USC Illuminated Medieval Manuscripts

Saint Amalberga of Maubeuge

Saint Amalberga of Maubeuge (601 – 690), also known as Amalia, or Amelia of Lobbes or Binche, was a Merovingian nun and saint who lived in the 7th century.

Amalberga was born in Saintes (canton of Saintes, arrondissement of Saintes, Charente-Maritime). She is said to have been the sister or niece of Pepin of Landen and she married Count Witger, Duke of Lorraine. In her biography she is presented as the mother of five saints: Emebert, Reineldis, Pharaildis, Ermelindis and Gudula. She and her husband withdrew from the world; he becoming a monk, and she a nun, joining the monastic community at Maubeuse Abbey after the birth of her youngest daughter Gudula. She received the veil from Saint Willibrord of Echternach.

She is celebrated as a saint in both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Feast day: July 10

She died in 690 (Maubeuge, canton of Maubeuge, arrondissement of Avesnes-sur-Helpe, Nord), and her relics have been in Saint Peter's abbey church in Ghent, Belgium since 1073. She is known to protect people against arm pain, bruises, and fever.

In art she is represented holding a palm and an open book with a crown at her feet, standing on a giant sturgeon or other fish. (According to legend, she once crossed a lake by riding on the back of a giant sturgeon, which led to her representation on or with a fish.).

Amalberga of Maubeuge is not to be confused with the virgin Amalberga of Temse (venerated in Ghent, Temse, and Munsterbilzen, who died in 772, and whose feast day is July 10 or October 27.

See:
Catholic Online

CatholicSaints.Info

Danielle Mihram, October 2020.

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