Aldegund ( 639–684), also Aldegundis or Aldegonde, was a Frankish

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

abbess who is honored as a saint by the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in France and by the Orthodox Church. Aldegund was closely related to the

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...

royal family. Her parents, afterwards honored as St. Walbert, Count of

Guînes Guînes (; ; ) is a commune in the northern French department of Pas-de-Calais. Historically, it was spelt ''Guisnes''. On 7 January 1785, Jean-Pierre Blanchard, a French pioneer in hydrogen-balloon flight, completed the first aerial crossi ...

, and St. Bertilla de Mareuil, lived in the

County of Hainaut The County of Hainaut ( ; ; ; ), sometimes spelled Hainault, was a territorial lordship within the medieval Holy Roman Empire that straddled the present-day border of Belgium and France. Its most important towns included Mons, Belgium, Mons (), n ...

. She is the most famous of what Aline Hornaday calls the "Maubeuge Cycle" of Merovingian saints. Aldegund was urged to marry, but she chose the life of the cloister. Having allegedly walked across the waters of the Sambre, she had built on its banks a small hospital at Malbode, which later became, under the name Maubeuge Abbey, a famous abbey of Benedictine nuns, though at a later date these were replaced by canonesses. She died in 684 of

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

. Saint Aldegund's Catholic liturgical feast is kept on January 30. She has been supposed to be the sister of Saint Waltrude (Waudru). She was succeeded by her nieces, Waltrude's daughters, Aldetrude and then Madelberte. There are several early '' Lives'', but none by contemporaries. Several of these, including the tenth-century biography by Hucbald, are printed by the Bollandists (Acta SS., January 11, 1034–35).

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Saint of the Day, January 30: ''Aldegundis of Maubeuge''
at ''SaintPatrickDC.org'' {{Authority control 639 births 684 deaths 7th-century Frankish nuns 7th-century Christian nuns People from Pas-de-Calais Benedictine abbesses Burials at Maubeuge Abbey Colombanian saints Christian female saints of the Middle Ages 7th-century Frankish saints