Saint/s of the Day – 29 June – Saint Judith Widow, Recluse and St Salome (9th Century) Recluse both of Niederaltaich in Bavaria.
There is considerable debate regarding the identity of Judith and her companion, St Salome. They may have been cousins (or Judith the aunt of Salome) of Anglo-Saxon Royal lineage, who lived for a considerable period as Recluses under Abbot Walther (or Walker) in Oberaltaich-am-Donau. A later tradition identifies Salome as St Edburga, daughter of King Offa of Mercia, who was exiled for accidentally poisoning her husband. She was then befriended by the Bavarian widow, Judith.
Relics of both were later disinterred and buried near the Altar of St Giles. It is thought that their bodies came to Niederaltaich on the occasion of the destruction of Oberaltaich by the Hungarians.
Another source states that the two Recluses lived in Niederaltaich in about 1100. According to this version, while in the neighbourhood of Regensburg in Germany, after a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Salome became blind, in answer to prayer, asking for this affliction to escape from sinful proposals.
She lived by begging. Once she fell into the Danube and was rescued by a passing boat which took her to Passau. She was recommended to the Abbot of Niederaltaich, who had a Recluse’s cell built for her beside the Monastery Church. Here she was found by her blood relative and childhood playmate, Judith, who having been widowed young and having likewise gone to Jerusalem, had searched for Salome. With permission of the Abbot and the Chapter, Judith was then also given a cell by the Church of Niederaltaich. Both women worked as servants in the Monastery. Both died before the end of the 11th Century, Salome first. This Vita dates from the 13th or 14th Century.
It claims that both bodies were interred in a common Shrine before the Altar of St Giles although they have since been lost.
Judith and Salome were venerated in monastic martyrologies and in art but had no liturgical cult.
AnaStpaul 