Saint Adelaide
Born	931 in Burgundy, France
Died	December 16, 999 in Selta, Alsace
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Canonized	1097 by Pope Urban II
Feast	December 16
Attributes	empress dispensing alms and food to the poor, often beside a ship
Patronage	abuse victims; brides; empresses; exiles; in-law problems; parenthood; parents of large families; people in exile; princesses; prisoners; second marriages; step-parents; victims of abuse; widows
Saints Portal

Saint Adelaide (931 – 16 December 999) was perhaps the most prominent European woman of the 10th century. Events Ramiro II of Leon becomes king of León Eric Bloodaxe becomes second king of Norway Births Deaths Emperor Uda of Japan Harald I of Norway Categories: 931 ... région of Bourgogne, see Bourgogne. ... December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events Silesia is incorporated into territory ruled by Boleslaus I of Poland Pope Silvester II succeeds Pope Gregory V Sigmundur Brestisson introduces christianity in the Faroe Islands Deaths December 16 - Saint Adelaide of Italy (b. ... Location Administration Capital Strasbourg Regional President Adrien Zeller (UMP) (since 1996) Départements Bas-Rhin Haut-Rhin Arrondissements 13 Cantons 75 Communes 903 Statistics Land area1 8,280 km² Population (Ranked 14th)  - January 1, 2005 est. ... The Roman Catholic Church or Catholic Church (see terminology below) is the Christian Church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, currently Pope Benedict XVI. It traces its origins to the original Christian community founded by Jesus Christ and led by the Twelve Apostles, in particular Saint Peter. ... Canonization is the process of declaring someone a saint and involves proving that a candidate has lived in such a way that he or she qualifies for this. ... The calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organising a liturgical year on the level of days by associating each day with one or more saints, and referring to the day as that saints day. ... December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Saint symbology was important to people who couldnt read because they can figure out what symbols mean. ... Saint Quentin is the patron saint of locksmiths and is also invoked against coughs and sneezes. ... Image File history File links Gloriole. ... Events Ramiro II of Leon becomes king of León Eric Bloodaxe becomes second king of Norway Births Deaths Emperor Uda of Japan Harald I of Norway Categories: 931 ... December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events Silesia is incorporated into territory ruled by Boleslaus I of Poland Pope Silvester II succeeds Pope Gregory V Sigmundur Brestisson introduces christianity in the Faroe Islands Deaths December 16 - Saint Adelaide of Italy (b. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 10th century was that century which lasted from 901 to 1000. ...

She was the daughter of Rudolf II of Burgundy and Bertha of Swabia. Her first marriage, at the age of fifteen, was to the son of her father's rival in Italy, Lothair II, the nominal King of Italy; the union was part of a political settlement designed to conclude a peace between her father and Hugh of Provence, the father of Lothair. They had a daughter, Emma of Italy. Rudolf II (died July 11, 937) King of Upper Burgundy ( 912–937), King of Lower Burgundy (Provence) ( 933–937), King of Italy (effective, 922– 926 – claim abandoned 933). ... Bertha of Swabia, by Albert Anker, 1888 Bertha of Swabia (c. ... Lothar II of Arles was King of Italy from 947 to 950. ... King of Italy is a title adopted by many rulers after the fall of the Roman Empire. ... Hugh of Arles was born sometime before 887, the son of Theobald of Arles and of Bertha, illegitimate daughter of Lothar II of Lotharingia. ... Emma of Italy (c. ...

The Calendar of Saints states that her first husband was poisoned by the holder of real power, his successor, Berengar of Ivrea, who attempted to cement his political power by forcing her to marry his son, Adalbert; when she refused and fled, she was tracked down and imprisoned for four months at Como. She escaped to the protection, at Canossa, of Adalbert Atto, where she was besieged by Berengar. She managed to send an emissary to throw herself on the mercy of Otto the Great of Germany. His brothers were equally willing to save the heiress of Italy, but Otto got an army into the field: they subsequently met at the old Lombard capital of Pavia and were married in 951; he was crowned Emperor in Rome, 2 February 962 and, most unusually, she was crowned Empress at the same ceremony. Among their children, four lived to maturity: Henry, born in 952; Bruno, born 953; Matilda, Abbess of Quedlinburg, born about 954; and Otto II, later Holy Roman Emperor, born 955. Berengar of Ivrea (?-966), sometimes also referred to as Berengar II of Italy was marquess of Ivrea, and later King of Italy. ... Adalbert (c. ... Como is a city in Lombardy, Italy, 45 km north of Milan; the capital of the province of Como, it borders Lake Como. ... Canossa is a former castle of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, situated in the foothills of the Apennines, in the province of Reggio Emilia and about eighteen miles from Parma. ... Adalbert Atto or Adalberto Azzo (died 13 February 988) was the first Count of Canossa and founder of that noble house which eventually was to play a determinant rôle in the political settling of Italy and the Investiture Controversy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. ... Otto I at his victory over Berengar of Friuli Grave of Otto I in Magdeburg Otto I the Great (November 23, 912 - May 7, 973), son of Henry I the Fowler, king of the Germans, and Matilda of Ringelheim, was Duke of Saxony, King of the Germans and arguably the... Church San Michele in Pavia The Old Bridge (Ponte Vecchio) on the Ticino river is a symbol of Pavia Pavìa (the ancient Ticinum) (population 71,000) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its... Events Allat the Maharana of Mewar come to powers. ... February 2 is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events February 2 - Pope John XII crowns Otto I the Great Holy Roman Emperor. ... Events Hugh Capet marries Adelaide of Aquitaine Deaths Emperor Suzaku of Japan Hugh, Duke of Burgundy Categories: 952 ... Events First time that Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal appeared in a Roman map. ... Roland The city of Quedlinburg in the German Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt has existed since at least the early ninth century, when a settlement known as Gross Orden existed at the site of the modern Quedlinburg. ... Events King Malcolm I of Scotland is killed in battle against Highlanders. ... Otto II ( 955 – December 7, 983, Rome), was the third German ruler of the Saxon or Ottonian dynasty. ... The Holy Roman Emperor was, with some variation, the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, the predecessor of modern Germany, during its existence from the 10th century until its collapse in 1806. ... Events August 10 - Otto I the Great defeats Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld Edwy becomes King of England. ...

In Germany, the crushing of a revolt in 953 by Ludolf, Otto's son by his first marriage, cemented the position of Adelaide, who retained all her dower lands. She accompanied Otto in 966 on his third expedition to Italy, where she remained with him for six years.

When her husband Otto I died in 973 he was succeeded by their son Otto II, and Adelaide for some years exercised a powerful influence at court. Later, however, her daughter-in-law, the Byzantine princess Theophano, turned her husband against his mother, and she was driven from court in 978; she lived partly in Italy, and partly with her brother Conrad, king of Burgundy, by whose mediation she was ultimately reconciled to her son; in 983 Otto appointed her his viceroy in Italy. However, Otto died the same year, and although both mother and grandmother were appointed as co-regents for the child-king, Otto III, Theophano forced Adelaide to abdicate and exiled her. When Theophano died in 991, Adelaide was restored to the regency of her grandson. She was assisted by Willigis, bishop of Mainz. In 995 Otto III came of age, and Adelaide was free to devote herself exclusively to works of charity, notably the foundation or restoration of religious houses. Events Edgar of England is crowned king by Saint Dunstan Births September 15 - Al_Biruni, mathematician († 1048) Abu al-Ala al-Maarri, poet Deaths May 7 - Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor Categories: 973 ... Otto II ( 955 – December 7, 983, Rome), was the third German ruler of the Saxon or Ottonian dynasty. ... Otto II and Theophano Theophanu (960 – June 15, 991) (Greek: Θεοφανώ Theophano), also spelled Theophania, was born in Constantinople, and was the wife of Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor. ... Conrad the Peaceful (c. ... Abdication (from the Latin abdicatio disowning, renouncing, from ab, from, and dicare, to declare, to proclaim as not belonging to one), the act whereby a person in office renounces and gives up the same before the expiry of the time for which it is held. ... Saint Willigis (died February 23, 1011), Archbishop of Mainz, was a model bishop of the 10th century, a statesman as well as a churchman. ... Mainz is a city in Germany and the capital of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. ...

Adelaide had long entertained close relations with Cluny, then the center of the movement for ecclesiastical reform, and in particular with its abbots Majolus and Odilo. She retired to the convent of Seltz near Cologne. Though she never became a nun, she spent the rest of her days there in prayer. On her way to Burgundy to support her nephew Rudolf III against a rebellion, she died at a monastery she had founded, Seltz in Alsace, on December 16, 999, days short of the millennium she thought would bring the Second Coming of Christ. She had constantly devoted herself to the service of the church and peace, and to the empire as guardian of both; she also interested herself in the conversion of the Slavs. She was thus a principal agent—almost an embodiment—of the work of the Roman Catholic Church during the Early Middle Ages in the construction of the religion-culture of western Europe. Her feast day, December 16 is still kept in many German dioceses. Cluny nowadays The town of Cluny or Clugny lies in the modern-day département of Saône-et-Loire in the région of France, near Mâcon. ... Saint Majolus of Cluny (10th century) was an abbot of Cluny. ... Odilo (d. ... For other uses, see Cologne (disambiguation). ... région of Bourgogne, see Bourgogne. ... Location Administration Capital Strasbourg Regional President Adrien Zeller (UMP) (since 1996) Départements Bas-Rhin Haut-Rhin Arrondissements 13 Cantons 75 Communes 903 Statistics Land area1 8,280 km² Population (Ranked 14th)  - January 1, 2005 est. ... A millennium is a period of time, equal to one thousand years (from Latin mille, thousand, and annum, year). ... The Second Coming or Last Coming refers to the Christian and Islamic belief in the coming or return of Jesus Christ to fulfill Messianic prophecy, such as the resurrection of the dead, last judgment and full establishment of the Kingdom of God (also called the Reign of God), including the... The Roman Catholic Church or Catholic Church (see terminology below) is the Christian Church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, currently Pope Benedict XVI. It traces its origins to the original Christian community founded by Jesus Christ and led by the Twelve Apostles, in particular Saint Peter. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

The Holy Roman Emperor was, with some variation, the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, the predecessor of modern Germany, during its existence from the 10th century until its collapse in 1806. ... Otto II and Theophano Theophanu (960 – June 15, 991) (Greek: Θεοφανώ Theophano), also spelled Theophania, was born in Constantinople, and was the wife of Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor. ...

References

• John Coulson, editor. The Saints: A Concise Biographical Dictionary. Hawthorn Books, 1960.
• Genealogie-Mittelalter: "Adelheid von Burgund".
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.