The images of St. Radegund in the sources of the Merovingian epoch: Letters, lives, history, and poetry

N.Yu. Bikeeva

Kazan Federal University, Kazan, 420008 Russia

E-mail: Natalia.Bikeeva@kpfu.ru

Received February 27, 2019

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DOI: 10.26907/2541-7738.2019.2-3.43-59 

For citation: Bikeeva N.Yu. The images of St. Radegund in the sources of the Merovingian epoch: Letters, lives, history, and poetry. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gu­manitarnye Nauki, 2019, vol. 161, no. 2–3, pp. 43–59. doi: 10.26907/2541-7738.2019.2-3.43-59. (In Russian)

Abstract

The paper discusses the sources of information about Radegund – the famous early medieval saint, the queen and nun – written by her contemporaries. These texts, which were the basis for studying the Radegund images in the following centuries, were made in the last third of the 6th – early 7th centuries. The image of this holy woman is contradictory and unclear: an image of ideal Christian is created in the Lives; the “History of the Franks” contains only fragmentary factual information; there is some information about the daily cares and needs of the monastery in letters; and the personal attitude of their author to Radegund appears in verses. At the same time, only a few facts can be considered undoubtedly reliable. It was shown in the paper that the significance and characteristics of various types of evidence – narrative, hagiographic, epistolary, and poetic – for the study of the biography and acts of St. Radegund clarifies the goals of the authors of the documents and their audience. The subjectivity of the sources reflects the views and preferences, the value system of their authors. The paper shows the process of mythologizing the identity of Radegund, which began in the late 6th century and continues to this day. As a result, over the centuries, the image of this saint woman has constantly changed under the influence of political, religious, ideological, as well as common worldviews. The conclusion was made about the need to study all types in combination for a deeper understanding of the personality and deeds of Radegund.

Keywords: Radegund, Gregory of Tours, Venantius Fortunatus, Baudonivia, lives, hagiography, asceticism, convent, early Middle Ages

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