Berta von Bingen

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St. Berta, Litho around 1860, based on an illustration from 1524

Saint Bertha von Bingen , often also Bertha von Bingen (* 7th century; † 8th century) is a saint of the Catholic Church and the mother of Saint Rupert von Bingen . Her feast day is November 28th.

Vita and admiration

The veneration of St. Berta is traditional because of her old age and her only regional importance. Only St. Hildegard von Bingen († 1179) tells us something about her and her son Rupert in her “Vita Sancti Ruperti” .

According to this, Berta was born as a Christian prince's daughter in the 7th century and came from Lorraine , where her father was a “great prince” , but her mother had come “from far away countries” .

When she had reached "her manly year" , she married the pagan prince Robolaus and lived with him in his castle on the unspecified mountain "Lubun" near Bingen . With her husband, whose property is said to have extended almost as far as the city of Mainz , she initially had a good marriage, but then he “hung on to other women” and broke his marital fidelity, which Berta suffered greatly from. Robolaus was killed in a battle against Christians, and Berta and her three-year-old son Rupert moved their residence to the left bank of the Nahe, not far from the mouth of the Rhine, on today's Rupertsberg . With the help of Priest Wigbert, who is also venerated as a saint, she raised her son Rupert with great piety. She herself remained a widow for the rest of her life, built a church on the Rupertsberg and devoted herself to prayer and charitable works. Concerning this, St. Hildegard reports: “There she built a church, threw off the precious clothes, no longer paid attention to the wealth and nobility of her family, but dressed in coarse cloth and robe, girded herself with a belt and served there God, in a pure and chaste widowhood. She also gathered other pious people to her place and castigated her body with much fasting and vigilance. With almsgiving and prayer she set a good example for her son Rupert and strengthened him in goodness, for she was concerned that he would not be drawn from friendship to the world of vanity. "

At the age of fifteen Rupert made a pilgrimage to Rome and on his return had churches and houses built on his lands for the needy. He died at the age of 20 (around 732) of a febrile illness and at that time already had a reputation for holiness. Berta survived him by 25 years. Both were buried on the Rupertsberg, in the little church they had built there. The place became a local pilgrimage site. In the “Vita Sancti Ruperti” it says about it: “After the blessed farewell of her son, the blessed widow Bertha led a holy, penitent life and she gave everything she had for God's service at the grave of her son and handed over the They performed worship there, all necessary things and food, because after the death of their son she did good in fasting, giving alms and prayer for the love of God and endured great work for the 25th year that she was still alive. Then she fell ill and gave up her soul to God, to whom she was always attached, and was buried in the grave of her son. "

The Holy Sepulcher of St. Rupert and his mother still stood at the time of St. Hildegard. She founded a monastery there around 1151. In her own words she writes: “... which church stood until our time, which we also saw with our eyes when we came to this place, there were also quite a few vineyards that belonged to the church, which we bought from Herr Hermanno, Bishop of Hildesheim. "

By writing the Vita, St. Hildegard revived the cult of Berta and Rupert. In 1632 the monastery was destroyed and the relics of both saints came to Eibingen. The head of Saint Berta is currently being kept in the parish church "Saint Hildegard and St. John the Baptist" in Eibingen near Rüdesheim am Rhein in a glass reliquary in the southern part of the nave. It belongs to the " Eibinger reliquary treasure " compiled by Hildegard von Bingen . The rest of Berta's bones returned to Bingen in 1814 at the instigation of Bishop Joseph Ludwig Colmar and are still in the chapel on the Rochusberg today . The veneration of St. Berta, which was always overshadowed by her better-known son, was part of the regional tradition until the middle of the 20th century.

Varia

During the First World War , the rather rare name Berta once again achieved great popularity, as a result of the 42 cm cannon built by Krupp , which bore the popular name “ Big Bertha ”. This is said to have been derived from the first name of the company's boss Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (1886–1957).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
  2. ↑ Source on the transfer of relics in 1814
personal data
SURNAME Berta von Bingen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mother of St. Rupert von Bingen
DATE OF BIRTH 7th century
DATE OF DEATH 8th century