The Catholic Encyclopedia describes the Franks as "a confederation formed in Western Germany of a certain number of ancient barbarian tribes who occupied the right shore of the Rhine from Mainz to the sea." Detailed article from the Catholic Encyclopedia, with cross references. (
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06238a.htm
)
From the Medieval Internet Sourcebook. Vast list of resources on gender, sex, and family issues. (
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1v.html#Women's%20Roles
)
"The ten holy women whose biographies are presented here represent a wide variety of Byzantine female saints: nuns who disguised themselves in male monastic garb; a repentant harlot who withdrew to the desert for forty-seven years of self-imposed isolation; a nun who escaped from Arab captivity to spend thirty-five years as a hermit on the abandoned island of Paros; a wonder working abbess who slew a dragon; widows who found refuge in the ascetic life of the convent; married laywomen and a queen abused by their husbands." Edited by Alice-Mary Talbot (
http://www.doaks.org/ATHW.html
)