Saint Berlinda

God, to test him, permitted that a disease whose very name inspired terror, leprosy, should afflict him in his final days. Now, it happened that during the absence of his servants, Odelard asked his daughter to give him a drink. She took the cup, rinsed it, and poured him some wine; but, when her father had finished, before bringing it to her own lips, she rinsed it again: Odelard, having noticed this, conceived such resentment that he immediately had his horses harnessed and rode in one stretch from Meerbeke to Nivelles to offer all his goods to Saint Gertr sainte Gertrude Saint to whom Odelard bequeathed his property in Nivelles. ude and disinherit his daughter. The repugnance of Berlinde was quite natural in such a circumstance; but it appears that to be reluctant to drink after one's father was, in the ideas of the 7th and 8th centuries, an unforgivable crime. Poor Berlinde, very sorry for her fault, did not seek to excuse it; she saw it as enormous as the count himself saw it; she did not even think to reproach the harshness of her father; she judged herself a wretch who deserved to be treated thus for having forgotten the respect due to paternal authority.

This heroic resignation was to lead her to a high degree of sanctity. She loved nothing but prayer, fasting, and mortification. Upon her delicate limbs, she wore a hair shirt. Soon, she became a nun at the convent of Saint Mary, in Moorsel, near Aa lst. On Moorsel Location of the convent of Saint Mary where Berlinda was a nun. e night, as the signal for Matins was given, Berlinde heard a choir of blessed spirits carrying her father's soul to heaven. She asked the abbess for permission to go to his service and traveled to Meerbeke, where this noble count was buried next to his wife, in an oratory he had built for that purpose. She sincerely mourned her father, prayed, and had prayers said for him. What humility! What respect for paternal authority!

The convent of Moorsel having become so poor that it was no longer possible to provide bread and water for more than ten nuns, Berlinde remained at Meerbeke. The pious girl spent twelve years near the ashes of her father, living in great austerity, vigils and prayers, fasts and other works of penance, praying for the repose of his soul. She only left the church to go into the surrounding area to visit the sick, caring for and serving them in memory of the Count, her father, without anything ever being able to deter her. She wore a harsh hair shirt that covered her entirely, slept on the bare ground with a stone for a pillow, and fed herself only on brown bread and a little fresh water, except on Sundays and feast days when she ate vegetables, dairy products, and sometimes fish. God is good to His own: one Easter day, her black bread was found changed into succulent food, and another day, her water was transformed into delicious wine. Finally, the day arrived when the Lord wished to place His little servant in a palace richer than the one from which Count Odelard had disinherited her. February 3rd of the year 702 saw her last breath mingle with a final sigh of ineffable love.

Her feast is celebrat ed in Me Meerbeke Burial place of Odelard and center of the cult of Saint Berlinda. erbeke on February 3, at the same time as that of two other holy women, Nona and Ceisa.

Saint No na and Saint sainte Ceisa Holy woman, probably a niece of Berlinde, buried near her. Ceisa, about whom nothing positive is known, except that their bodies rested near that of Saint Berlinde, were probably, one her mother and the other her niece.

Saint Berlinde is invoked especially against epizootics; thus she is represented with a cow at her side. It is also said that she protects trees, especially those planted on the day of her feast; therefore she is given a billhook and a branch as attributes.