Saint of the Day – 21 October – Saint Berthold of Parma OSB (c1072-c1106) Lay Brother

Saint of the Day – 21 October – Saint Berthold of Parma OSB (c1072-c1106) Lay Brother or “Regular Oblate” Sacristan, Sexton, Guardian of the Relics. Berthold died in c1106 in his early thirties, of natural causes. Also known as – Bertold, Bertoldo. Our Saint’s name from an ancient Germanic source means “famous, illustrious, shining” – is not the only one with this name in the Calendars – lived in Parma.Italy and died in c1106.

Berthold, was descended from a foreign family – his father, Abbondius, was English, his mother, Berta, was a Briton. They had arrived in Italy, very poor artisans, fleeing the Norman invasion of England in 1066 and initially settled in Milan, where Abbondius practiced the shoemaker’s trade but with little or no success.

They then crossed the Po River, settling in Parma, where their only son, Berthold, was born around 1072. At seven years old, the boy was already working in his father’s shop, helping in the difficult trade. But, at twelve, Berthold abandoned his awl and his blade, to serve the Lord with equal zeal and unchanged humility.

He had to overcome the resistance of his parents, especially his father, who perhaps wished for that only son, the ambition of everything that had been denied to himself in his life. But Berthold’s vocation, despite its simplicity, was stronger than his father’s ambitions and the boy was thus able to change the shoemaker’s shop for the Parma Church of St Alexander, near which there was a Monastery of Benedictine Nuns. Bishop Bernard of Parma commissioned him to serve as a Sexton and Guard the Relics of St Alexander in the Church of the Benedictine Nuns.

In the history of religious Orders, Berthold is thus considered a precursor of those Lay Brothers, called Regular Oblates, who later became a normal occurrence – and still are – in Benedictine Abbeys and Monasteries. His duties, in the Church of St Alexander, were those of a Sacristan – a Sacristan who was part of the community and lived its Rule with great zeal.

He lived at the base of the Bell Tower and was awake before dawn, to pray in front of the Altar, after having prepared everything for the first Masses. He wore sackcloth and every Friday he flagellated himself. Always obedient, humble and serene, the Nuns even pointed him out as a model, to the young Novices.

With the permission of the Superior, he undertook a pilgrimage to Rome and then to France, where he visited the tomb of St Anthony Abbot, where miracles were attributed to our Saint. And humble, touching miracles were also attributed to him after his return to Parma, where he died still young, while praying, greeted by an insistent flock of bells.

Dear beloved Berthold was buried at his Convent Church of St Alexander, where his Relics still now reside.