Gudula

Infobox Saint
name=Saint Gudula
birth_date=c. 7th century
death_date= 680-714
feast_day=8 January; 19 January in the diocese of Ham and Moorsel
venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church


imagesize=193px
caption=From a Dutch Gradual of 1494, a typical depiction of Saint Gudula, who is bearing a lantern which a demon endeavors to extinguish
birth_place=Brabant, Belgium
death_place=Hamme, Brabant, Belgium
titles=
canonized_date=
canonized_place=
canonized_by=
attributes=depicted as a woman with lantern which the devil tries to blow out, sometimes with a bellows
patronage=Brussels, Belgium; single laywomencite web | last = Jones | first = Terry | title = Saint Gudule | work = Patron Saints Index | url=http://saints.sqpn.com/saintg36.htm| accessdate = 2007-02-16]
major_shrines=Eibingen & St. Michael and Gudula Cathedral
suppressed_date=
issues=

Saint Gudula is often connected by name to a variety of places where she is venerated or which are relevant to her biography: Moorsel (where she lived), Brussels (where a chapter in her honour was founded in 1047) and Eibingen (where the relic of her skull is conserved). In Brabant she is usually callede "Goule" (Latin: "Gudula", Dutch: "Sinte Goedele", French: "Sainte Gudule").

Life

Gudula was born in the county of Brabant (in present-day Belgium). According to her 11th century biography (probably written in Lobbes Abbey between 1047-1051), she was the daughter of a Duke of Lotharingia (which is an anachronism) called Witger and Amalberga of Maubeuge. She died between 680-714.

Her mother, Saint Amalberga embraced the religious life in the abbey of Maubeuge. According to tradition, she received the veil from the hands of St. Aubert, Bishop of Cambrai (d. about 668). Gudula had two sisters, St. Pharailde and St. Reineldis, and one brother, Saint Emebertus (often confused with Bishop Ablebertus of Cambrai).

From an early age Gudula proved herself a worthy child, during her education in the abbey of Nivelles, by her cousin, Gertrude of Nivelles. She then moved to live to her home at Moorsel, spending her time in good works and religious devotions. She frequently visited the church of Moorsel, situated some two miles from her parents' house. She was buried at Hamme (Brabant). Later her relics were removed from Hamme to the church of Sint-Salvator in Moorsel, where the body was interred behind the altar. Under Duke Charles of Lotharingia (977-992), the body of the saint was taken from the church of Moorsel and transferred to the chapel of Saint Géry at Brussels. Count Lambert II of Louvain (+1054) founded a chapter in 1047 in honour of Saint Gudula. Bishop Gerardus I of Cambrai (+1051) led the translation of her relics to the church of Saint Michael in Brussels. The church has since become the St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral.

On the feast day of the saint in 1330, great indulgences were granted to all who assisted in the decoration and completion of the church of St. Gudula at Brussels. On 6 June, 1579, the collegiate church was pillaged and wrecked by the Protestant Geuzen (Beggars), and the relics of the saint disinterred and scattered.

Veneration

*The feast of Saint Gudula is celebrated in Brussels on 8 January, and in Ghent (in which diocese Moorsel is situated) on 19 January.
*Charlemagne made donations to a convent in her honour. Bollandus J., Henschenius G., 'De S. Gudila Virgine Bruxellis in Belgio', Acta Sanctorum Januarii I (1643) 524-530.]

*Although St. Michael is the patron of Brussels, St. Gudula is certainly its most venerated patroness. In iconography, she is represented on a seal of the Church of St. Gudula of 1446 holding in her right hand a candle, and in her left a lamp, which a demon endeavours to extinguish. This representation is in accord with the legend which relates that the saint frequently went to the church before cock-crow. The demon, wishing to interrupt this pious exercise, extinguished the light which she carried, but the saint obtained from God that her lantern should be rekindled. Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. "The Penguin Dictionary of Saints". 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN 0-140-51312-4.]
*The flower called "tremella deliquescens", which bears fruit in the beginning of January, is known as "Sinte Goedele's lampken" (St. Gudula's lantern).
*The old woodcarvers who produced statues of the saints born in the Holy German Empire, often depict St. Gudula with a taper in her hand, which originates probably out of the Paris Saint Geneveva tradition.
*The skull of St. Gudula is conserved in the Catholic Church of St. Hildegard in Eibingen, Germany.

ources

External links

* [http://www.trabel.com/brussel/brussels-ch-churchstmichael.htm The Saint Michael and Saint Gudula Cathedral]
* [http://www.eibingen.net Pfarrei St. Hildegard, Eibingen with Information of the Church and the shrine of saint Gudula]