Cloud, the Saint of Carbuncles!

Saint of the day, because he has such a wonderful name, is Cloud the Confessor, also known as Clodoald, to whom you should pray if you suffer from carbuncles are are seeking a cure. He was the youngest son of Clodomir, King of Orleans (we are talking 6th century France here, not America) and grandson of Clovis, King of the Franks. He and his brothers were brought up by their grandmother Clotilda, Queen of the Franks, but their uncles Childebert and Clotaire plotted to do away with the boys and seize the crown.
You may have noticed there seem to be an awful lot of words starting with ‘C’ in this story. I am beginning to feel a little like the Dormouse in Alice with his tale of the three young girls who lived in a well and drew pictures of things beginning with ‘M’...

Anyway, our hero Cloud escaped, was sheltered by St Severinus, taught people about Christ, renounced his claim to the throne, became famed for giving counsel and healing and founded a church or monastery at Nogent-sur-Seine. After his death miracles occurred, his tomb became a place of pilgrimage and the village was named Saint-Cloud in his honour and is now a commune, an administrative area similar to an English council. There are more ‘Cs’ here you will notice: Christ, claim, counsel, church, commune, council.

Eglise Saint-Clodoald, st Saint-Cloud.
Pic from Wikimedia Commons 

Saint of the day, because he has such a wonderful name, is Cloud the Confessor, also known as Clodoald, to whom you should pray if you suffer from carbuncles are are seeking a cure. He was the youngest son of Clodomir, King of Orleans (we are talking 6th century France here, not America) and grandson of Clovis, King of the Franks. He and his brothers were brought up by their grandmother Clotilda, Queen of the Franks, but their uncles Childebert and Clotaire plotted to do away with the boys and seize the crown.

You may have noticed there seem to be an awful lot of words starting with ‘C’ in this story. I am beginning to feel a little like the Dormouse in Alice with his tale of the three young girls who lived in a well and drew pictures of things beginning with ‘M’...

Anyway, our hero Cloud escaped, was sheltered by St Severinus, taught people about Christ, renounced his claim to the throne, became famed for giving counsel and healing and founded a church or monastery at Nogent-sur-Seine. After his death miracles occurred, his tomb became a place of pilgrimage and the village was named Saint-Cloud in his honour and is now a commune, an administrative area similar to an English council. There are more ‘Cs’ here you will notice: Christ, claim, counsel, church, commune, council.

For many years the Eglise Saint-Clodoald at Saint-Cloud was embellished and enlarged and housed relics of St Cloud. In1589 the funeral of King Henry III of France was held there, but in the centuries that followed it fell into disrepair and was pulled down. The foundation tone for a new church was laid by Marie Antoinette, but building work was interrupted by the French Revolution and the new church was not completed and consecrated until 1820.The saint’s relics were destroyed by revolutionaries, apart from a back bone, and an arm which had been donated by a Medieval Bishop of Paris and was rescued by a teacher. These bones were moved to the new church, but it soon became too small, and had to be rebuilt some 50 years later.

The area, in the west of Paris, is famed for its park containing the ruins of the Chateau de Saint-Cloud. An ornate building and garden was created by the Gondi banking family in the 16th century, but became home for kings, queens and emperors. Henry III of France was assassinated while living at the estate; Philippe II, Duke of Orleans, Regent of France, made his home there, and when Marie Antoinette acquired it she spent a fortune on decorations and improvements. Later the chateau’s contents were sold by revolutionaries, and later still, in 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte was declared Emperor at Saint-Cloud and established the house as one of his main seats. The chateau was eventually destroyed by fire in 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War.

The obvious way to celebrate St Cloud is to look at the clouds... or, since there were so many 'Cs' in his story you could paint or embroider a decorative letter 'C'... or,eat cakes and drink wine... as long as they're French, of course.... I am going to start a cross stitch pictute of two cats and a heart-shaped cloud....