Queen Bertha and her daughter Queen Ethelburga of Kent who married Edwin the King of Northumbria, as his second wife. St. Martin’s Church, Canterbury
Celts to the Crèche
Day 11
November 25
St. Bertha of Kent
c539-c612
On this 11th day of our journey with the Celts to the Crèche, we meet St. Bertha, who was a Frankish princess with a devoted faith in Christ. She married the pagan Anglo-Saxon King of Kent, Æthelberht. As Queen, she was one who prepared the way for Christianity to enter Anglo-Saxon England.You may desire to continue reading more about Bertha or scroll on to the Meditation towards the end of this page.
Stained Glass of St. Bertha of Kent at St Martin’s Church, Canterbury. Photo taken by Clerk of Oxford. nobility.org.
King AEthelbert of Kent, husband of Bertha. Stained glass at All Souls College Chapel, Oxford. photo from wikimedia.org
Her early life: Bertha was a Frankish princess with quite a royal pedigree. She was the daughter of Charibert I, the Merovingian King of Paris and his 1st wife Ingoberga. She was also the great-granddaughter of Clovis, the first king of the Merovingian dynasty and his wife Clothilde who helped convert him to faith in Christ.
Bertha was born about 539 and her father Charibert died in 567, and her mother in 589. We learn about Bertha from The Venerable Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People and from the Decem Libri Historiarum of Gregory of Tours who was a contemporary witness and who may have met Bertha.
Bishop Liudhard’s picture on this coin or small medalet discovered in a late 6th c. grave near St. Martin’s Chapel in Canterbury. It was part of a hoard of gold coins/pendants. photo from en.wikipedia.org
Preparing the Way for England’s Conversion to Christianity: Bertha had been brought up near Tours, France. Her marriage to King Æthelberht of Kent was likely brokered by King Chilperic of Merovingian France who would have used the daughter of his deceased half-brother to extend his influence across the Channel.1 Her marriage was conditioned on her being allowed to practice her faith in Christ. To ensure that this stipulation was met, she brought her chaplain, Bishop Liudhard with her to England.
Bertha restored a Christian church in Canterbury which dated from the Roman occupation, dedicating it to St. Martin of Tours. It became her private chapel even before Augustine arrived from Rome. The present St. Martin’s Church of Canterbury continues in the same building. It is the oldest church in the English-speaking world and is part of the Canterbury World Heritage site.
St. Martin’s Church, Canterbury. This was St. Bertha’s private chapel and likely where her husband King AEthelbert of Kent was baptized by Augustine. It is the oldest church in the English-speaking world. photo from google.com
Pope Gregory I (the Great) and Bertha. Gregory, before he became pope, happened to see some Anglo-Saxon slaves for sale in a Roman marketplace. He asked about the race of the remarkable blond men and was told they were “Anglos.” “Not Anglos, but angels,” he was said to reply. As a result, it is said, Gregory was later inspired to send missionaries to England. Much of the favorable reception that Augustine received for his mission when he was sent by Pope Gregory I to preach the gospel to pagan Anglo-Saxon England in 597, is owed to the influence of Bertha
Pope Gregory wrote to the Eastern Church’s Patriarch of Alexandria, Eulogius, reporting that by Christmas 597, more than 10,000 English had been baptized in just a few short months. In 601, Pope Gregory addressed a letter to Bertha, in which he compliments her highly on her faith and knowledge of letters.
Bertha’s family and influence: Anglo-Saxon records indicate that Bertha and Æthelbert had two children: Eadbald who later became King of Kent and Æthelburga of Kent who married King Edwin of Deira (later part of Northumbria). King Edwin’s conversion to Christianity was linked to his marriage to Æthelburga who brought her chaplain, Paulinus with her to Northumbria. Paulinus baptized Edwin and all of his family including the young Hilda, the future St. Hilda of Whitby (see Day 2 of Celts to the Crèche) and her sister Hereswith (see day 3 of Celts to the Crèche) at the hastily built minster in York on Easter Sunday, 627 AD.
St. Bertha’s granddaughter (by her daughter Æthelburga and husband Edwin) was Eanflæd who married King Oswiu of Northumbria. Eanflæd and Oswiu’s daughter, (Bertha’s great-granddaughter) was Ælfflæd (see day 29 of Celts to the Crèche) who was given to St. Hilda to be raised first at Hartlepool Abbey and then later at Whitby Abbey. At St. Hilda’s death in 680AD, Queen Eanflæd, who was now a widow and her daughter Ælfflæd became joint Abbesses of Whitby. Ælfflæd was a good friend to St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne.
Bede wrote that Bertha’s grandson King Eorcenbert (whose father was Eadbald) destroyed all the idols in England and instituted the season of Lent into the Christian calendar in England. In 655, Eorcenbert also appointed Deusdedit as Archbishop of Canterbury, making him the first Anglo-Saxon Archbishop in England. Eorcenbert married Princess Seaxburh,(Seaxburga) the daughter of the much-loved Christian King Anna. After Eorcenbert’s death, his wife Seaxburh became the Abbess of the famous Ely Monastery (about 14 miles northeast of Cambridge University) and then their daughter Eormenhild also became the Abbess of Ely. Their other daughter Eorcengeta became a nun and later Abbess of the well-respected Faremoutiers Monastery (see day 21 of Celts to the Crèche concerning Faremoutiers) in central France where Seaxburgh’s half-sister Sæthryth was Abbess when Eorcengeta arrived. The great spiritual legacy of Bertha continued to live on long after her death.
Statue of St. Bertha at Lady Wooton’s Gardens, Kent
The Bertha Trail (Queen Bertha’s Walk) in honor of St. Bertha of Kent consists of 14 bronze plaques set in pavement that includes St. Martin’s Church, Canterbury Cathedral, and St. Augustine’s Abbey. It is about a two hour walk.
Queen Bertha’s Walk Plaque
Meditation
Feast Day May 1
Aren’t we thankful for those who prepare the way for us? Jesus had his cousin John the Baptist who walked ahead of him and prepared the way by plowing the hard hearts of the people and allowing the seeds planted by Jesus to grow, to flourish, and to come to fruition. Bertha prepared the way for Anglo-Saxon England to receive the Gospel. Who has prepared the way for you to find God, to find a mate in life, to succeed in school, to find a job or ministry?
Prayer: Thank you God for sending those ahead of us to prepare the way for us to do the work you have sent us to do. These soul preparers are a sacred and holy gift from the Spirit and we thank you. Amen.
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Footnote:
1 Higham, Anglo-Saxon England, 148.
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© Brenda G. Warren and http://www.saintsbridge.org, 2018-2029. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Brenda G. Warren and http://www.saintsbridge.org (Celts to the Creche) with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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Some Resources:
At the Edge of the World, Episode 11-Augustine arrives in Kent. January 24, 2015. Youtube. (note: This is a good video to give the background of the history of this time period. note: The narrator’s outfit is abit blingy, but definitely worthy of watching).
Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of England. Book I. Fordham University.
Bing, Harold F. St. Augustine of Canterbury and the Saxon Church in Kent. Archaeologia Cantiana, Vol. 62: 1949 .
Blair, Peter Hunter. An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England (Third ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
The Canterbury Historical and Archaelogical Society . “Queen Bertha.”
Canterbury-St. Martin’s Hoard.
Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Book 1, Chapters. XXIII-XXX. (Project Gutenberg Ebook).
Colgrave, Bertram, ed. The Earliest Life of Gregory the Great: by an Anonymous Monk of Whitby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968, 2007 reprint from University of Kansas.
Dales, Douglas. Light to the Isles: Mission and Theology in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Britain. Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 1997.
Fleming, Robin. Britain After Rome: The Fall and the Rise, 400-1070. London, UK: Allen Lane, 2010.
Fletcher, Richard. The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity. New York: Henry Holt, 1997.
Geary, Patrick J. Before France & Germany. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Gregory of Tours (539-594), History of the Franks, Book 4
Higham, Nicholas J. The Convert Kings: Power and Religious Affiliation in Early Anglo-Saxon England. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997.
Higham, Nicholas J. and Martin J. Ryan. The Anglo-Saxon World. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013.
The History Blog. Elite Anglo-Saxon Burial Found in Canterbury. November 22, 2019.
Jones, Trefor. The English Saints: East Anglia. Norwich: Canterbury Press, 1999.
Kirby, D. P. The Earliest English Kings. London: Routledge: 1991, 1994 reprint.
Leyser, Henrietta. Beda: A Journey Through the Seven Kingdoms in the Age of Bede. London: Head Zeus, 2015.
Lucas, Angela M. Women in the Middle Ages: Religion, Marriage, and Letters. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983.
Mayr-Harting, Henry. The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1972, 1991 reprint.
Queen Bertha’s Walk (this Walk links the 3 World Heritage sites of Canterbury Cathedral, St. Augustine’s Abbey, and St. Martin’s Church)
Saint Bertha Queen of Kent. Film clip of the full DVD. Youtube. St. Mary’s Dowrey Productions, 2014.
Thorpe, Lewis. History of the Franks. (a translation of Gregory of Tours’ Decem Libri Historiarum), Penguin Classics reprint, 1976.
Wallace-Hadrill, J.M. The Long-Haired Kings. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982.
Warren, Brenda G. Queen Bertha of Kent, A Preparer of the Way. May 1, 2017. www.godspacelight.com
Whitehead, Annie. Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England. Yorkshire, UK: Pen and Sword History, 2020.
Wood, Ian. The Merovingian Kingdoms, 450-751. London: Longman, 3rd ed. 1991.
Yorke, Barbara. The Conversion of Britain: Religion, Politics and Society in Britain c. 600–800. London: Pearson/Longman, 2006.
_____________. Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London: Routledge, 1990, 1992 reprint.
