Austrebertha

The daughter of Saint Framechildis and the Count Palatine Badefrid, she was born about 630 in Thérouanne, Pas-de-Calais. She refused to be part of an arranged marriage and in around 656 entered the Port-le-Grand Monastery in Ponthieu. She received the veil from Saint Omer before founding another monastery in Marconne in Artois in the house of her parents. She later established a monastery at Pavilly. Although not well known outside of Upper Normandy, Austreberthe was said to have performed miracles during her lifetime. It was said that the water of a spring appeared in a chapel and gave rise to a river that had healing properties for the disabled and lame. There is a chapel in an open field, in Saint-Denis-le-Ferment, in the Eure where a pilgrimage takes place on Whit Monday. Some of her relics are said to have been brought to Canterbury by the Normans. There are two towns in France named Sainte-Austreberthe for her: one in Pas-de-Calais and another in Seine-Maritime . ==Austrebertha and the wolf==

A popular legend told of Austrebertha states that Austreberthe and her nuns used to wash the sacristy cloths of the abbey of Jumieges a few leagues distant from Pavilly. A donkey used to carry the linen from one monastery to another. One day, while looking for the donkey, she came across a wolf. The wolf admitted to killing the donkey and begged for forgiveness. Austrebertha reprimanded the wolf, but forgave him and commanded that he carry the laundry himself, a task that the wolf performed for the rest of its life. At the place of the death of the donkey a chapel was erected in the seventh century; then, when it fell into ruin, a simple stone cross replaced it. It, in turn, was later replaced by an oak, in which was placed a statue of the Virgin. This tale is depicted in the stained glass window of the chapel in the village of Sainte-Austreberthe. ==Notes==