Sigolena of Albi

{{short description|French deaconess and saint}}

{{Infobox saint

|name= Saint Sigolena of Albi

|birth_date= 7th or 8th century

|death_date= 769{{Cite web|url=https://www.antiochian.org/node/19106|title=St. Sigolena of France|date=|website=The Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160628190307/https://www.antiochian.org/node/19106|archive-date=28 June 2016}}

|feast_day= 24 July

|venerated_in= Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church

|image= File:Cathédrale Sainte-Cécile d'Albi, Albi, Midi-Pyrénées, France - panoramio (8).jpg

|imagesize=

|caption= Statue of St Sigolena the Deaconess (upper) on the South Portal of Albi Cathedral

|birth_place=

|death_place= Monastery of Troclar, France{{Cite web|url=https://www.edy.com.mx/2020/07/fiesta-santa-sigolena-de-albi-24-de-julio/|title=Fiesta Santa Sigolena de Albi 24 de Julio|date=July 24, 2020|website=El Rincón de Edy}}

|titles= Abbess of Troclar, Deaconess

|beatified_date=

|beatified_place=

|beatified_by=

|canonized_date=

|canonized_place=

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|attributes= Crosier

|patronage= Albi, France

|major_shrine= Albi Cathedral

|suppressed_date=

|issues=

}}

Saint Sigolena of Albi (fl. 7-8th. c.) was an Albigensian{{efn|In this period, an Albigensian refers solely to one from the city of Albi. The heresy of Albigensianism would not arise until the 12th century.}}{{Cite web|url=https://albi.catholique.fr/liturgie-art-et-culture/histoire-du-diocese/saints-du-diocese/sainte-sigolene/|title=Sainte Sigolène}} deaconess{{cite book|last1=Wemple|first1=Suzanne Fonay|title=Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the Cloister, 500 to 900|date=1985|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Philadelphia|isbn=978-0-8122-1209-9|pages=142, 151|edition=3rd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hNgzAW0YVxEC&q=Sigolena%20of%20Albi&pg=PA151}} and saint from Albi, France.

Sigolena was born into a noble family of Aquitaine.{{cite book|last1=Dunbar|first1=Agnes Baillie Cunninghame|title=A Dictionary of Saintly Women, Volume 2|date=1905|publisher=Bell|page=[https://archive.org/details/adictionarysain00dunbgoog/page/n236 224]|url=https://archive.org/details/adictionarysain00dunbgoog|quote=Sigolena of Albi.|chapter=St. Sigolena}}

Upon her marriage to Gislulf at the age of 12,{{Cite web|url=http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E06494|title=The Latin Life of *Segolena (abbess of Troclar, 7th c., S02435) records her life, death and miracles. Written possibly at Albi or Troclar (both south-west Gaul), 642/c.700.|date=2021|website=The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity|publisher=University of Oxford|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240503180934/http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E06494|archive-date=3 May 2024}} she offered her husband all of her possessions to "gain the freedom of her body". Her husband granted her desire for a Josephite marriage and encouraged her piety and charity. After ten years of marriage her husband died unexpectedly. At age 24, she had difficulties convincing her parents she did not wish to remarry. After being consecrated by the city's bishop as a deaconess, she was eventually able to persuade her father to build her a convent on his own land.

She was initially buried at Insula.

Her church in Metz was situated near that of Saint Ferreolus of Besançon.{{cite book|last1=Claussen|first1=M.A.|title=The Reform of the Frankish Church: Chrodegang of Metz and the Regula Canonicorum in the Eighth Century|date=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-521-83931-0|pages=211|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zow7ub1TVIsC&q=Sigolena%20of%20Albi&pg=PA211}} Sigolena's biography was written by an anonymous author.{{cite book|last=York|first=Laura|editor1-last=Commire|editor1-first=Anne|title=Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia|date=2002|publisher=Yorkin Publications|location=Waterford, Connecticut|isbn=0-7876-4074-3 |chapter=Sigolena of Albi (fl. 7th c.)}}