Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/290

276 276 ST. ERMENGITHA Princess Melixenda, sole heiress of Bald- win. Falk consoniod, and invited his sister to go to the Holy Land with him, which she did, remaining there nearly nine years, during which time she be- friended the poor and the pilgrims, visited many holy places, restored churches, and founded an abbey near Nablous, which was again and again destroyed by the Saracens. Ermengard wonld willingly have ended her days in Palestine, but her son, Duke Conan, begged her to return; this she did with much regret, bringing with her many precious relics to Brotagno. Soon after her return, St. Bernard of Clairvaux came to Bretagne to oppose the errors of Peter Abelard, abbot of St. Gildas de Rhuys, and while visiting Duke Conan and his wife Margaret, daughter of Henry I. of England, he met the Duchess Ermengard. She offered him an estate on which to found a mon- astery; and her son having ratified the gift, one was built in 113G, at Buzay, on the Loire, four leagues below Nantes, and monks brought by St. Bernard wore settled there under the direction of St. John de la Grille, afterwards bishop of St. Malo. Ermengard stayed some time at Buzay, but afterwards retired to Rhedon, where she bought a small house near the mon- astery of St. Saviour, and there she died in 1148, and was buried beside her husband. Before her death she took the Cistercian habit from the hands of St. Bernard. Her son, Duke Conan, having spent the last few years of his life in religious devotion, was buried beside her that he might rise with her at the last day. About seven hundred years after her death an interesting letter was dis- covered among some old manuscripts of the abbey of Vendome ; it was a letter to Ermengard from her spiritual director, B. Robert d'Arbrissel, and is the only writing extant by him ; for although he was a great preacher and reformer, he wrote no books. This letter vindicates her memory from the charge of having left her husband one year and gone back to him the next from mere caprice. Among other advice, the B. Robert says, " Love Gbd and do as you please ; do not torment yourself with change of place and of ways. Have Qod in your heart — at court — ^in your ivory bed — under your rich robes-— in the army — at banquets. ... To love God is to pass ^e night with Him on the mountain; to pass your life in being useful to your neighbour is to work miracles with Tlim in the towns." He refers to St Augus- tine in support of his theories. Albert le Grand de Morlaix, SainU de Bretxigne. Chambard, Saints perMnages d'Anjau. Jean Bourdigne, Histoire d^Anjou, Bncelinus has her in his Meno- logium^ June 1>. St. Bernard addressed several letters to her, two of which are among his published works ; they show a great esteem for the holy duchoss, and may be road in English in EkJes's edition of his works. St Ermengitha, or Eormengitha, sister of Ermenbuuga. Butler, Feb. 21, note, St. Ermenilda, Feb. 13 (Ermeunda, EOKBIENGILDA, EoRMHILD, EoRMENHILDA, Hermynhild). Queen of Mercia. Abbess of Ely. Daughter of Ercombert, king ofKent (040-664), and Sexburga. Niece on her father's side of St. Eanswith, abbess of Folkestone, and on her mother's side of St. Ethelreda and the other daughters of Anna. Born probably be- tween 630-640. She married Wulpherc, king of the Mercians (656-675), one of the eight children of the heathen king Penda. Oswy, king of Northumbria, had defeated Penda, overrun Mercia, and annexed it. He granted half of it to his son-in-law, Peada, who, however, only lived to reign a year, being poisoned by his wife. Wulphere, Peada's brother, was then placed on the throne of Mercia, by the help of three of the chief ealdor- men, and his position was strengthened by his marriage with this princess of Kent, to whom he promised to extirpate idolatry in his dominions, and root out paganism and superstition. For love of his dead brother Peada, and of the Abbot Saxulf, he greatly favoured the abbey of Medehamstede (now Peterborough), which Peada and King Oswy had begun to build. He finished the work, and gave an immense