ADELAIDE (Adelheid), EMPRESS, saint. — Born c. 931, died at Selz, in Alsace, on 18 December 999. Daughter of Rodolfo II of Burgundy, she married (947) Lotario II, king of Italy (d. 950). Imprisoned by Berengario II, she managed to escape; at Pavia she married Ottone the Great (951). A woman of extraordinary beauty, culture, and piety, she exercised a beneficial influence in favor of the Church, founded monasteries, promoted the reform of Cluny, and temporarily governed the empire for her son Ottone II and later for her grandson Ottone III. After her death she was immediately venerated as a saint, a cult confirmed by Urban II; her name, however, does not appear in the Martyr. Romanum. Feast day: 16 December.
BIBL.: Most recent information on A.: life, cult, art, sources, literature, in J. C. Clauss, Die Heiligen des Eliaus, Düsseldorf 1935, pp. 23 ff., 186 ff. — La Vita written by Odilone of Cluny was edited by Periz, in MGH, Scriptores, IV, pp. 637–45. Giuseppe Löw