Gudula

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Saint Gudula
From a Dutch Gradual of 1494, a typical depiction of Saint Gudula, who is bearing a lantern which a demon endeavors to extinguish
Born	c. 7th century, Brabant, Belgium
Died	712, Hamme, Brabant, Belgium
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Feast	8 January; 19 January in the diocese of Ham and Moorsel
Attributes	depicted as a woman with lantern which the devil tries to blow out, sometimes with a bellows
Patronage	Brussels, Belgium; single laywomen^[1]
Saints Portal

Saint Gudula is named after several 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).

1 Life
2 Veneration
3 Notes
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Life

Gudula was born in the county of Brabant (in present-day Belgium) and according to her 11th century biography (written in Lobbes Abbey between 1049-1053), daughter of a Duke of Lotharingia (which is an anachronism) called Witger and Amalberga of Maubeuge. She probably lived in the seventh century (+ 712?).

After the birth of Gudula, 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's sister was St. Pharailde (of Saintes), and her brother, the mission bishop Saint Emebertus (often confused with Bishop Ablebertus of Cambrai).

From an early age Gudula proved herself a worthy child, and with Reineldis and Emebertus lived in an atmosphere of piety and good works. She frequently visited the church of Moorsel, situated some two miles from her parents' house. She was buried at Hamme (Brabant). About a century after her death, 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), or (more exactly) between 977 and 988, 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 Balderic of Louvain (+1054) founded a chapter in 1047 in honour of Saint Gudula and asked Bishop Gerardus I of Cambrai (+1051) for permission to translate her relics to to the church of Saint Michel in Brussels. 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 Gueux (Beggars), and the relics of the saint disinterred and scattered.

[edit] 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.

If St. Michael is the patron of Brussels, St. Gudula is its most venerated patroness. In iconography, St. Gudula 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 doubtless in accord with the legend which relates that the saint frequently repaired 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. 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 holy head of Gudula is conserved in the Catholic Church of St. Hildegard in Eibingen, Germany.