St. Adelaide, Abbess

Abbess, born in the tenth century; died at Cologne, 5 February, 1015. She was daughter of Megingoz, Count of Guelders, and when still very young entered the convent of St. Ursula in Cologne, where the Rule of St. Jerome was followed. When her parents founded the convent of Villich, opposite the city of Bonn, on the Rhine, Adelaide became Abbess of this new convent, and after some time introduced the Rule of St. Benedict, which appeared stricter to her than that of St. Jerome. The fame of her sanctity and of her gift of working miracles soon attracted the attention of St. Herbert, Archbishop of Cologne, who desired her as abbess of St. Mary's convent at Cologne, to succeed her sister Bertha, who had died. Only upon the command of Emperor Otho III did Adelaide accept this new dignity. While Abbess of St. Mary's at Cologne, she continued to be Abbess of Villich. She died at her convent in Cologne in the year 1015, but was buried at Villich, where her feast is solemnly celebrated on 5 February, the day of her death.

RANBECK, The Benedictine Calendar (London, 1896); LECHNER, Martyrologium des Benediktiner-Ordens (Augsburg, 1855); STADLER, Heiligen-Lexikon (Augsburg, 1858); MOOSMUELLER, Die Legende, VII, 448.

MICHAEL OTT