Saint Bertilia
A married virgin.
Bertilia lived in Maroeuil, in the far north of France, in the 7th century. Though she married, she and her husband both remained virgins for their entire lives. When he died, she lived as a hermit near the church she founded. The church still exists today, in a small farming village. On January 3, they carry Bertilia’s bones through the streets, and townspeople seeking cures for various ailments kiss them. Here they are in 1995, over 1,300 years after her death.
