Saint Bertilla of Chelles

This position having placed her on the candlestick, she spread the rays of her wisdom and holiness with greater brilliance. One saw in her gentleness joined with firmness, mercy with justice, humility with greatness of courage, and prudence with simplicity. A thing happened which showed her delicacy of conscience and at the same time the incomparable strength of her prayers. One of her nuns, being a little agitated, said stinging and insulting words to her. The Saint had no thought of revenge, knowing well that it is written: 'Leave vengeance to me, and I shall know well how to punish those who cross you'. But she prayed to God to make the judgment himself. A few days later, this daughter died suddenly and without having the time to receive the sacraments. Bertille, overwhelmed with grief and fearing that her imprecation might have brought this punishment upon her, approached her body and begged her, with tears, to forgive her for the fault she might have committed through her hastiness. The deceased then returned to life and forgave her for everything that had happened, assuring her that God had also shown her mercy, and that she was on the path of eternal salvation. After which she fell asleep again in Our Lord.

Around this tim e, Queen Balthild la reine Bathilde Queen of the Franks who confirmed the election of Audebert. had the ab bey of Chelles buil l'abbaye de Chelles Monastery founded by Balthild where Bertilla served as abbess. t, where she intended to retire herself once she was freed from the conduct of the State. To compose its community, she addressed herself to Theodechild, abbess of Jouarre, an d begge Jouarre Place of initial formation for Saint Bertille. d her to give her some of her daughters with a superior, who could lay the foundations of this spiritual edifice. Theodechild consented, and, with the permission of the bishops, she gave her Bertille as abbess, along with several other nuns. Saint Genesius, Archbisho p of Lyon a Saint Genêt Archbishop of Lyon who installed Bertilla at Chelles. nd the Queen's first chaplain, brought them himself to Chelles and placed them in possession.

Bertille governed this house for forty-six years, with marvelous prudence, gentleness, and piety; and she was at Chelles what she had been at Jouarre, the most fervent of all, the most assiduous in the divine offices, the most humble, the most austere, the most patient, and the most charitable. She saw two great queens at her feet: Saint Bathilde, who finally left the court of France to become the humble servant of Jesus Christ in this house that she had built; and Hereswith, Queen of Englan d, who came to seek in Chelle Héresvide, reine d'Angleterre Queen of England who became a nun at Chelles. s the rest that the grandeurs and pleasures of the world cannot give. She also saw there the noblest daughters of the kingdom, whom her eminent holiness had attracted; but the more she saw herself exalted, the smaller she was in her own eyes, and the bowing of crowned heads under her commands served only to humble her further.

She had an incredible desire for martyrdom; but, as executioners were lacking for her fervor, she became her own executioner through the rigors she imposed upon her body, both in the strength of her youth and in her old age; for, far from taking the comforts that this age, combined with her status as abbess, seemed to demand, she remained constant, not only in the observance of the fasts and vigils of the Rule of Saint Benedict wh ich she had establish Règle de Saint-Benoît Monastic rule followed by Winnoc. ed in her house, but also in all the other practices of penance that her initial fervor had inspired in her. Finally, after a long life, full of merits and good works, a slight fever took her from the earth to make her reign in heaven. This was on November 5th of the year 692.

## CULT AND RELICS.

The body of Saint Bertille was embalmed and placed next to that of Saint Bathilde in the abbey church. Her tomb soon became famous for the wonders that occurred there, and it was decided from then on to perform a solemn translation. This ceremony took place under the care of Abbess Marie de Duny on April 26, 1185, under King Philip Augustus and Bishop Maurice de Sully, who presided over the ceremony. All the people from the surrounding areas flocked there; the sepulcher was opened, the sacred bones were carefully collected and placed, along with the Saint's garments which were almost reduced to dust, in a wooden reliquary. This reliquary was solemnly transported to the great church, where it was placed next to that of Saint Bathilde.

In the 13th century, a violent fire having destroyed the abbey, the relics were, with the permission of the ordinary, carried into various lands to more effectively solicit the alms of the faithful for the benefit of the monastery. At the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th, during the English war, the nuns, in order to shelter themselves from the insults of the soldiers, withdrew several times to Paris, taking with them their most beautiful treasure; but, upon their return, finding only a devastated monastery, they were forced to sell the gold, silver, precious stones, and their reliquaries to meet the primary needs of the abbey. It was at the beginning of the 16th century, when the monastery had embraced the monastic Reform and regained its former splendor, that the translation of the head of Saint Bertille took place under the care of Marie de Reithac (1507-1510). In 1543, the old reliquary being in the most pitiful state, the relics were placed in a new one, enriched with precious stones. One could see agates of remarkable beauty on which the caprice of nature had admirably represented sea monsters; the people to whom their care had been entrusted, knowing neither their price nor their rarity, sold them with others to merchants, and, in the last century, they were in the king's cabinet.

The remains of the Saint were then placed in a reliquary owed to Jaquelin Amignon: it was part silver and part gilded wood; the abbess had a new one made of solid silver, worth three hundred livres, in which the sacred bones were placed by the Archbishop of Auch. The ceremony was one of the most pompous seen until then; but what further enhanced its solemnity was the voice, so famous since, that pronounced the panegyric of Saint Bertille. Bossuet, then thirty-eight years old, had already conquered his fame as a great orator. It was July 22, 1665: " the ser Bossuet Preacher cited for his reflection on poverty. mon," says a manuscript of the time, "was of the most eloquent and ingenious, having mixed with a wit-filled skill the most beautiful parts of the lives of the two Saints (Bertille and Bathilde). It was admired by all his audience." This panegyric has not been preserved.

The base, which currently supports the bust of Saint Bertille, also contains several medallions: they are in repoussé copper, from the 18th century, and still contain a portion of relics attached to a fabric with very old labels, but without an authentic. In 1720, the abbess, Louise-Adélaïde de Chartres, had a vermeil head made for Saint Bertille: the translation was performed in the presence of the princess-abbess on November 18, 1721, by Dom Eloi Ledoux, prior of Sainte-Croix. Since that time, there is no mention of the opening of the reliquary until 1826, when Mr. Pruneau received from Mr. de Cosnac the mission to verify the relics of the diocese. In 1853 and 1855, Bishop Allou himself performed a new recognition at Chelles. He deposited in the reliquary a final report in which he states having extracted some portions of the bones of Saint Bertille and Saint Bathilde, which were sent, upon their repeated requests, to the sacristy of Pius IX and to the Abbess of Jouarre.

The reliquary of Saint Bertille is a gilded wooden chest, in the shape of a tomb. It contains an oak box overturned on its side, on which one can s Pie IX Pope who canonized Josaphat in 1867. ee the remains of old red wax seals. In this box are found: 1st, a white silk fabric wrapping the head of the Saint; 2nd, a fabric of the same color, with a large quantity of the Saint's bones; 3rd, several linens, one of which contains silk fabrics falling into dust, which appear to have been the shroud of Saint Bertille or to have served as a wrapping for her relics; 4th, two authentics.

We have used, to complete this biography, the Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Seine-et-Marne.