Gisela, Abbess of Chelles

Who was Gisela, Abbess of Chelles?

Gisela was the daughter of Pepin the Short and his wife Bertrada of Laon. She was the sister of Charlemagne and Carloman. Charlemagne's biographer Einhard states that Gisela had been dedicated to religion since her childhood. She became a nun at Chelles Abbey, where she was eventually made abbess. As the abbess at Chelles Abbey, Gisela oversaw one of the most prolific nuns' scriptoria active in the 8th and 9th centuries. According to Einhard she had good relations with her brother Charlemagne, who "treated her with the same respect which he showed his mother." She died in 810 at the convent she had served for most of her life.

Charlemagne and his wife Hildegard named their daughter after Gisela. Gisela the Younger may have lived from 781 to 808, but little else is known of her life.