Life at the Frankish Court
Born around 615 at Strépy in Frankish Gaul (present-day Belgium), Madelgarius held rank as a count and governor under King Dagobert I, and is titled Count of Hainaut in the tradition. Around 635 he married Waltrude (Waudru), a daughter of Walbert IV and Bertille, both of whom were also numbered among the saints; her sister was Aldegonde, foundress of Maubeuge Abbey.
Shortly after his marriage, Madelgarius was sent by Dagobert I on a mission to Ireland. He returned to the continent accompanied by Irish missionaries, a detail that links his early public career to the wider Hiberno-Frankish monastic currents of the seventh century.
Monastic Foundations
Around 642 Madelgarius founded a monastery at Hautmont, serving as its first abbot and endowing it with substantial resources and relics, including some said to have been obtained from Rome. By tradition he received an inspiration during prayer directing him to build the house. Around 660 he transferred the abbatial office at Hautmont to Landry of Soignies, and in 675 the monastery passed to Halidulphe.
Around 670 he founded a second monastery at Soignies. On withdrawing from married life he was clothed in the monastic habit by Bishop Aubert of Cambrai and took the name Vincent, becoming a Benedictine monk and later abbot of Soignies. His wife Waltrude pursued a parallel vocation, building a cell and chapel near the oratory of Saint Ghislain and founding a religious community at Mons.
Legacy at Soignies
Vincent Madelgarius became the patron saint of Soignies, the town that grew up around his monastery. By the thirteenth century the Church of St. Vincent had gained wide renown, and the bishop of Cambrai granted a forty-day indulgence to every visitor. The original monastic community was in time replaced by a chapter of canons.
His memory is kept with two major annual processions at Soignies. The best known, the Grand Tour Saint Vincent, carries his reliquary along an eleven-kilometre route on Pentecost Monday, a tradition attested at least since the thirteenth century.
Relics & Shrines
Vincent's head was preserved in a thirteenth-century casket that was destroyed during the French Revolution; a replacement casket was made in 1803. Some of his relics were relocated to Metz following a Norman invasion. His reliquary remains the focus of the annual processions held in his honor at Soignies.
