius Fortunatus composed the celebrated hymn Vexilla Regis Prodeunt.