Chlothar was rough, brutal, unfaithful, and often drunk. To his irritation, Radegund's suffering and meek behaviour led people to say that he had "yoked himself to a nun rather than a queen". In around 550 AD Chlothar had her brother murdered, the last surviving male member of the Thuringian royal family.
Radegund fled the court and sought the protection of the church, persuading the bishop of Noyon to consecrate her a deaconess and the bishop of Paris to mediate with the King on her behalf. She gained Chlothar’s consent and support for her new religious role before his death the following year.
In the early 550s Radegund founded a monastery on her own royal estate at Poitiers. She gathered many converts, men as well as women, and within 40 years the community had grown to 200 members.
Radegund assembled a large collection of relics, including a fragment of the True Cross, which led to the monastery being known as the Abbey of the Holy Cross. Around 570 she also introduced the monastic rule of Caesarius of Arles, which required nuns as well as monks to be able to read and write, and to spend several hours each day reading the scriptures and copying manuscripts.
After installing her childhood friend Agnes as abbess, Radegund strove to live as a simple nun. She maintained good relationships with her stepsons and befriended the poet and hymn writer Venantius Fortunatus who was to become her biographer. Popular canonisation followed soon after her death in 587, and pilgrims still travel to her tomb in Poitiers today.
