BEGGA, ST.

Widow, patron of beguines; d. Andenne, Dec. 17,693. She was the daughter of Pepin of Landen and St. iduberga, and the older sister of St. Gertrude of Nivelles. Begga married the nobleman Ansegis and was the mother of pepin the short. After becoming a widow, she founded (in 691–692) a convent at Andenne, near Namur, Belgium. The first nuns came from Nivelles and introduced Irish monastic customs. Begga's remains are preserved at Andenne; her vita was written in the late eleventh century. She is invoked for the cure of hernias and of infants' diseases. Although she has been the patroness of the Beguines since the fourteenth century, she was not their foundress.

Feast: Dec. 17.

Bibliography: Sources. j. g. de ryckel, Vita S. Beggae (Louvain 1631). p. smet, Acta Sanctorum Belgii selecta, ed. j. ghesquiÈre et al., 6 v. (Brussels 1783–94) 5:70–125. Literature. l. van der essen, Étude critique et littéraire sur les Vitae des saints mérovingiens (Louvain 1907) 182–186. f. baix, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 7:441–448. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 4:579. j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienhereux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes (Paris 1935–56) 12:504–505. É. brouette, "Le Plus ancien MS de la Vita Beggae, " Scriptorium 16 (1962) 81–84. h. platelle, Bibliotheca sanctorum 2:1077–78.

[É. brouette]