Adalbert I of Ostrevent († ca.652), was a 7th-century Frankish nobleman of the Court of King Clovis II of France.^[1] He is recognized as a saint,^[2][3] and is commemorated both on 2 February (his martyrdom) and 2 May (translation of his relics to Douai in 1221).

Life

Information about the life of St. Adalbard is found in his wife's Vita Rictrudis, written by Ubaldo of St. Amand.^[4]

Adalbald was one of the leading nobles and claimed lordship of Douai. He was related to Saint Gertrude of Hamage († 649), who founded a convent at Hamage near Douai. He was a disciple of Amand of Maastricht. In 630, Adalbald founded Marchiennes Abbey. During a military expedition in Gascony, he married Rictrude of Marchiennes, daughter of Ernoldo, lord of Toulouse,^[4] despite the opposition of both families. Although her parents approved, others opposed a marriage to a Frank. The marriage was said to be happy. Their four children: Eusebia of Douai (Ysoir)(† ca. 680), abbess at Hamay-les-Marchiennes near Arras; Adalsinda, a religious sister at Hamay(† 714),  ; Maurant, the eldest, and abbot of Breuil († 702), ; and Clotsinda († 714), are venerated as saints.

The couple opened their castle to the poor and disadvantaged. The hermit-monk Richarius was a family friend.^[5] Adalbald's wife made Marchiennes Abbey a double monastery in 643.

Adalbard was assassinated in obscure circumstances around 652, near Périgueux during a subsequent expedition to Aquitaine, probably by his wife's relatives still bitter about the marriage to an enemy of her people. His body was returned to Flanders and buried at Saint-Amand Abbey where he was venerated as a martyr, as his death had taken place in a region which largely had not yet adopted Christianity.^[6]