BERCHARIUS, ST.

B. Aquitaine; d. 685 or 696. Bercharius was educated perhaps at Reims and then entered the Benedictine Abbey of Luxueil, possibly during the abbacy of Waldebert (629–670). Nivard, bishop of Reims, asked his help for the foundation of Hautvillers, making him its first abbot. He built churches in honor of St. Peter and of the Virgin Mary and founded two monasteries in the forest of Der, one for women, Puellemontier, and one for men, the more famous Montier-en-Der, where he was buried. The Vita states that Bercharius died of wounds inflicted by a monk, Daguinus, whom he had been moved to correct. His cult began soon after his death and is well attested in the ninth and tenth centuries.

Feast: Oct. 16.

Bibliography: w. levison, "Die Merowingerdiplome für Montier-en-Der," Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde (Hanover 1876–1936) 33 (1908) 757. Vita Bercharii, j. mabillon, Acta sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti (Venice 1733–40) 2:797–826, late-tenth-century life by adso, Abbot of Montier-en-Der. Vita Nivardi, Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 5:164–168, foundation of Hautvillers. m. manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters (Munich 1911–31) 2:432–442. e. de moreau, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 8:343–344. j. van hecke, Preface to Vita in Acta Sanctorum Oct. 7.2: 986–1010. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 4:128–129.

[v. i. j. flint]