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St. Bertha of Blangy

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Saints and feasts

St. Bertha of Blangy

Widow and Abbess

Bertha of Blangy was a wife and mother who founded a monastery after her husband’s death. Two of her daughters joined her, and she later withdrew from government to a life of prayer.

Sources

The life below remains the existing Butler-based reading, with its edition citation. The profile preserves the feast date and source title already listed in the library. Additional personal dates and historical details are shown only when separately documented.

Butler sourceAlban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume VII, R. Coyne, Dublin, 1833; July 4, “Saint Bertha, Widow, Abbess of Blangy in Artois,” p. 17.

The reading

ⓘ Butler source

Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints, Volume VII, R. Coyne, Dublin, 1833; July 4, “Saint Bertha, Widow, Abbess of Blangy in Artois,” p. 17.

Bertha was married to Sigefroi and became the mother of five daughters. After his death she entered the monastery she had founded at Blangy in Artois. Her daughters Gertrude and Deotila followed her into religious life.

Butler recounts a dispute in which a rejected suitor accused her before the king. The accusation did not prevail. Returning to Blangy, Bertha completed the community’s buildings and established its religious observance. Her responsibilities as foundress continued the care for others that had already marked her family life.

In time she entrusted the government of the monastery to Deotila and withdrew to spend her remaining years chiefly in prayer. Butler places her death around 725 and records her July 4 remembrance. Bertha’s daughter Gertrude belongs to this family at Blangy and is not Gertrude of Nivelles or Gertrude the Great.

Historical note

An original Novena Regina reading adapted and summarized from the cited pre-1962 Butler edition. This is not a transcription of Butler’s words.

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