Ida of Herzfeld

Saint Ida of Herzfeld (c. 770 – 4 September 825) was the widow of a Saxon duke who devoted her life to the poor following the death of her husband in 811. Her feast day is September 4. Life While there is disagreement as to her precise parentage, it is generally agreed that she was closely related to the Carolingians. Sabine Baring-Gould says she was the grand-daughter of Bernard, son of Charles Martel and his wife Gundlindis. The daughter of a count, Ida received her education at the court of Charlemagne, who gave her in marriage to a favourite lord of his court, named Egbert, and bestowed on her a great fortune in estates to recompense her father's services. It was an apparently happy marriage. Her Life is sometimes quoted in support of the proposition that sexual congress within the institution of marriage reflects spiritual unities as well: