St. Richrudis

Benedictine abbess. A member of a noble family from Gascony, France, she wed the Frankish nobleman St. Adalbald despite family objections, and the couple had four children — Eusebia, Clotsind, Adalsind, and Mauront — all of whom became saints. After Adalbald was murdered by relatives in Gascony, she refused royal pressure to remarry and instead, with the help of St. Amandus, she became a nun at Marchiennes, Flanders, Belgium, a double monastery that she had founded. Rictrudis served as abbess for some forty years until her death. Adalsind and Clotsind joined her, and Mauront became a monk there too.