Theodelinda
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Theodelinda, Queen of the Lombards, (ca 570 - 628) was the daughter of Duke Garibald I of Bavaria.
She was married first in 588 to Authari, King of the Lombards, son of King Kleph. Authari died in 590; she was allowed to pick Agilulf as her next husband and Authari's successor in 591. She thereafter exerted much influence in restoring Nicene Christianity (the mainstream, in 1054 split by the East-West Schism in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy) to a position of primacy in Italy against its rival, Arian Christianity.
After the conversion of Authari to the Catholic faith, she started building churches in Lombardy and Tuscany, among them the cathedral of Monza and the first Baptistery of Florence. They were all dedicated to Saint John the Baptist.
The famous treasure of Monza contains the theca persica, enclosing a text from the Gospel of John, sent by Pope Gregory I (590-604) to her for her son Adaloald. Another of the gifts of this pope to the Lombard queen was a cruciform encolpion (reliquary) containing a portion of the True Cross.
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- This article incorporates some information taken from http://www.hostkingdom.net/ with permission.
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia.
