AUSTREBERTA, ST.

Benedictine abbess; b. Thérouanne, Artois, France c. 635; d. Abbey of Pavilly, Normandy, France, Feb. 10, 704. Her father, Badefridus, was apparently a member of the Merovingian royal family; her mother, Framehilda (d. c. 680), of German royal blood, was later honored as a saint and had a feast celebrated on May 17 at the Abbey of Sainte-Austreberta at Montreuil-sur-Mer. While Austreberta (Eustreberta) was still a young girl, her parents contracted her marriage, but she secretly took the veil in 655–656 under the spiritual direction of Omer, Bishop of Thérouanne. Shortly thereafter, with parental permission, she entered the abbey of Port-le-Grand in Ponthieu. She was prioress there for 14 years until Philibert, founder of Jumièges, persuaded her to become abbess of his foundation at Pavilly. Her relics were transferred to Montreuil-sur-Mer in the ninth century and were venerated also at the cathedral of Saint-Omer, but they were burned in 1793.

Feast: Feb. 10.

Bibliography: j. mabillon, Acta sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti (Venice 1733–40) 3:23–38. Bibliotheca hagiograpica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis (Brussels 1898–1901) 1:831–838. l. van der essen, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 5:790–792. Analecta Bollandiana 54 (1936) 9. a. m. zimmermann, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 1:1122. a. m. zimmermann, Kalendarium Benedictinum (Metten 1933–38) 1:194–197. r. aigrain, Catholicisme 1:1077–78.

[p. blecker]