VINCENT MADELGARIUS, ST.

Married man, abbot of Soignies (Hainaut, Belgium);d. c. 687. Madelgarius or Mauger married waldetrud, also called Waudru or Valtrude, daughter of a count of Hainaut; they had four children who are all regarded as saints, but to lead a more perfect life, separated and both entered religious life. While Waudru (c. 650) was establishing at Mons a convent, which later bore her name and which was to continue in existence until 1792 as a noble chapter of canonesses, Madelgarius, tonsured by St. Aubert, Bishop of Cambrai, founded a monastery at Hautmont and there became a monk about 653. Soon Madelgarius, longing for still greater solitude, changed his name to Vincent and retired to his own estate of Soignies, there building a monastery of which he became abbot. Shortly before his death, he entrusted the monastery to his son (St.) Landry, later said to have become bishop of Meaux. The biography of Vincent Madelgarius seems suspect to more than one historian: the oldest Vita of this saint goes back no further than the 11th century, and the first mention of the Abbey of Soignies dates only from 870. Nevertheless the saint's relics are venerated in the collegiate church of Soignies dedicated to him (choir dating from about 1000; nave, 12th century; remodeled 15th to 17th century). Every Pentecost Monday a great procession in his honor marches with elaborate pageantry around the city.

Feast: Sept. 20 (formerly July 14).

Bibliography: b. de gaiffier, Analecta Bollandiana 12 (1893) 422–440, 11th-century vita. j. mabillon, Acta sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti, 9 v. (Paris 1668–1701; 2d ed. Venice 1733–40) 2:643–645, 760. Acta Sanctorum July 3:629–659. Acta sanctorum Belgii, ed. j. h. ghesquiÈre et al., 6 v. (Brussels 1783–94) 4:3–38, 12th-century vita. u. berliÉre, Monasticon belge, v.1 (Bruges 1890) 315. É. de moreau, Histoire de l'Église en Belgique, v.1 (2d ed. Brussels 1945) 145. j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienheureux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes, ed. by the Benedictines of Paris, 12 v. (Paris 1935–56); v. 13, suppl. and table générale (1959) 7:312–313. a. m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum: Die Heiligen und Seligen des Benediktinerorderns und seiner Zweige, 4 v. (Metten 1933–38) 2:450–451, 453. È. michel, Abbayes et monastères de Belgique (Brussels 1923).

[j. daoust]