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Irmina of Oeren (also called Ermina and Hirmina; died 720) was a saint, founder and abbess of a convent in Oeren, near Trier (Trèves), and co-founder of a convent in Echternach (now eastern Luxembourg).[1][2] Hagiographer Basil Watkins states that Irmina's 12th century biography is "unreliable"[3] and it is likely that "legends about her family tree spiralled out of control",[4] but she came from one of the most powerful families in the Merovingian kingdom.[2] She might have been Saint Primina, the daughter of Dagobert I and sister of Saint Modesta. She might have been the daughter of Dagobert II and sister of Saint Adela of Pfalze.[3][5][6] Historian Ian Wood stated that Irmina is "traditionally, and probably correctly, identified as Plectrude's mother".[7]

According to many versions of Irmina's biography, when she was fifteen years old,[3] she was engaged to marry a man named Count Hermann, but just before they were to marry, he was killed in a murder-suicide by one of his servants, who "admired Irmina and could not bear that his master should have her".[5]

Irmina then married Hugobert, a magnate from the middle Moselle region, who served as seneschal and was a count of the palace at the Merovingian court during the reigns of Theuderic III and Childebert III. They had several daughters, including:

After the death of Hugobert, around 697, she built her a monastery at Oeren in Trier, which was eventually named after her, and where she succeeded as abbess her sister, Saint Modesta. Irmina donated lands to help co-found, with Saint Willibrord of Northumberland, the convent in Echternacht in 697 or 698.[3][4][5][7] Historian Jamie Kreiner called the founding of the Echternacht convent "a cooperative venture"[2] between Willibrord and Irmina's family, who later promised to protect the convent and its holdings after Willibrord promised fidelity to them in 706.[2] Watkins reported that Irmina was "generous to both Celtic and Saxon missionary monks".[3] Irmina died in 720 at the monastery at Weissenburg, which was also founded by her father.[5][3]

Irmina's feast day is December 24.[3] She is the patroness saint of Trevos and is represented with a church in her hand, signifying her status as a church founder, and with two angels above her head, carrying her soul to heaven.[5]

Echternach Abbey in the valley of the river Sauer

See also

References

  1. ^ Dunbar, p. 413
  2. ^ a b c d Kreiner, Jamie (2014). The Social Life of Hagiography in the Merovingian Kingdom. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-107-65839-4. OCLC 1089392785.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Watkins, Basil (2016). The Book of Saints: A Comprehensive Biographical Dictionary (Eighth ed.). London: T&T Clark. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-567-66414-3. OCLC 908373623.
  4. ^ a b "St Irmina's Church". Trier, Germany: Trier Tourism and Marketing. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
  5. ^ a b c d e Dunbar, p. 414
  6. ^ Fouracre, Paul (2020). "Forgetting and Remembering Dagobert II: The English Connection". In Nelson, Janet L.; Fouracre, Paul; Ganz, David (eds.). Frankland: The Franks and the World of the Early Middle Ages. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-5261-4825-4. OCLC 1149150096.
  7. ^ a b Wood, Ian (2004). "Genealogy Defined by Women: The Case of the Pippinids". In Brubaker, Leslie; Smith, Julia M. H. (eds.). Gender in the Early Medieval World: East and West, 300-900. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. p. 247. ISBN 0-521-81347-6. OCLC 54035406.
  8. ^ a b Mckitterick, Rosamond. The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Carolingians 751-987, Routledge, 2018, p. 29 ISBN 9781317872481

Works cited

  • Dunbar, Agnes B.C. (1901). A Dictionary of Saintly Women. 1. London: George Bell & Sons. pp. 413–414.
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