TEODOLINDA (TEODELINDA). – Queen of the Lombards, d. 22 Jan. 628. She had the merit of bringing her people to Catholicism. Of Bavarian origin and a Catholic, widow of King Autari, she married his successor, Agilulfo of Torino (590–615). Pope St Gregory the Great found in her a reliable collaborator; thanks to her, indeed, Lombard hostility was directed not so much against Christian Rome as against the intransigence of the basileus Maurizio and the obstinacy of his exarch of Ravenna.
T. wished, like the Pope, to achieve a peaceful understanding with the Empire; and although she could not prevent Agilulfo from besieging Rome, in 598 and 603 she nevertheless succeeded in persuading her husband to reach an agreement with the Pontiff, who addressed congratulations and thanks to her. She also obtained from Agilulfo that his son and heir Adaloaldo should be baptized at birth, thus preparing the adherence to Catholicism of her subjects, who, according to Paolo Diacono, held her in veneration. Thanks again to her, St Colombano established his last foundation at Bobbio in 614. Adaloaldo was to be the first Catholic Lombard king, and under the reign of one of his successors, Ariperto I (653–61), T.’s patient work was to bear fruit in the official conversion of the Kingdom.