to receive his blessing, but to their great grief he was already dead when they arrived. The queen, in the depth of her sorrow, had only the consolation of uncovering and reverently kissing the dead face. She wished to bury him in her monastery of Chelles. The nobles wanted to have him laid in their capital. The clergy and people of Noyon considered him their own saint, and refused to give up the sacred remains. The departed bishop declared for his own flock, for when the coffin was to be taken away, it was found impossible to move it. As he was to be buried in the monastery of St. Loup (afterwards called St. Eloi), Bathilde insisted on accompanying the funeral cortège on foot, and would not mount the horse provided for her.
Her three sons, like the rest of the fainéant kings, were puppets in the hands of the mayors of the palace, who divided the three kingdoms among their nominal masters, dethroning or reinstating them at will, and quarrelling and fighting for their own interests all the time. The most distinct account I have met with of these fainéant reigns is in Mezeray's History of France.
To quote again the Chronicle of St. Denis—
"Dès lors commença li roiaume de France à abeisser et à décheoir et li Roi à fourlignier du sens et de la puissance de leur ancessours. Si estoit le roiaumes gouvernez par Chambellenz et par Connestables qui estoient apelé Maistre du palais ne li Roi n'avoient tant seulement que le non, ne de riens ne servoient fors de boire et de mengier. En un chastel ou en un manon demouroient toute l'anée jusques aus Kal de May. Lors issoient hors en un chaarz pour saluer le pueple, et pour estre salué d'eulz, dons et presens prenoient, et aucuns en rendoient, puiz retournoient à l'ostel et estoient einssi jusqu' aus autres Kal de May."
It was during Bathilde's regency that Corbie, a great estate in Picardy, reverted to the Crown. It had been given to Gontland, a Frank, but feudal grants were not yet hereditary, and on his death it became the property of the three little imbecile kings. For their souls, the soul of their mad father, her own soul, and the good of the people, Bathilde built at Corbie the famous monastery of St. Peter, for monks under the rule of St. Columbanus.
During her husband's life she had magnificently refounded the abbey of St. George at Chelles on the Marne, about ten miles from Paris. It was first founded by St. Clotilda (1). After some years of regency, Bathilde retired from the cares of government, and placed herself under St. Bertilla, whom she had appointed Abbess of Chelles. She declined any distinction as queen or foundress, but swept the cloisters and worked in the kitchen like the humblest nun. On her death-bed she was cheered with a vision of a luminous ladder, which angels were calling her to ascend.
Her name is in the R.M., Jan. 26; in the French Mart., Jan. 30. Sismondi, Histoire des Français. Le Glay, La Gaule Belgique. Chronicle of St. Denis. Mezeray, Life of St. Bertha, and other saints of the period, given by Bouquet, Butler, Baillet, and the other collectors of Lives of Saints.
St. Bathilde (2), or Radegund (2), of Chelles. † c. 679.
SS. Bathusa and Verca, MM. c. 370, in Gothia, now Roumania. Mas Latrie, Trésor.
St. Battona. A name erroneously given to St. Dominica of Tropea.
St. Baudegonde, Baldegund.
St. Baudour, Bathilde (1).
St. Bauduria, Bathilde (1).
St. Baula, Sept. 27. Coptic Calendar. AA.SS.
St. Bausame, Balsamia. AA.SS.
St. Bauterina, Jan. 18, M. at Avitina. AA.SS.
St. Bauthieult, Bathilde (1).
St. Bautour, Bathilde (1).
St. Bauzanne, Balsamia.
St. Baya, Vey.
St. Bazalota, June 6. 4th century. Nun in Abyssinia. Sister of St. Michael, a venerable old priest. Commemorated with him and St. Euphemia in the Abyssinian Hagiology. Papebroch, in AA.SS.
St. Bazilia. See Sila.
St. Beata (1), March 8 (Baromia, Bera, Berema, Beroma, Birona, or Borema), M. in Africa with St. Cyril,
