Clotilde, Saint

CLOTILDE, saint. — Daughter of the Arian king Childeric, born in Lyon around 474, after the murder of her parents she was entrusted to the guardianship of her uncle Gundobad, king of the Burgundians, and was brought up in the Catholic religion by her pious mother Caratena. Around 492 she married Clovis, king of the Franks, on whose conversion she exerted a real influence and by whom she had five children. After her husband’s death, distressed by the struggles between Franks and Burgundians and by the murder of her sons, she withdrew to Tours near the tomb of S. Martin, where

Article illustration
(from A. Leroy, Evolution de la peinture française, Paris 1795)
she distinguished herself through her religious activity, devoted to founding churches and monasteries. She died in 545; feast day 3 June.

BIBL.: Acta SS. Iunii, I, Antwerp 1695, pp. 292–98; Vita s. Chrothildis, ed. B. Krusch, in MGH, Scriptores, II, pp. 341–48; G. Kurth, Ste Clotilde, Paris 1897; Martyr, Romanum, 1940, p. 222. Mario Scaduto
Cite this article

“CLOTILDE, SANTA.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III (1949), p. 1094. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/clotilde-santa.