BERTINUS, ST.

Benedictine abbot; b. Orval near Coutances, France, c. 615; d. Sithiu, France, Sept. 5, c. 709. Like his mentor, St. omer of thÉrouanne, Bertinus came from Normandy and was trained at Luxeuil. Omer called him to Morinia (modern Pas-de-Calais), which was still only semiconverted. There he succeeded Momelin as abbot of SS. Peter and Paul on the island of Sithiu, when Momelin was elevated to the episcopal see of Noyon-Tournai in 660. At that time the abbey on Sithiu (later called Saint-Bertin) and the church of Sainte-Marie on the hill were under the same abbot. Bertinus wisely administered the temporal domain of the monastery, and an exchange of property with Momelin is recorded. During his tenure four men came from Armorica (Brittany), asking to be received as monks: Quadanoc, Ingenoc, Madoc, and St. Winnoc. Bertinus accepted them and built for them a cella, or small monastery, at Wormhout, on property he had received from a Flemish noble, Heremarus. When Bertinus began to fail, he called upon Rigobert to help him, and the latter built the church of Saint-Martin on Sithiu. Five years later Bertinus retired and was succeeded by Erlefrid. Almost 100 years old at the time of his death, Bertinus was buried at Saint-Bertin.

Feast: Sept. 5.

Bibliography: Acta Sanctorum Sept. 2:549–630. Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptorum rerum Merovingicarum 5:729–769. Bibliotheca hagiograpica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis (Brussels 1898–1901) 1:763, 1290–98. o. bled, "Les Reliques de saint Bertin …" Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de la Morinie 32 (1914–20) 1–112. l. van der essen, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 8:1006–07. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater (New York 1956) 3:493–494. v. redlich, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 2:269–270.

[g. coolen]