Saint Vincent Madelgarius

Vincent Madelgarius, aka Maelceadar, Benedictine monk, died 677. His feast day is September 20. Belgian sources state that Madelgarus was born about 615 in Strépy, Belgium. The young nobleman married around 635 the distinguished and saintly Waltrude. Her father Walbert IV was related to the Frankish royal house, and her mother was Saint Bertilia. Together they lived a life characterized by piety and good deeds. They had four children, two sons and two daughters, all of whom are counted among the saints: Landericus, Madelberta, Aldetrudis and Dentelin. Shortly after his marriage, Madelgarus was sent by Dagobert I to Ireland. He is said to have returned with many missionaries from Ireland. Madelgarius founded two monasteries, first around 642 in Hautmont in French Hainault. According to an eleventh century Life of St. Vincent Madelgarius, Madelgarius had a dream in which an angel instructed him to build a church in honor of St. Peter, and marked the dimensions by dragging a reed behind him like a plow. The next day, Madelgarius found the plan of the church traced out upon the ground. This then was the beginning of the monastery at Soignies in Belgian Hainault, where he was the local governor. (O'Hanlon connects this story with the monastery at Hautmont.) Around 656, after his fourth child Dentelin died aged just seven, the couple agreed to separate and go to separate monasteries. Waldetrudis retired to Mons, while Madelgarius moved to his monastery in Hautmont, where he became a Benedictine monk and took the name Vincent. He was clothed in the monk's garb by Saint Bishop Aubert of Cambrai. Vincent's pious life and his fame as a spiritual counselor drew many of his former friends to the monastery, and they placed themselves under his spiritual guidance. Hoping to find greater seclusion, he moved around 670 with a few other monks to the second monastery, Soignies, where he became abbot.