Radbod of Utrecht, St.

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RADBOD OF UTRECHT, ST.

Monk, bishop; b. near Namur, Belgium, c. 850; d. Ootmarsum, Netherlands, Nov. 29, 917. Son of a leading Frankish family, he was educated in Cologne and at the court of Emperor Charles the Bald. In either 899 or 900, Radbod became bishop of Utrecht, but he was driven out the next year by the normans. Retreating only a few miles, to Deventer, he carried on not only the work of the diocese but also the Utrecht tradition of learning, as he wrote poems (Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Poetae 4:160173), homilies (Patrologia Latina 132), and history, and a work on St. Martin (Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores 15:123944). From 1905 to 1923 the present Catholic University of Nijmegen bore St. Radbod's name.

Feast: Nov. 29.

Bibliography: Analecta Bollandiana 6 (1887) 515. m. manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters 1:603604. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, rev. ed. h. thurston and d. attwater 4:446. p. h. winkelman, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche 2, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (2nd new ed. Freiburg 195765) 8:963.

[r. balch]