Clovis I

Clovis, king of the Franks, was a pagan married to a Christian, Clotilda, who urged him to accept her faith. The account is Gregory of Tours’ History of the Franks, in the translation of Ernest Brehaut (1916). During a battle against the Alamanni, when his army was near to breaking, Gregory records that Clovis called on the God of his wife.

who art said to give aid to those in distress, and to bestow victory on those who hope in thee, I beseech the glory of thy aid, with the vow that if thou wilt grant me victory over these enemies, and I shall know that power which she says that people dedicated in thy name have had from thee, I will believe in thee and be baptized in thy name.Clovis, in Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks II.30 (tr. Ernest Brehaut, 1916)

The Alamanni were defeated. Clotilda then summoned Remi, bishop of Rheims, who instructed the king and prepared him for baptism. At the font, Gregory reports, the bishop addressed him.

And the king was the first to ask to be baptized by the bishop. Another Constantine advanced to the baptismal font … And when he entered to be baptized, the saint of God began with ready speech: “Gently bend your neck, Sigamber; worship what you burned; burn what you worshipped.”Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks II.31 (tr. Brehaut, 1916)

Alone among the Germanic kings of his time — most of whom had adopted Arian Christianity — Clovis became a Catholic, binding the Franks to the Roman Church. He died in 511.