Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/411

Rh special intercession of the apostles by visiting their tombs, and that their union might receive the blessing of the Pope, which would bring them a numerous family and many other advantages temporal and spiritual. Endaldus acceded to her wish, and instead of preparing a bridal feast, they made ready a travelling carriage and a suitable train of servants and horses. They accomplished the journey very happily, visited the holy sites in Rome, and prayed with great devotion on the ground saturated with the blood of hundreds of martyrs. At last the day came that they .were to be presented to the Pope and receive the nuptial blessing from him. No sooner were they in his presence than Hunegund—either in obedience to a sudden inspiration of piety, or in accordance with a deliberate intention—threw herself at the feet of the Pontiff, made a solemn vow of perpetual virginity, and besought His Holiness to give her the veil of a consecrated nun. In the first moment of his disillusion, Endaldus felt an impulse to run his sword through his lost love, but resisting this temptation, he turned and left her without a word of farewell, and taking all his retinue, he set off for Picardy, leaving her without a servant and without a penny. He nursed his indignation all the way home, and intended to punish her by taking possession of all her property that was to have come to him as dowry. On his arrival in his own country, he found that Hunegund was already there, living among the nuns of Homblières—a community that had existed for several years, subject to no congregation—and that she had presented all her property to this convent. She soon became abbess, and built a church in honour of the B. V. Mary, so that she is regarded as the founder of Homblières. After a time, Endaldus understood the purity and holiness of her motives; his affection revived, he repented of his anger and ceased to wish for married life. So far from claiming any of her family possessions, he endowed her church with all that he was to have given her had she become his wife. He craved her pardon for his anger, and begged her to accept as a servant him whom she had refused to take for a husband. He became her most devoted friend and servant, and transacted all the secular affairs of the convent. He chose a place within the walls of the nunnery where he wished to be buried. He died before her, leaving all his lands, slaves, and other property to the Church of Homblières. She rewarded his devotion by burying him in the spot he had chosen. 690 is the latest date assigned to her death, which occurred when she was about fifty, but some authorities place it several years earlier. Some writers say the Pope she visited was Martin I., who sat from 649 to 654, while others say it was Vitalian, whose reign was 657-672.

The first translation of her body was made in 946. In the 15th century one of her ribs was given to Louis XI. (1461-1483).

She is spoken of in ancient grants to the monks who succeeded the nuns at Homblières, as joint patron with the B. V. Mary of the Church and Monastery of Homblières. Stilting, in AA.SS. Mabillon, ''AA,SS. O.S.B. Her name occurs in some very ancient calendars, one of which (to be seen in D'Achery's Spicileyium'', p. 130) is ascribed to the year 826. She is also mentioned by Baronius, Saussaye, Baillet, Cahier. Migne, ''Dic. des Ahbayes''.

St. Hunegundes, (3), empress. St. Hunna, Nov. 30, April 15, and June 3, called la sainte laveuse, 7th century. Patron of laundresses. A noble matron of Alsace. St. Dié resigned the bishopric of Nevers to go and live in solitude. His exhortations on that occasion had so great an effect on the family of St. Hunna, that she made herself the servant of the poor, washing their linen, and visiting the sick, and her son became a monk in the Abbey of Ebersheimsmünster. Cahier. B. Huva,, April 15. Ferrarius. St. Hya, (3). St Hyacinth, in Italian,, Jan. 30. 1588-1640. Patron of the arch-confraternity of the Heart of Jesus, and that of the Sacconi, and founder of