Saint of the Day – 3 April – Saint Liutberga (Died c870) Virgin, Nun, Recluse. Born in Solazburg, today an unknown place, probably in Sulzgau in Bavaria and died on 3 April in the late 9th Century of natural causes in Thale near Halberstadt in Saxony-Anhalt, modern Germany. Also known as – Liutbirg, Liutbirga, Liutberga of Wendhausen … of Thale.
Liutberga belonged to the family of Gisela, the daughter of Duke Hessis of Eastphalia, who had converted to Christianity in 775 and died as a Monk in the Fulda Monastery in 804. It is not clear, however, whether Liudbirga herself, was also a daughter of the Duke’s family, or whether she was placed in that family from outside and had received her education there.
Sometime between 830 and 840 she withdrew to live in solitude for God as a Recluse. Bishop St Thiatgrim of Halberstadt (Died 840) had given her his permission and imposed the Nun’s veil.
She thus spent the remaining thirty years of her life in a cell next to the Wendhausen Monastery, located on the site of the present-day Town of Thale, southwest of Magdeburg, in Saxony-Anhalt.
She fasted, prayed and helped anyone who came to her in need. Abbots and Bishops of her time often came to her for advice. Among them were St Ansgar of Hamburg-Bremen (Died 865) and St Haimo of Halberstadt (Died 853).
Liutberga was the first Recluse in Saxony-Anhalt.
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