Gudula
Diocese of Ghent | |
---|---|
Attributes | depicted as a woman with lantern which the devil tries to blow out |
Patronage | Brussels, single, laywomen |
Saint Gudula was born in the
Her name is connected to several places:
- Moorsel (where she lived)
- Brussels (where a chapter in her honour was founded in 1047)
- Eibingen (where the relic of her skull is conserved).
In Brabant she is usually called Goedele or Goule; (
: Sainte Gudule).Life
The mother of Gudula, Saint
Gudula was educated in the abbey of Nivelles by her godmother, Gertrude of Nivelles. When Gertrude died, Gudula moved back to her home at Moorsel, spending her time in good works and religious devotion. She was profuse in her alms for the poor,[2] and frequently visited the church of Moorsel, situated about two miles from her parents' house.[1] Nothing particular is recorded of Gudula beyond the singular holiness of her life.[3]
Gudula died and was buried at Hamme (
On 6 June 1579, the collegiate church was pillaged and wrecked by the Protestant Geuzen ("Beggars"), and the relics of the saint were disinterred and scattered.
Veneration
- Along with St. Michael, Gudula is a patron saint of Brussels.[4]
- The feast of Saint Gudula is generally celebrated on 8 January (the day she died according her hagiography).diocese of Ghent(where Moorsel is situated) her feast is held on 19 January.
- Charlemagne made donations to the convent of Moorsel in her honour.
- 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 woodcarvers who produced statues of the saints born in the Holy Roman Empire, often depicted St. Gudula with a taper in her hand, but this originates probably out of confusion with the Paris Saint Geneveva tradition.
- The skull of St. Gudula is conserved in the Catholic Church of St. Hildegard in Eibingen, Germany.
Iconography
- Gudula is often pictured holding a lantern. She is depicted on a seal of the Church of St. Gudula of 1446 holding in her right hand a cock-crow. The demon, wishing to stray her off the right way, extinguished the candle, but the saint obtained from God that her lantern should be rekindled.[5]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Van der Essen, Léon. "St. Gudula." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 11 May 2018
- ^ a b "St. Gudula, Virgin, Patroness of Brussels", Butler, Alban. The Lives of the Saints. Volume I: January, 1866
- ^ Jameson, Anna. Sacred and Legendary Art, Volume 2, Longmans, Green, 1891, p. 779
- ^ a b Cathedrale St. Michel
- ^ ISBN 9780814629703p. 127
Sources
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: L van der Essen (1913). "St. Gudula". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Primary sources
- Vita prima sanctae Gudilae auctore anonymo on the Latin Wikisource
- Vita ampliata sanctae Gudilae auctore Huberto on the Latin Wikisource
- Bollandus J., Henschenius G., De S. Gudila Virgine Bruxellis in Belgio, Acta Sanctorum Januarii I (1643) 524–530.
Secondary sources
- Bonenfant, P., 'La charte de foundation du chapitre de Sainte-Gudule à Bruxelles', Bulletin de la Commission Royale d'Histoire 115 (1950) 17–58.
- Podevijn, R., 'Hubert, l'auteur de la vita Gudulae', Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire 15 (1936) 489–496.
- Podevijn, 'Etude critique sur la Vita Gudulae', Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire 2 (1923) 619–641.
- Lefèvre, P., 'Une conjecture à propos de la date et de l'auteur du "Vita Gudile"', Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Filologie en Geschiedenis14/1 (Brussel 1935) 98–101.
- van der Essen, L., 'Etude critique et littéraire sur les vitae des saints Mérovingiens', Recueil de travaux publiées par les membres des conférences d'histoire et de philologie 17 (Leuven 1907) 296–311.
- Riethe, P., 'Der Schädel der heiligen Gudula aus der Pfarrkirche von Eibingen. Eine historisch-anthropologische Studie', Nassauische Annalen Jahrbuch des Vereins für nassauische Altertumskunde und Geschichtsforschung Band 67 (1956) 233.
- Van Droogenbroeck, F. J., 'Onulfus van Hautmont (ca. 1048), auteur van de Vita S. Gudilae anonymo', Eigen Schoon en De Brabander 95 (2012) 595–643.
- Van Droogenbroeck, F. J., Nova miracula de exemplis veteribus (2016)