Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/15

3 B. MAFALDA and in several calendars but her worship is not certain. St Maddalena, Madeleine or Madeline, Magdalene. St. Madelbert, Sept. 7, + c. 705 (Madubert, Maqdelberta, Maldeberta, Maubeete), succeeded her sister Adel- trude (1) as third abbess of Maubenge, about 694. Daughter of B. Vincent and Waltrude. She was brought up by her aunt Aldegundis (2). AA.SS. Butler. St. Madeleine, Magdalene. St Madeltrude, Adeltrude(I) St. Maderasma, Medrysime. St Madern, Madron. St Madiaria, Macaria (3). St. Madila or Madla, Mlada. St. Madilama, Sept. 17, Y. M. Mentioned in the Alexandrino-Ethiopian Calendar and Coptic Menologj. AA,SS. Neale. St Madron or Madernb, perhaps Madrun. a yery ancient Cornish saint, whose well in Cornwall, though very cold, was, according to tradition, boiling hot to the hand of a traitor. Sick chil- dren are taken to this well on the first Sunday in May and rags are tied to the surrounding bushes as offerings. C. F. Gordon Cumming. Blight, Cornish Crosses. St Madrona or Matrona, patron of Badajos. Cahier. St Madrun, -f c. 500, daughter of Gwrthefyr or Vortimer. She married Ynyr Gwent, a Welsh chieftain and saint. They had a daughter St. Tboiwg and sons SS. Cedro and Cynhoiddion. With the assistance of Auhun, her maid, Madrun founded the church of Traws- fynydd, Merionethshire. Bees. She is perhaps the same as Materiana and Madron. St. Madrujrna, Sept. 5, + 000 or 986, abbess of the Benedictine convent of St Peter, at Barcelona. She was carried captive by the Moors, to the island of Majorca. A certain merchant planned her escape, and on the appointed day, she left her master's house and arrived safely in the merchant's ship. The Moor, however, soon discovered that she was gone, and guessed whither ; BO he went to search the ship. When the merchant heard him coming, he hid the abbess in a sack of wool. The Moor suspecting this ruse, ran his dagger through every sack and pierced Ma- druyna with three or four wounds, which she bore in brave silence ; so her master went away baffled. On her return to Barcelona, she refused to resume the dignity and duties of abbess that she might have leisure to prepare for her death, which occurred very soon after, from the wounds she had received in the ship. She was regarded as a martyr and buried with great honour in the church, and afterwards translated to another tomb where she wrought miracles. She is called *' Saint '' by some Benedic - tine and Spanish writers, but it seems uncertain whether her worship is sanc- tioned by due authority. AA.SS. ^ St. Madubert, Madelbert. B. Mafalda, or Malda, May 2, + 1252. Daughter of Sancho and Dulcia, king and queen of Portugal. Sister of SS. Theresa (5) and Sancha. Their brother Alfonso II. was envious of the fortunes left to his sisters and tried to take their property for himself. As Mafalda was his favourite, he increased her portion and promoted her marriage to Henry I. king of Castile (1214-1217). The ceremony was performed at Palentia or at Medina del Campo. The bride scarcely arrived in Spain when the Pope declared the marriage null on account of consanguinity. She resolved to be a nun, and on her return home, obtained from her brother a mined monastery which had been built at Arouca in the eleventh century. She restored the house, established in it a convent of Cistercian nuns and herself became a nun under the worthy Eldrada, its first abbess. Mafalda kept part of her fortune and built the monastery of Abraga, a bridge near it called Por DioSy another bridge at Canaves, and other religious and beneficent institutions. She made fre- quent visits to an image of the B. V. Mary in the cathedral at Porto. Once, on her way back, she was seized with fever, near Amaranth, and could go no further. Knowing that death was ap- proaching, she ordered her body to be put on a mule and buried wherever the mule stopped. The mule went to Arouca,