Queenship and Sanctity
Subtitle: The Lives of Mathilda and the Epitaph of Adelheid (Medieval Texts in Translation)
Contributors: Odilo (Editor); Sean Gilsdorf (Editor, Introduction, Translator)
Publisher: Catholic University of America Press
Published: July 2004
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 221
ISBN-13: 9780813213743
Subjects: Biography: general; European history: c 500 to c 1500; History of religion; Saints & hagiography; Royalty; c 500 CE to c 1000 CE; Christian saints; Women; Biography & Autobiography; Queen, consort of Henry I, King of Germany,; Biography / Autobiography; Matilda,; Biography/Autobiography; ca. 895-968; Europe; Empress, consort of Otto I, Ho; Religious; Biography; Queen, consort of Henry I, Kin; Queens; Europe - Germany; Medieval; Adelheid,; Germany; Henry I, 919-936; History; Sources
First sentence: Here begins the prologue to the Life of Queen Mathilda.
Description: "At the dawn of the second millenium, authors from monasteries in Burgundy and northern Germany recorded the lives and deaths of two powerful and pious women, Mathilda (d. 968) and Adelheid (d. 999). Both were extolled as saints, exemplary figures guided by God and witnessing to His grace. Unlike most other holy women, however, Mathilda and Adelheid were not ascetic nuns, but queens. They were deemed worthy of praise not only for their devotion to God and their lives of faith, but for integrating these traditional virtues with more "worldly" attributes: noble birth, royal marriage, political power and illustrious offspring. In turn, the saintly reputations of both women were used by their biographers to advance the interests not only of their own ecclesiastical communities, but of a new generation of secular rulers."--BOOK JACKET.