Also known as
- Ergoule
- Goedele
- Goelen
- Gould
- Goule
- Gudula
- 8 January
- 19 January in the diocese of Hamme and Moorsel
Profile
Daughter of Count Witger and Saint Amalburga; great-niece of Emperor Pepin; sister of Saint Pharaildis of Ghent, Saint Reineldis, and Saint Emebert of Cambrai. Niece and student of Saint Gertrude of Nivelle, who trained her in the religious life. The girl then returned to live at the family castle at Hamme.
Pious and devoted, she lived for her prayers and time in church. During her early morning visits to the church in Moorsel, Belgium the devil extinguished her candle, which would miraculously re-ignite. The flower called tremella deliquescens, bears fruit in the beginning of January; it’s known as “Sinte Goulds lampken” (Saint Gudula’s lantern) because not even the winter can extinguish it.
Born
- 7th century in Hamme, Brabant (in modern Belgium)
- 8 January 712 at Hamme, Brabant (Belgium) of natural causes
- buried in front of the church door in her hometown of Hamme
- relics translated to Moorsel, Belgium
- relics translated to the church of Saint Gery in Brussels in 978
- relics translated to the collegiate church of Saint Michel (later Sainte Gudule) in Brussels in 1047
- relics destroyed by Calvinists on 6 June 1579
- woman holding a candle, lamp, lantern or torch which a demon is trying to blow out, sometimes with a bellows
Additional Information
- Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
- Heiligen 3s
- Kirken i Norge
- Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler
- Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
- Santi e Beati
MLA Citation
- “Saint Gudule of Brussels“. Saints.SQPN.com. 8 January 2013. Web. 21 May 2013. <>