ST AMALBERGA OF MAUBEUGE, WIDOW

ST AMALBERGA OF MAUBEUGE, WIDOW - 10 JULY

SAINT AMALBERGA OF MAUBEUGE, WIDOW

Saint Amalberga of Maubeuge

The name Amalberga is derived from the Old High German = the Immaculate One, guardian of virtue. (According to Wachter, it contains mal = blemish; Amala = without blemish, and bergen = to protect, preserve, defend).

Saint Amalberga was a widow and nun venerated at Lobbe Abbey in the Netherlands. Of aristocratic stock, she was the closest relative, if not the sister, of Pepin the Elder of Landen. The Bollandists* write that Amalberga was married against her will to Witgar, Duke of Lorraine, and that she bore him three children: Saint Ablebert (Emebert) - who later became Bishop of Cambrai and Arras -, Saint Reineldis, and Saint Gudila (Gudula). Other hagiographers mention five children of hers, adding two daughters, Saint Pharaild and Saint Ermelind. When she was pregnant with Saint Gudila, an angel is said to have announced to her not only the sanctity of the child she hoped to bear, but also her decision that she and her husband would leave the world and withdraw to a convent. By mutual agreement, the couple separated and chose religious life. Amalberga received the veil from the hands of Blessed Bishop Autbert of Cambrai and entered the convent at Maubeuge (Malbodium) as a nun, where she spent the rest of her life practicing piety until she was called to her eternal reward in 690 (other sources state 660 as the year of her death). Amalberga's body was later transferred to Lobbe and from there to Binghem, and has always been venerated. Church paintings depict her as a venerable matron in Benedictine robes, reading a book, with a young bishop and a pair of young sisters in the background.

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 1, Augsburg, 1858, p. 158)

*A hagiography source used by the authors

Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Amalberga may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Sources of these articles (in the original German): books.google.co.uk, de-academic.com, zeno.org, openlibrary.org

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