Saint Meinulph

Saint Meinulph, also known as Meinolf, was born around 795 in Saxony, into a Westphalian noble family. Tradition holds that Charlemagne was his godfather. He attended the cathedral school of Paderborn under Bishop Badurad and was received into the cathedral chapter.

He was ordained a deacon. The Roman Martyrology commemorates him with that title, and the Bollandists' Acta Sanctorum lists him as "Meinulphus diaconus." In 836 he was made archdeacon of Paderborn. That same year he led the Paderborn delegation that brought the relics of Saint Liborius, bishop of Le Mans, to Paderborn, and Liborius became the patron of the young diocese.

In 837 he founded a house of canonesses on his family's land at Böddeken. According to legend, a stag with a cross between its antlers showed him where to build.

He died at Böddeken on 5 October, around 857, and was buried there. When the foundation was dissolved in 1803, his relics were moved to the Busdorf church in Paderborn, where they remain. His feast is kept on 5 October.