116 B. BENVJENUTA this idea was painful to her delicacy, she had recourse to prayer. Falling into a raptare, she found, on her return to a sense of earthly things, that the rope was lying beside her on the floor. The people begged to hear more abont her. Conrad preached another sermon the following Sunday, in which ho related several miraculous circumstances con- cerning the departed saint. He said that for five years the angel Grabriel fed her daily with food from heaven. During that time she never ate any earthly food without its producing in- stant sickness, the sacramental bread excepted. She was buried in the tomb of her family outside the church. Some time afterwards her body was diligently sought, in order to lay it with greater honour in the church. It could not be found, and was supposed to have been carried off by Dominican friars to Bologna or Eavenna. Her Life in Modern Saints, edited by the Fathers of the Oratory. Mart. O.F,P., Oct. 29. A.B.M. Pio. B. Benvenuta (2). 13th century. O.S.F. One of the first nuns under St. Clara. (See Agnes of Assisi.) St. Bera, Beata (i). St. Berathgpit, Beroit, or Berthoith. 8th century. Daughter of St. Bilhild (2), or GuNTHiLD. They were taken by St. Boniface from Wimborne to Thuringia, and set over his convent schools there. Thuringia Sacra (Frankfort, 1737). Two letters from Berthgith to her brother Balthard are among the letters of St. Boniface and St. Lullus. Smith and Wace, Diet, of Christian Biography, re- ferring to Jaffe's Monumenta Moguntice. St Beredina. (See Victoria (2).) St. Berelendis, Berlendis. St. Berema, Beata (1). B. Berengaria, March 8. f c. 1250. Daughter of Ferdinand III., king of Leon and Castile. Sister of Alfonso, king of the Bomans. In 1240 she took the Cistercian habit at Holga, near Burgos. Mentioned by Henriquez and Bucelinus. AA,SS,y Prseter, St. Berenice (l), Veronica (1). - St. Berenice (2), or Berinna. Daughter of Domnina (8). St. Berg^t, Berathqit, not Birgit. St. Berinna, or Berenice, M. at Antioch with her mother and sister, Domnina (8) and Prosdoce. St. Beriona, Buriana. St. Berlendis, Feb. 8 (Bellande, Belleride, Berlinda). 7th century. Commemorated with Nona and Celse at Meerbeck, in Brabant. Bepresented with a cow beside her. Patron of peasants. Invoked against contagious diseases of animals. She also protects trees, particularly those transplanted on her day. Berlendis is specially honoured at Tin-le-Moutiers, in Eetelois. According to Bucelinus, her mother was Nona, sister of St. Amandus. Her father was a wealthy noble, who served under Dago- bert I., king of France. His name was Odelardus. Ho suifered from leprosy, produced by his pious austerities. Ber- lendis offended him beyond forgiveness, because she rinsed his cup before drinking out of it herself. For this act he disinherited her, and left everything to St. Gertrude. His daughter realized that she had erred: she became a nun at Morsella, and manifested her repent- ance by giving up all luxuries and resting content with poor food and plain raiment. One day she heard angels singing as they carried her father's soul to heaven. Knowing by this sign that he was dead, she went to Meerbeck and buried him. On her death she was buried in a wooden tomb, on account of the scarcity of stone. The wood, how- ever, was, by supernatural agency, turned into stone. Her body was afterwards removed from its original resting-place, upon which occasion many miracles were performed. Those who assisted at the translation had their food wonderfully increased. At Meerbeck there is a representation of St. Berlendis with her cow, rudely cut in wood. The peasants come and reverently touch the udder, for the good of their own cows and dairies. At one time the proceedings at her fes- tival were so riotous that it came to be called the Drunken Vespers, and in the l6th century the clergy were forbidden to take part in it. St. Celse was, per- haps, her disciple or her sister. Boll., AA,SS. Biog. Univ., OdelnTd." Ecken- stein. Cahier. Chastelain, Voc. Hag,
