Bertin

The Lives Of The Saints: Volume 10, September · S. Bertin .

S. Bertin .

7i

*-

*

Then he reascended the episcopal throne, and lived holy to the day of his death. How far this story has been coloured up by Hincmar, who wrote more than three hundred years later, is matter of conjecture.

S.a B E R T I N, AB.

(about a.d. 709.)

[Roman, Benedictine, and Gallican Martyrologies. Sarum, York, and Hereford Kalendars. Usuardus, Ado, Florus. Authorities A Life written by the author of the lives of S. Omer and S. Winnoc, towards the close of the 8th or beginning of the 9th cent., apparently quite trustworthy. Another Life, by another anonymous writer, somewhat later. A third Life, in metre, of much the same date ; a fourth by Foleard, the monk, in the nth cent. ; a fifth by the abbot Simon, a.d. 1136 ; a sixth written in the 13th cent. It is unnecessary to mention later ones. The first three Lives are the only ones to be relied upon as good authorities.]

S. Bertin was born on the shores of the blue lake of Constance, between a.d. 608 and a.d. 610. At an early age he went, in company with two friends, Mummolin and Ebertram, to Luxeuil, where they were received by S. Eustasius.

After twenty years spent under the stern rule of S. Colum- banus, Bertin, Mummolin, and Ebertram were apparently summoned by S. Omer, the kinsman of S. Bertin, to assist him in evangelizing the land of the Morini. S. Omer had already built an oratory on a hillock where now stands the village of S. Mummolin. This hill, with its little wooden chapel, he made the head-quarters of the three missionaries. They set to work cutting down trees, and building with the rude trunks and willow wattles a mean range of buildings to serve as shelter for their heads ; and this little edifice was afterwards known as the Old Monastery.

* *

* — *

7 2 Lives of the Saints. [sept. s.

According to one account, S. Omer wished Bertin to be head of the establishment, though he was the youngest of the three, but Bertin, with equal modesty and good taste, declined the precedence over Mummolin, who was the eldest of the friends, and so Mummolin became their first abbot.

Biographical overview

Bertin (Latin: Bertinus; c. 615 – c. 709 AD), also known as Saint Bertin the Great, was the Frankish abbot of a monastery in Saint-Omer later named the Abbey of Saint Bertin after him. He is venerated as a saint by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The fame of Bertin's learning and sanctity was so great that in a short time more than 150 monks lived under his rule. Among them were St. Winnoc and his three companions who had come from Brittany to join Bertin's community and assist in the conversions. Nearly the whole Morini region was Christianized.

Martyrologium Romanum · Latin witness

In pago Tarvanensi, monasterio Sithinensi, in Gallia, sancti Bertini Abbatis.

The Lives Of The Saints: Volume 10, September · S. Bertin .

7i

*-

*

Then he reascended the episcopal throne, and lived holy to the day of his death. How far this story has been coloured up by Hincmar, who wrote more than three hundred years later, is matter of conjecture.

S.a B E R T I N, AB.

(about a.d. 709.)

[Roman, Benedictine, and Gallican Martyrologies. Sarum, York, and Hereford Kalendars. Usuardus, Ado, Florus. Authorities A Life written by the author of the lives of S. Omer and S. Winnoc, towards the close of the 8th or beginning of the 9th cent., apparently quite trustworthy. Another Life, by another anonymous writer, somewhat later. A third Life, in metre, of much the same date ; a fourth by Foleard, the monk, in the nth cent. ; a fifth by the abbot Simon, a.d. 1136 ; a sixth written in the 13th cent. It is unnecessary to mention later ones. The first three Lives are the only ones to be relied upon as good authorities.]

S. Bertin was born on the shores of the blue lake of Constance, between a.d. 608 and a.d. 610. At an early age he went, in company with two friends, Mummolin and Ebertram, to Luxeuil, where they were received by S. Eustasius.

After twenty years spent under the stern rule of S. Colum- banus, Bertin, Mummolin, and Ebertram were apparently summoned by S. Omer, the kinsman of S. Bertin, to assist him in evangelizing the land of the Morini. S. Omer had already built an oratory on a hillock where now stands the village of S. Mummolin. This hill, with its little wooden chapel, he made the head-quarters of the three missionaries. They set to work cutting down trees, and building with the rude trunks and willow wattles a mean range of buildings to serve as shelter for their heads ; and this little edifice was afterwards known as the Old Monastery.

* *

* — *

7 2 Lives of the Saints. [sept. s.

According to one account, S. Omer wished Bertin to be head of the establishment, though he was the youngest of the three, but Bertin, with equal modesty and good taste, declined the precedence over Mummolin, who was the eldest of the friends, and so Mummolin became their first abbot.