Introduction

In his Legends of the Saints (Generate Legenden der Heiligen), the founder of modern hagiographical research Heribert Rosweyde (1569–1629) described the life of Saint Regina. Published in 1619, Rosweyde’s Vita is the first known account of her life. According to this, Regina, a noble Saxon woman, wife of Count Adalbert of Oostervant, was the epitome of a saintly mother (fig. 1.1). She gave birth to ten daughters, who, carefully nurtured in religion by the saint, all became consecrated virgins of God. They entered the monastery their mother founded for them in Denain, part of Adalbert’s territory in what is now Northern France. Her daughter Ragenfreda was its first abbess and Regina herself was buried there. ¹ Figure 1.1 Saint Regina and her ten virgin daughters. Engraving in Heribert Rosweyde, Generale Legende (Antwerp, 1649) (U.B. Groningen) https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203775080/9831cd87-8e33-41e7-8ccc-c951f5b8440e/content/fig1_1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>