Saint Clodoald

Clodoald (Latin: C(h)lodoaldus, Cloudus; reconstructed Frankish: *Hlōdōwald; 522 – c. 560 AD), better known as Saint Cloud , was a Merovingian prince, grandson of Clovis I and son of Chlodomer, who preferred to renounce royalty and became a hermit and monk. Clodoald found a hill along the Seine, two leagues below Paris, in a place called Novigentum (the present commune of Saint-Cloud). Here, among the fishermen and farmers, he led a life of solitude and prayer, and built a church, which he dedicated in honor of Martin of Tours. He is venerated as a saint in both the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church. Upon the death of Clovis, his sons, Chlodomer, Childebert, Clothaire, and their half-brother Thierry shared the kingdom. In 523–524, at Clotilde's instigation, her sons joined in an expedition against King Sigismund's Burgundians. After the arrest of Sigismund and his family, Chlodomer returned to Orléans. Sigismund's brother, Godomar III, supported by his ally and relative, the Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great, slaughtered the garrison the Franks had left in Burgundy. In retaliation, Chlodomer then had Sigismund and his sons, Gisald and Gondebaud, murdered. On May 1, 524, Chlodomer set out on a second expedition against the Burgundians and was killed at the Battle of Vézeronce on June 25 of the same year. Clodoald was the son of King Chlodomer of Orléans and his wife Guntheuc. He was one of three brothers, raised in Paris by their grandmother, the queen dowager Clotilde. Salic law required the division of the kingdom among the sons of Chlodomer. However, the boys' uncles, Childebert I, king of Paris, and his brother Clotaire I, king of Soissons, coveted the kingdom of Orléans and determined to murder the nephews. Clodoald's brothers, Theodoald and Gunther, were killed by Clotaire when they were ten and nine respectively, but Clodoald was saved by the loyalty of a few soldiers who managed to spirit him away to safety.