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Berlinda of Meerbeke

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Saint Berlindis
Stained glass window of Saint Berlindis in Sint-Pieter en Sint-Berlindiskerk, in Meerbeke, Belgium
Died702 AD?
Venerated inRoman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church
FeastFebruary 3
Attributesdepicted as a Brabantian nun with a cow and either a pruning hook or branch; sometimes portrayed with Saints Nona and Celsa[1]
Patronageprotectress of trees and invoked against cattle diseases[1]

Saint Berlinda (Template:Lang-la; 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.

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