SAINT FEAST DAY FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY Saints celebrated on the 1st of May WELCOME! ST BERTHA OF AVENAY, ABBESS AND MARTYR The name Bertha (Berta) is derived from the Old German  bercht, brecht, bert etc., meaning shiny, splendid.  Saint Bertha, a martyr and abbess of Avenay (Aveniacum) in the diocese of Rheims, was descended from a noble family. Married to  St Gumbert (April 29), she obtained her husband's consent to join the monastic life. She then built the aforementioned monastery of Avenay. Following an apparition of the Blessed Virgin, she received many nuns there. Once, when Bertha was silently praying for water for her monastery, St Peter appeared to her and showed her a place where there was a spring, which then began to flow into the monastery in a running stream (ex quo fonte mox rivus egressus secutus est eam ad coenobium remeantem).  Finally, towards the end of the 7th century, she was killed by her stepsons - for what reason is not specified, perhaps in ...

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY Saints celebrated on the 4th of July WELCOME! ST BERTHA, ABBESS   (Saint Bertha [Berta], Widow, Abbess of Blangy in Artois.) She was daughter of count Rigobert and Ursana, related to one of the kings of Kent in England.  In the twentieth year of her age she was married to Sigefroi, by whom she had five daughters, two of whom, Gertrude and Deotila were saints.  SHE TOOK THE VEIL After her husband’s death, she put on the veil in the nunnery which she had built at Blangy in Artois, a little distance from Hesdin. Her daughters Gertrude and Deotila followed her example.  She was persecuted by Roger or Rotgar, who endeavoured to asperse her with king Thierri III to revenge his being refused Gertrude in marriage. But this prince, convinced of the innocence of Bertha, then abbess over her nunnery, gave her a kind reception, and took her under his protection.  THREE CHURCHES On her return to Blangy, Bertha finished her nunnery, and ca...