Her Legends

The curing of the Black Plague

At the height of the bubonic plague that ravaged Europe, the faithful of Mons gathered together on October 7, 1349, in the fields of the outskirts of the city and met with a group from the neighboring city of Soignies. There, they reunited the relics of Waltrude with the relics of Vincent. Husband and wife now together, the people of Hainaut prayed that they might be saved from the unending sickness that had claimed so many lives. A mass was held and songs were sung. The prayers were heard, and the County of Hainaut.

The finding of the lost child

In 1491, an eight-year-old girl was thrown into a cistern by a maid who hated her. Her father, having exhausted all options, asked Waltrude to help him find his daughter dead or alive. Four days later, she was found malnourished but alive. Recognized as a miracle by the canonesses, the girl was educated under the guidance and expense of their chapter.

The freeing of the prisoners

In the sixteenth century, four brewers were arrested and unjustly charged for a capital offense without any evidence being established. The four men escaped the prison, but instead of running to the hills, they sought shelter in the collegiate church in Mons still in chains. Asking for Waltrude's intercession, the manacles loosened, and the miracle was justification for their innocence.

The healing of the woman

Again in the sixteenth century, in 1512, a sickly woman made pilgrimage to the collegiate church in Mons to ask for healing of her leg that was covered in ulcers. No medicine seemed to work. Her leg was washed with holy water, and she was told to touch one of the treasures of the church, the Blessed Affiquet, a mysterious blue gemstone with the Three Persons of the Trinity carved into it. The sickness disappeared and would never appear again.

The saving of the two cities

Later that century, in 1574, a fire broke out in Mons and began spreading into other neighborhoods of the city. In desperation, the canonesses plunged one of Waltrude's relics into the well from which water was being drawn. The fire was brought under control and extinguished.

In 1620, Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, marched through what is now northern Belgium to lay waist to the French- and Dutch-speaking Spanish loyalists. He began a siege of the city of Herentals outside Antwerp. In the city is a church dedicated to Waltrude because the canonesses of Mons inherited that surrounding land from Waltrude's many estates as Countess of Hainaut. Frightened and desperate, the people of Herentals made a procession around the city walls, holding aloft an icon of Waltrude in the hopes of intercession. Before long, Frederick Henry called off the siege.