Saint Mathilda

Saint Matilda
King Henry and Matilda, detail from the Chronica sancti Pantaleonis, 12th century
German queen
Born	c. 894/97 Enger, Saxony, East Francia
Died	14 March 968 Quedlinburg, Saxony, Holy Roman Empire
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church Roman Catholic Church
Canonized	(Possibly by acclamation)
Major shrine	Quedlinburg Abbey, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
Feast	14 March

Saint Matilda (c. 894/97 – 14 March 968) was Duchess of Saxony from 912 and German queen (Queen of the Franks) from 919 by her marriage with Henry the Fowler, the first king of the Ottonian dynasty. Upon her husband's death in 936, she founded Quedlinburg Abbey to commemorate the late king. Matilda lived to see Western Imperial rule restored when her eldest son Otto was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 962. Her surname refers to Ringelheim, where her comital Immedinger relatives established a nunnery about 940.

The details of St. Matilda's life come primarily from brief mentions in the Res gestae saxonicae by the monastic historian Widukind of Corvey (c. 925 – after 973), and from two hagiographies: the Vita antiquior, written about 974, and Vita posterior, circa 1003.

Matilda was born in Enger near Herford, in the Westphalian part of the German stem duchy of Saxony. She was the daughter of the local count Dietrich and his wife Reinhild, a noblewoman of Danish and Frisian descent. Matilda's biographers traced her ancestry back to the legendary Saxon leader Widukind (c. 730 – 807), who presumably was buried in the Enger church. Her sister Frederuna married Count Wichmann the Elder, a member of the Billung dynasty.