Feastday: February 3
Patron: protectress of trees and invoked against cattle diseases
Death: 702
A hermitess of Belgium. Berlinda, also called Berlindis or Bellaude, was a niece of St. Amandus. She entered the Benedictine convent of St. Mary's at Moorsel, in Belgium. She later became a hermitess at Meerbeke.
Saint Berlinda (Latin: Berlindis, Berlenda, Berelenda, other variants; also known as Bellaude; died 702 AD) was a Benedictine nun of noble descent. Her feast day is 3 February. According to legend she was a niece of Saint Amandus, and was disinherited by her father, Count Odelard, after he became sick with leprosy and believed that she would not take proper care of him.
Berlinda fled to a convent at Moorsel, near Aalst, and became a nun. After her father died, she became a hermit at Meerbeke, where her father had been buried. Her tradition states that she spent her life helping the poor and suffering.
