A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Adelaide (7)
B. Adelaide (7), April 4, Sept. 1; translation. May 3 (Alaysia, Alice, Aleydis, Elisabeth, etc.), c. 1105 or 1110. Mother of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Called by Husenbeth "Saint." Represented in a window on the north side of Cossey Hall Chapel, standing behind her son, St. Bernard. Daughter of Bernard, lord of Mombard. Wife of Tescelin Sorus (sometimes called B. Tescelin), lord of Fontaines, a member of the ancient and powerful Burgundian nobility. Tescelin and Adelaide lived at the castle of Fontaines, near Dijon. They were kind and good to their vassals and the poor; they maintained order and propriety and religious observances in their own house. Tescelin was distinguished by his valour in war, but from religious motives he would never fight a duel. Adelaide nursed her seven children at her own breast, and tended them with her own hands, lest they should imbibe evil tempers or distempers from the milk of hirelings, or be taught anything unseemly by the attendants of their infant days. Both Tescelin and Adelaide were careful to bring up all their children in the fear of God and the love of their neighbours. Their only daughter was St. Humbeline. Their sons were Guy, B. Gerard, St. Bernard (Aug. 20), Andrew. Bartholomew, and Nivard. They all became monks eventually. Adelaide offered Bernard more especially to God from his infancy, and brought him up with double care and tenderness until he was old enough to be sent to the college of Chatillon, to be trained for the priesthood. Her prayers for him were answered, even in her life; for his piety, charity, innocence, and self denial were wonderful in one so young. His greatest fame arose from his preaching the second Crusade, 1147, under Pope Eugenius III., who had been one of his monks. Adelaide was considered a saint during her life, on account of her fasts, her hospital-visiting, and her other good deeds. She had a great devotion to St. Ambrose, and used to invite a number of clergy from Dijon to celebrate his festival. On the vigil of that day (the Great St. Ambrose's day is Dec. 7; but perhaps this is St. Ambrosinian, patron of Fontaines, near Dijon, Sept 1, as Adelaide seems to be honoured on that day), in the year 1110, she was taken ill of a fever, and next day she received the last sacraments, and while all her clerical company commended her soul to God, she joined in the prayers and responses, and died. St. Bernard was then 19 years old, and from that time he daily recited seven psalms for her soul. She was buried in the church of the monastery of St. Benignus, at Dijon; but, in 1250, the abbot of Clairvaux begged to have her body as a precious relic; it was therefore solemnly taken up and translated to Clairvaux, and the translation is celebrated May 3. Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, and Legends of the Monastic Orders. Henriquez, Lilia Cistercii, Husenbeth, Emblems of Saints.