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 ...