St. Bertha - July 4th
This French saint was twenty years old when she married a good man named Siegfrid. He came from a noble family like her own.
Together Bertha and her husband loved and served God, and the Lord sent them five children. After Siegfrid died, Bertha entered the convent in Northern France which she and her husband had built. With her went her two oldest daughters, Gertrude and Deotila.
St. Bertha helped to have three great churches built in France. One of these was in honor of the famous St. Martin of Tours. Another great work she did was to increase the fervor with which the Sisters in her Community served God. Then she made her daughter, St. Deotila, Abbess of the convent. After all this, St. Bertha retired alone to a cell near the chapel. There, hidden and content, she lived a life of mortification and continual prayer until she died.
All saints became saints, because they filled their lives with good works and prayer. Selfish or lazy people will never become saints, unless they change.
