St. Bertha of Artois, Noble-Woman, Mother and Abbess, 644-725 A.D.)
St. Bertha was the daughter of Count Rigobert and Ursana. Her father was the Mayor of the Palace under King Clovis II of France and her mother was the daughter of the king of Kent (England). In fact, her parents named her after St. Bertha of Kent (+ 612), who was the first Christian Queen of England and a Frankish Princess. That ancestral St. Bertha had married a pagan king, Ethelbert of Kent. Crossing the English channel, she had brought her chaplain with her to court. It was on account of her influence that King Ethelbert welcomed St. Augustine of Canterbury to Kent in 596 AD. Pope St. Gregory the Great had sent Benedictine monks to England with the mission of converting the fair-haired Anglo-Saxons ("angels") to the True Faith. St. Augustine lead this group. He established the See of Canterbury, became England's first bishop, and is known as the Apostle to the Anglo-Saxons.
WIFE AND MOTHER
When Bertha of Artois was twenty years old, her father married her to Siegrfid, a relative of the king. The pious couple lived an exemplary marriage and served God generously. Bertha bore Siegfrid five daughters. Two of them, Getrude and Deotila, became nuns and were canonized. However, a lord named Rotgar had wished to marry Gertrude. Bertha knew this was not how her daughter might best serve God. She also knew that despite his wealth and power, Rotgar was not a God-fearing man. Thus she persuaded Siegfrid to turn down the suitor and she preserved her daughter's holy vocation.
The saintly couple used many of their resources for the glory of God. For example, they built a monastery for women at Blangy in Artois, a little distance from where they lived. Twice Bertha had tried to have this building built, but both times it had collapsed. An angel then appeared to her and guided her to another spot. This is where the monastery was ultimately built and withstood the test of time. (Some records indicate that the monastery was sacked and razed by Normans in the 11th century, but it was rebuilt and transferred to the Benedictine Order.)
ABBESS AND RECLUSE
After twenty years of marriage, Siegfrid passed away. Bertha had always sought the consecrated life. Now she had the opportunity to don the veil and even request admittance from the very convent she had helped build. Shortly thereafter, Deotila and Gertrude followed their mother's example. Rotgar however sought vengeance upon Bertha for his injured pride. It mattered little to him that she had left behind the vanities of the world and become a bride of Christ. He calumniated and denounced Bertha at court before King Thierry III. Although Bertha had already been elected abbess, the king called for her to stand trial before the terrible accusations. Yet King Thierry was greatly edified by her modest behavior and charitable speech. He found her indubitably innocent. He then gave her his protection and support and returned her to her convent.
St. Bertha helped build three other churches in Normandy: one in honor of St. Omer, another of St. Vaast, and a third dedicated to St. Martin of Tours. She also helped establish a regular observance in her community. Seeing her service to the monastery was complete, she left her daughter, St. Deotila, as abbess and shut herself up in a cell which shared a wall with the monastery chapel. There, hidden and content, she passed the remainder of her days in mortification and continual prayer. All her life she had yearned to live as a recluse, alone with God, and at last she had been granted this holy desire.
St. Bertha died of natural causes at the age of seventy-nine on 4 July 725 AD. A great part of her relics are kept at Blangy (known today as Blangy-sur-Ternoise, a hamlet with a population under one thousand).