Saint Ada is a saint from

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

. In the 7th-century, she served the

Christian church In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a synonym f ...

as the

abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic ...

of the St. Julien de Prés Abbey in Le Mans. Previously she had been as a

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is ...

in the city of

Soissons Soissons () is a commune in the northern French department of Aisne, in the region of Hauts-de-France. Located on the river Aisne, about northeast of Paris, it is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital ...

. Though she is best known as Saint Ada of Le Mans, her place of patronage is sometimes given as Soissons or St. Julien, and her given name is sometimes recorded as Adeneta, Adna, Adneta , Adnetta, Adonette, Adrechild, Adrehilda, Adrehilde, or Adrehildis. The Saint loved God very much and lived her life with hope. She was the niece of Saint Engebert, a

bishop of Le Mans The Catholic Diocese of Le Mans ( Latin: ''Dioecesis Cenomanensis''; French: ''Diocèse du Mans'') is a Catholic diocese of France. The diocese is now a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Rennes, Dol, and Saint-Malo but had previously been suffr ...

. The years of her birth and death are unrecorded, but she is known to have died in the 7th century, and was buried in the Le Mans abbey in which she had served. Ada is a

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholic Church, Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocacy, advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, ...

of nuns. Her annual feast day is celebrated on 4 December.

References

7th-century Christian saints Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Female saints of medieval France 7th-century Frankish saints 7th-century Frankish nuns {{France-saint-stub