There's something about Clovis

[bpbasilphx]

Clovis was the first Christian King of the Franks and the husband of St. Clotilde (who is on Orthodox synaxaria as well).

Usually the first Christian king is considered a saint; Ss. Vladimir and Stephen of Hungary come to mind. Is Clovis on any list of saints?

Anybody know?

(I don’t usually do multiple posts, but due to the subject matter I thought I’d ask here, too.)

 

[Like]

Clovis was the first Christian King of the Franks and the husband of St. Clotilde (who is on Orthodox synaxaria as well).

Usually the first Christian king is considered a saint; Ss. Vladimir and Stephen of Hungary come to mind. Is Clovis on any list of saints?

Anybody know?

(I don’t usually do multiple posts, but due to the subject matter I thought I’d ask here, too.)

Sorry, I don’t have an answer to your question, but the title of your thread jumped right out at me.

I thought, What in the world were you stating " There’s something about Clovis", my birth city, Clovis NM.

Heck, I thought I was going to learn something, anything about my birth city as I only lived there for my first 9mo. & never returned.

 

[brotherhrolf]

I don’t think so. The Germanic tribes (e.g. Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks) were all adherents to the Arian heresy when their kingdoms were established.

The Angles, Saxons, Danes, etc. were pagans.

From simply an historical point of view, St. Stephen of Hungary comes some 500 years after the turmoil of the barbarian invasions as does St. Olaf of Norway, St. Canute of Denmark and St. Eric of Sweden.

I suspect the time period has a lot to do with it. The Western Roman Empire had fallen at the time of Clovis and the Merovingian kings were really chiefs over allied tribes. Five hundred years later you have defined kingdoms and a feudal culture.

The first English king who is a saint is St. Edward the Confessor and his death is what precipitates the Norman Conquest which is around the same time of Stephen of Hungary.

I don’t find saints for the Vandals, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Lombards or any of the other invading barbarian tribes after the fall of the Western Empire.

 

[Hlafdige]

Clovis was converted to the Catholic faith by his wife St. Clotilde. She is a saint and her memorial is June 3rd; as for Clovis, although he and all French kings after him bore the title “Most Christian King”, he was apparently never considered a saint. Like most of the Merovingians, he was apparently a pretty rough guy.

Catholicism was the faith of the Gallo-Roman (Celtic/Roman) population which had been conquered by the Franks. In adopting it, the Frankish kings set themselves at odds with most of their own nobility, who remained for the most part pagan until Bonifatius’ time (8th century).

 

[bpbasilphx]

The first English king who is a saint is St. Edward the Confessor and his death is what precipitates the Norman Conquest which is around the same time of Stephen of Hungary.

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Not true. There’s St. Edward the Martyr-King, who was some centuries before Edward the Confessor. In fact, there’s even an Orthodox shrine to him in England.

 

[brotherhrolf]

The first English king who is a saint is St. Edward the Confessor and his death is what precipitates the Norman Conquest which is around the same time of Stephen of Hungary.

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Not true. There’s St. Edward the Martyr-King, who was some centuries before Edward the Confessor. In fact, there’s even an Orthodox shrine to him in England.

Good Bishop, I have not heard of St. Edward the Martyr-King. How could I have missed it? He was crowned by my own patron Saint Dunstan. But I would submit to you that “England” as such did not exist. St. Edward the Martyr-King is an uncle to St. Edward the Confessor - not some centuries before.

We can argue that “England” did not exist with St. Edward the Martyr-King. The Danelaw had only recently fallen. England was not unified as it was under St. Edward the Confessor.