Word: theodolinda
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...Monza. Just how long they worked or how many of them there were, no one knows for sure, but when they were done, the chapel walls sparkled like pages out of an illuminated manuscript (see color). There, in 40-odd glowing frescoes, was the life and legend of Queen Theodolinda, who had ruled over the Lombards some 900 years before and was still cherished in memory...
...Chosen One. Italian history tells of no other queen more gracious and pious than Theodolinda. She was the daughter of the Duke of Bavaria, and toward the end of the 6th century she married the powerful Authari, King of the warlike Lombards. Shortly thereafter, in 591, Authari died suddenly, some said by poison. Normally the death of a King would have precipitated a bloody scramble for the throne among local chiefs, with Theodolinda as a sort of door prize. But in the few years she had been Queen, Theodolinda had become so beloved among the Lombards that they insisted that...
...Agilulf, the Duke of Turin, her late husband's brother-in-law. For his coronation as King of the Lombards, Pope Gregory the Great lent the sacred Iron Crown, which supposedly bore a nail from the Cross. The Pope had good reason, so the legend goes, to show Theodolinda this special favor. A fervent Roman Catholic, she persuaded her husband and most of his subjects to abandon the Arian heresy. For the first time in decades, a religious peace settled over the Lombards, and crime virtually disappeared...
Heavenly Command. After Agilulf died, Theodolinda ruled on with her son. One night she had a dream in which Heaven commanded her to build a church in Monza, her favorite of all Lombard towns. She built and her remains were buried in the Basilica of San Giovanni...
...frescoes show, Theodolinda's hold over her people did not end with her death. In one scene, the Roman Emperor Constantine III (612-641 A.D.) marches into Monza, determined to sweep the Lombards out of Italy. But he pauses long enough to consult a bearded old hermit whom the townspeople called "The Prophet." The Prophet learns from the Archangel St. Michael, from St. Peter and John the Baptist that any attempt to capture Monza would meet disaster, because the piety of Theodolinda had won the town heavenly protection. The Emperor decides to take his war elsewhere. With that timely...
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