The queen who traded a throne for a monastic rule

Health · Published 18 October 2026 · Updated 25 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In the 6th century, a Frankish queen chose a radical path of religious devotion over royal life. After fleeing a brutal marriage, she founded one of the first large-scale female monasteries in the Frankish kingdom, establishing a community where women were required to be literate and scholarly.

Born a princess in Thuringia around 520 AD, Radegund was captured by the Frankish King Chlothar I following the conquest of her kingdom in 531. She was sent to his villa in Picardy for several years before being married to him in 540. Her marriage was marked by Chlothar's brutal and unfaithful behavior. The situation reached a breaking point in 545 when Chlothar ordered the murder of Radegund's brother, the last surviving male of the Thuringian royal family. In response, Radegund fled the court to seek sanctuary with the church.

Radegund successfully negotiated her religious status, persuading the bishop of Noyon to consecrate her as a deaconess—a role that did not require her to be a widow or a virgin. With Chlothar's eventual consent, she founded the monastery of Sainte-Croix in Poitiers around 550. She adopted the monastic rule of Caesarius of Arles, which was notable for its intellectual requirements: it mandated that both monks and nuns be able to read and write, dedicating several hours each day to scripture study and the copying of manuscripts.

Her influence extended beyond the monastery walls. She gathered a community that grew to 200 members within 40 years and collected significant relics, including a fragment of the True Cross obtained from Constantinople. Despite local opposition from the bishop of Poitiers, who refused to install her relics or conduct her funeral, she secured royal support to ensure her spiritual legacy. Her life and devotion were immortalized by the poet Venantius Fortunatus, whose hymns remain significant in Christian liturgy today.

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