Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/192

180 180 ST. RAHEL journey ; and she peroeived that their God was the one true Grod and that He had given them the land. She was ready to hail the pnrer religion intro- duced by them, with the worship of the One Qod. She gladly received and concealed the spies whom Joshna sent to view the land, and aided their escape, letting them down by a cord from the window of her honse which stood on the town wall. In return she and all her kindred were spared when Jericho was taken by the Israelites, a scarlet line being used to distinguish the honse. She married Salmon of Naason, who is sup- posed to have been one of the spies. She was the mother of Boaz and thus an ancestor of the Messiah. Another tradition says that she became the wife of Joshua and that St. Huldah and eight other prophets were descended from her. Joshua ii. St. James ii. 25. Hebrews zi. 31. Mart of Salisbury. Smith, Dtc<. of the Bible, St. Rahel, Rachbl. St. Rainfrede, Oct. 8, July 1 (Raginfledis, Raqinfredis, Refroie, Reginfrede, Reinfbede, Renfroi), + c, 805. Patron of Denain. Bucelinus says she is patron of Embrica, Resia and Hove- pelle. Represented with a church in her hand as a founder, although the house of canonesses of which she was first abbess was built for her by her mother, St. Regina (6), niece of King Pepin, Rain- frede was the eldest of the ten daughters of St. Adalbert or Aubert, count of Os- trovandia. Her sisters were SS. Rosa, EupiiROSYNK, Paulina, BB. Celestina, Ambrosia, Ava, Helen, Neptalina, and Carola. Rainfrede has a proper office in the Breviary of Denain. AA.8S,f Oct. 8 ; Bucelinus, Oct. 8 ; Stadler gives her also July 1. St. Raingard or Ragengardis, June 24, + 1135. Represented with a skull and a broom. She was of noble birth and related to the chief personages of Auvergne and Bargundy. She married a nobleman, named Maurice, whose estate of Montbaussier lay near the lands of her family. They were rich and charit- able. They had eight sons and some daughters. Raingard had a bias towards monastic life, and loved to entertain every monk and pilgrim who passed through or near her property. One of these was B. Robert d'Arbrissel, the founder of Fontevrault; he remained in the house some days and was much edified by the piety and wisdom of his hosts. Their devotion received a new impulse firom his instruction. Raingard decided to take the veil at Fontev- rault; Maurice, after much consulta- tion, consented to this step and resolved to become a monk. He died, however, before he could carry out his intention. During his last ilbiess, his wife nursed him with devoted tender- ness, praying and working earnestly for his salvation. When he died, she made all equitable arrangements necessary for leaving her home and resigning her authority there, and waited until Easter to take the veil. But by this time Robert d'Arbrissel was dead and she heard that the nuns of Fontevrault were not strict enough in their rule to come up to her ideal of cloistered life, so she resolved to choose another retreat Meantime, she went to Cluny and com- mended her husband's soul to the prayers of the monks. The last night she spent in the outer world, she visited his tomb in the dark and there confessed all her sins to Grod ; then she went to a priest and confessed first all Maurice's sins, and then all her own, and begged him to shut her up in l^e monastery of Marsigny to do penance for the rest of her life. Marsigny was then very poor. It was a double monastery, ruled by B. Gerard, under the authority of Dom Godfrey of Semur. Gerard had recently had a dream that a dove came fluttering about him and that he caught it and clipped its wings, put it in a cage and presented it to Hugh, the superior of the Order. So when Raingard arrived with an escort suitable to her rank, he thought this was the dove of his di^Mun, and at once sent for the prioress and all the nuns, of whom there were about a hundred. Raingard addressed them humbly, declaring her wish to be ad- mitted amongst them. They were only too delighted to receive her, but the gentlemen who had come with her were very angry and declared this was no fit