Irmina

The Lives Of The Saints: Volume 15, December · SS. IRMINA AND ADELA, W.

SS. IRMINA AND ADELA, W.

(ABOUT A.D. 707.)

[Venerated at Treves on this day. In Gallican and German Mar- tyrologies generally Irmina alone. Authority : — A Life by John Tri- themius, abbot of Spanheim, d. 1516 ; too late to be of any value.]

S. Irmina and her sister S. Adela were daughters of Dagobert II., King of the Franks. He turned the royal bam in the neighbourhood of Trfeves into a convent for his daughters, and it thence took the name of Horreum or Oehren. The story of Irmina is sufficiently tragical. She was engaged in early youth to a Count Hermann, and was passionately attached to him. The day of the marriage was fixed. It was to take place at Trfeves, and she took her way thither with a retinue. There was in her train a young man named Edgar, who had fallen frantically in love with his mistress, and his heart was consumed with jealousy and despair as the day approached when she was to become the bride ot Count Hermann. When Irmina and her atten- dants reached Trfeves, on the eve of the marriage, Edgar went to the count, and told him in confidence that there was a foreign merchant near the town who had rare jewels for

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Dec. 24.]

SS. Irmina and Adela .

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sale, and offered to lead Hermann to him, so that he might purchase ornaments from him without Irmina suspecting what was in store for her, and he could place them upon her at the wedding. The count fell into the trap, and accom- panied the young man out of the town, across the Mosel bridge, and to the top of the rock where now stands the Mariensaiile. There Edgar suddenly clasped his rival in his arms, and flung himself with the count over the edge of the precipice. The wedding day came, but no bridegroom was to be seen. It was only after some days that the body of the count was found fast locked in the arms of the dead servant of Irmina. Dagobert then allowed his daughter to take the veil, 676, and founded the convent at Trfeves for her. Adela, her sister, took the veil with her. Irmina, according to all accounts, was bom in 662, and therefore was only fourteen when this tragedy took place.

Hontheim has published the diploma of Dagobert II. for the founding of the convent, and it was dedicated by Bishop Modoald. Not a trace of the convent remains, but marble pillars and mined walls existed when Hontheim wrote his History of Trfeves.

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Martyrologium Romanum · Latin witness

Treviris sanctae Irminae Virginis, filiae Dagoberti Regis.