St. Cloud

St. Cloud (c. 522 – c. 560), whose Frankish name was Chlodoald, was a grandson of King Clovis I and Queen St. Clotilde and a prince of the Merovingian royal house. After his father's death, he and his two young brothers were left in the care of their grandmother, but in the ruthless dynastic intrigues of the age his uncles murdered his brothers to seize the kingdom; Cloud alone escaped and, renouncing all claim to the throne, chose to give himself wholly to God.

He placed himself under the hermit St. Severinus, cut off his royal hair as a sign of renouncing the world, and lived austerely in prayer and service to the poor. Ordained a priest, he settled at a place on the Seine near Paris — later called Saint-Cloud in his honor — where he built a monastery and ministered to the surrounding people until his death. Venerated as a saint, he became a symbol of a prince who traded an earthly crown for the service of Christ.