Bertilia

{{Short description|7th-century Frankish saint}} {{About|the saint|the bug genus|Bertilia (bug)|the plant genus|Bertilia (plant)}}

{{Infobox saint |honorific_prefix=Saint |name=Bertilia |birth_date=unknown |death_date=687 |feast_day=3 January |venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church |image= |imagesize= |caption= |birth_place=France |death_place=France |titles=Virgin and martyr |beatified_date= |beatified_place= |beatified_by= |canonized_date=Pre-Congregation |canonized_place= |canonized_by= |attributes= |patronage= |major_shrine= |suppressed_date= |issues= }}

'''Bertilia''' (death 687, also known as '''Bertilla''')<ref name="dunbar-121">{{Cite book|last=Dunbar|first=Agnes B.C.|title=A Dictionary of Saintly Women|publisher=George Bell & Sons|year=1901|volume=1|location=London|page=121}}</ref> was a saint and virgin from Northern France.

Her parents were wealthy nobles. Bertilia, who was "very beautiful, gentle in speech, and modest in manner",<ref name="baringgould-52">Baring-Gould, p. 52</ref> turned "to the service of God alone"<ref>Baring-Gould, p. 51</ref> from an early age. Guthland, a young man also of noble birth, wanted to marry her, but she refused, wanting to live as a hermit instead, but her parents "urged her vehemently"<ref name="baringgould-52" /> and she agreed to marry him, anyway. She and Guthland, however, at her request, lived together in chastity, "as brother and sister",<ref name="baringgould-52" /> helping the poor and practicing hospitality.<ref name="baringgould-52" /> According to hagiographer Agnes Dunbar, "they spent their lives and fortunes in works of mercy and piety".<ref name="dunbar-121" />

After her husband's death, Bertilia gave her property to the church, but reserved on small estate in, where she built a church in honor of Amandus, with a small adjoining cell for her residence, and a monastery in Artois.<ref name="dunbar-121" /> After a long day of prayer, she returned to her cell, where she died after being seized with terrible pain. She was buried at Artois. In 1081, Gerald II, the bishop of Cambray enshrined her remains to honor her as a saint; her relics were moved again in 1221 to Mareuil, where as of the early 1900s, were venerated. Dunbar reported that those seeking healing from blindness made pilgrimages to a fountain at Marceuil.<ref name="dunbar-121" /><ref name="baringgould-52" /> Bertilia's feast day is January 3.<ref name="dunbar-121" />

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Works cited== * Baring-Gould, Sabine (1877). ''The Lives of the Saints'' (1st ed.). London: J. Hodges.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bertilia}} Category:687 deaths Category:7th-century Frankish saints Category:7th-century Frankish nuns Category:7th-century Christian nuns Category:Year of birth unknown Category:Female saints of medieval France