Bertha of Val d'Or
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- See also: Bertha of Kent
| Saint Bertha of Val d'Or | |
|---|---|
| Born | unknown, France |
| Died | 690, France |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Feast | 1 May |
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Saint Bertha, Abbess of Val d'Or, near Avenay, Reims, d. c. 690.
Bertha was wife of St. Gumbert, Lord of Champenois, a nobleman of royal blood. Gumbert built a nunnery for his wife and her maidens at Avenay, and retired himself to a monastery on the coast, where he was soon afterwards put to death by pagan marauders.
When the people of Avenay suffered from a lack of water, St. Peter appeared to Bertha and showed her a field where there was a good spring. This she bought for a pound of silver. It became a holy well which cured diseases and supplied both her own nuns and the hamlet of Avenay with water. Bertha was martyred by Gumbert's relatives, who were indignant at the distribution of his money to the poor.
Whether the abbey founded at Avenay followed the Benedictine Rule or the [[Columban Rule], does not seem certain even to her main biographer. The whole legend, in fact, is very late and unreliable. St. Bertha's feast is on the 1 May.
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- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
