Saint of the Day – 18 July – St Scariberga of Yvelines (c 495-c 550)

Saint of the Day – 18 July – St Scariberga of Yvelines (c 495-c 550) Chaste wife and widow of St Arnulf of Bishop of Tours, Recluse. Born in c 495 in Gaul (in modern France) and died in c 550 in the forest of Yvelines in France of natural causes. Also known as – Scariberg, Scariberge.

The holy Scariberga was born around 495 in Gaul. She was descended from a noble family and the sources call her a niece of the first Christian Frankish King, Clovi I (481-511).

While still young, her uncle married her to Saint Arnulf , later the Bishop of Tours and Martyr. When Arnulf became a Bishop, he also gave his chaste wife, Scariberg, the veil.

When Arnulf was murdered in 535, she had him buried at the place where his Martyrdom had happened, in the forest Yvelines in Aquilina between Paris and Chartres. Over his grave she built a cell, where she lived the rest of her life in prayer and meditation.

She died around the middle of the 5th century. Her memorial day is today, the same day as her husband but 2 October is also mentioned.

Around Arnulf’s tomb grew the present Municipality of Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines in the department of Yvelines in the Île-de-France region.