TEODOLINDA (Teodolinda). - Queen of the Lombards, d. 22 Jan. 628. She merits the credit for bringing her people to Catholicism. Of Bavarian origin and Catholic herself, she was the widow of King Autari and then married his successor, Agilulf of Turin (590–615). Pope St Gregory the Great found in her a reliable collaborator; indeed, thanks to her, Lombard hostility was directed less against Christian Rome than against the intransigence of the emperor Maurice and the stubbornness of his exarch at Ravenna.
Teodolinda, like the Pope, wished to achieve a peaceful understanding with the Empire; and though she could not prevent Agilulf from besieging Rome, in 598 and 603 she succeeded in persuading her husband to reach an agreement with the Pontiff, who sent her expressions of congratulation and thanks. She also obtained from Agilulf that their son and heir Adaloald be baptised from birth, thus preparing the way for the adhesion of her subjects to Catholicism, who, in the words of Paul the Deacon, held her in veneration. Thanks to her also, St Columbanus was able to found his last monastery at Bobbio in 614. Adaloald would be the first Catholic king of the Lombards, and under the reign of one of his successors, Aripert I (653–661), the patient work of Teodolinda would bear fruit with the official conversion of the kingdom.