<P> Clovis is also significant due to his conversion to Christianity in 496 , largely at the behest of his wife , Clotilde , who would later be venerated as a saint for this act , celebrated today in both the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church . Clovis was baptized on Christmas Day in 508 . The adoption by Clovis of Catholicism ( as opposed to the Arianism of most other Germanic tribes ) led to widespread conversion among the Frankish peoples , to religious unification across what is now modern - day France , Belgium and Germany , and three centuries later to Charlemagne 's alliance with the Bishop of Rome and in the middle of the 10th century under Otto I the Great to the consequent birth of the early Holy Roman Empire . </P>
what led to the conversion of the franks to christianity
The adoption by Clovis of Catholicism