Bertha of Artois

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Saint Bertha of Artois
Abess of Blangy in Artois
Born	unknown
Died	c. 725, Blangy-sur-Ternoise, Pas-de-Calais, France
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Feast	July 4
Patronage	widows
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Saint Bertha of Artois was the daughter of Rigobert, Count of the Palace under Clovis II, and married Siegfried, a relation of the king. After twenty years and five daughters, he died, and she became determined to establish a convent, at Blangy, Artois (now Blangy-sur-Ternoise). Little is confident about her history, as all sources are from much later.

[edit] Hagiography

Two buildings which she constructed fell down, but an angel in a vision guided her to another spot, and there after many difficulties a nunnery was built, which she entered with her two elder daughters, Deotila and Gertrude.

A still later legend represents Gertrude as much persecuted by the attentions of a great noble, Roger, who wished to marry her by force, but she was saved from his violence by her mother's firm courage and trust in God. Some time before her death Bertha is said to have resigned her office of abbess and to have shut herself up in a little cell built against the church wall. But the whole story of Bertha, as her biographers agree, is of very late date and historically worthless.

Her feast is kept on the 4 July. (See "Ste. Berthe et son Abbaye de Blangy", Lille, 1892).