Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 1.djvu/133

119 ST. BERTHA 119 Eoger "the rebel to God/' saw and heard them all ainging the prayers and psalms. Before the altar, in a free space within ten paces of him, stood the girl all these soldiers had come to carry ofil Bertha said, <* Behold, the servant and spouse of Christ is present, yeiled by the holy bishops, and solemnly devoted at the altar where she stands I If yon dare to take her away from the Lord, take her : we women can offer no resistance, bnt God will avenge ns I " Boger did not dare to take Gertrude, bnt went away in a rage, and vowed veDgeance on Bertha. He immediately went to the king, and accused the Countess Bertha of treasonable correspondence with the English. King Thierry summoned Bertha to answer the charge. She went without fear, trusting in her integrity. Boger came to meet her, under pretence of doing her honour, but really to oast a slight upon her by contriving that she should ride to the palace on a miserable horse, without the usual trappings. Badulph, however, of pious memory, met the venerable abbess thus unworthily mounted, and at once exchanged horses with her, at the same time reproaching Boger for his disrespect. The king was soon convinced of the innocence of Bertha, and sent her home in peace with a guard of honour. On her return she enlarged and beautified her convent and built ten churche8,eightin honour of St. Martin, the other two in honour of St. Audomar and St. Yedast respectively. Then wishing to retire from the government of the house and to devote the remainder of her life to prayer, she promoted Deotila to the office of abbess instead of Gertrude, because of the trouble and scandal Boger had caused on her account, and had a cell built in the church, where she passed all her time; she had a little window near the altar. Her two daughters and the sixty nuns came to her every day to be refreshed with spiritual advice and instruction. Her two youngest daughters, Gesa and Gesta, died young. Emma, her third daughter, was given in marriage by Thierry, kiug of France, to Waraclinus, a king of the Anglo-Saxons. St. Bertha, hearing of his croeltj and infidelity to her daughter, invited her to visit her at Blangy. Emma setoffwithherhusband'sconsent. During the voyage, she was seized with fever and died. When Bertha heard of it, she ordered every thing to be prepared for a funeral befitting her daughter's rank, and went to meet the corpse. "Alas, my beloved daughter," she said, " I see your face, but you are not able to see me." Hereupon Emma opened her eyes and looked at her mother. Bertha had her taken into the convent and buried with all honour. St. Bertha died at the age of sixty- nine, about the year 725 or 735. At the moment of her death three men, in shining raiment, were seen standing by to take her soul to heaven. Deotila ruled the convent with her mother for twenty-nine years, and was sole abbess for some time. Gertrude succeeded her. In 805, during an invasion of the Normans, the nuns fled from Blangy to the monastery of Estrees at Strasburg. They took with them, as their most sacred treasures, the bodies of the sainted founder and her two daughters, Gertrude and Deotila. They brought them back on their return to Blangy, many years afterwards. SoUer says the Life of St. Bertha is by an anonymous author of tthe 10th or 11th century, and that it is well established that she was worshipped directly after her death. Her marriage and her foundations are facts, but the story of Boger cannot be traced to any contemporary source, and is attributed by BaiUet to an author " de mauvaise foi etfort ignorant** Bouquet, Becueil, iii. 621. J. B. Seller, in AA.SS.yirom MS. Acta pre- served in her monastery. BaiUet, Ftet. Butler, Lives, Mabillon, AA.SS., O.S.B., saBC. ii. Duchesne, Script. Franc, L 605. Her name occurs in the Auctaria to Usuard, July 4. St. Bertha (4) of Bingen, May 15. Jc. 808. She was the daughter of a hristian prince of Lotharingia, and married Bobold, a heathen duke of Bingen. She was soon left a widow with a son Bupert, three years old, from whom the Bupertsberg took its name. Bertha retired from her castle, and