DECEMBER 23D, GREATER FERIA OF ADVENT

Month in honor of the Nativity of OLJC.

Today, I would like to tell you a little bit about another Saint you've probably not heard of, Saint Dagobert II. When I read about the lives of these Catholics from the 700s, 800s, 900s, it is brought home to me once again how many generations of Catholics have lived the Faith and died in it. I try to glean what their experience of Mass, the liturgical life, the feasts and the fasts, the Catholic society might have been. It's a wonder to ponder!

If you would like to get some sense of it, a very well researched piece of historical fiction might open some windows for you. It is the "Master of Hestviken" tetralogy (four books) by Sigrid Undset. Fascinating!

Saint Dagobert II

Born a Prince around AD 650, he was the son of Saint Sigebert III, king of Austrasia [you read that right; not Austria or Australia, but Austrasia, a kingdom lost to the mists of time], and Chimnechild of Burgundy. Upon Sigebert's death in 656, when Dagobert was still a child, the throne was stolen by Dagobert's guardian, Gimoald, in order to make his own son, Childebert, king. Dagobert was kidnapped and exiled to Ireland and England, but eventually be was brought to Dido, Bishop of Poitiers (France). He attended school at the court of the king and befriended of Saint Wilfred [Bishop} of York. He married an English princess, and became the father of several children, including Saint Irmina of Oehren and Saint Adela of Pfalzel.

Eventually, he was recalled to Austrasia for a supposed reunion, but he died in a suspiciously convenient "hunting accident" on December 23d, AD 679, at Lorraine, (France), which most considered a murder committed to permanently remove him from the throne. Some consider him a martyr.