Berthild of Chelles
Saint Berthild, also known Bertille or Bertilla, (d. 692) was abbess of Chelles Abbey.
Life
Berthild was born into one of the most illustrious families in the territory of Soissons, France during the reign of Dagobert I.[1]
She entered the nunnery of Jouarre in Brie, not far from Meaux, founded in 630 by Ado, the elder brother of Saint Ouen, who had taken the monastic habit there. Berthild was educated by Saint Thelchildis or Theodechilde, the first abbess of Jouarre, who governed there until 660.
When Saint Bathildis, the wife of Clovis II, founded the abbey of Chelles, which Saint Clotildis had first instituted near the Marne, she asked Saint Thelchildis to set up a new community there with the most experienced and virtuous nuns of Jouarre to direct the novices in the monastic order. Berthild was appointed first abbess of Chelles in 646.
Berthild was known for her devotion to self-denial. She "was ambitious of martyrdom, but as no persecutors were forthcoming, she martyred herself with austerities."[2] (Dunbar, Saintly Women, 121).
Saint Berthild's reputation drew several foreign princesses to the abbey. Among them was Queen Bathildis. After the death of her husband in 655, was left regent of the kingdom during the minority of her son Clotaire III, but as soon as he was of age to govern in 665, she retired to Chelles Abbey. Saint Berthild died in 692 after governing the nunnery for forty-six years.
Notes and references
- ^ In his seminal work, The Lives of Saints, Alban Butler describes the life of St. Bertille based upon a biography written shortly after her death in Mabillon, Act. Ben. t. 3. p. 21. Du Plessis, Hist. de Meaux, l. 1, n. 47, 48, 50.
- ^ Dubar, Agnes Baillie Cunninghame (1904–1905). A Dictionary of Saintly Women: In Two Volumes. George Bell and Sons. p. 121.
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Bibliography
- Butler, Reverend Alban (1866). The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints. Compiled from Original Monuments and Authentic Records by the Rev. Alban Butler, in Twelve Volumes. Dublin: James Duffy. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
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