st Amelberga of Temse

Saint Amelberga of Temse ( - Temse 772) came from the house of the Pippinids and was raised by her aunt Landrada in the monastery of Munsterbilzen (therefore sometimes called Amalberga of Munsterbilzen).

She was proposed to by Karel Martel but refused and fled to Mater, Oudenaarde. According to her vita, her suitor would have broken her arm.

From the record of the 11th-century vita, some miracles are associated with Amelberga. She is said to have saved people from giant fish that rose from the Senne in Vilvoorde and later also from the Scheldt in Temse. She prevented a flock of wild geese from picking the seeds on her arable land at Mater. A large fish would have offered to bring her on its back across the Scheldt. After her death, her coffin sailed on the water without rowers, accompanied by similar giant fish. In iconography, its attribute is a giant fish (according to younger traditions, this would be a sturgeon).

Gregor Legein