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Biography

Berlinda of Meerbeke

Portrait of Berlinda of Meerbeke

About Berlinda of Meerbeke

Berlinda of Meerbeke is remembered as a religious woman who helped people in poverty. Her later Life says that she entered the community at Moorsel and then gathered women on her family’s property at Meerbeke.

It describes her distributing the income from that property to those in need. The account was written around 900 and contains chronological difficulties: its seventh-century setting does not fit its references to Viking attacks.

The church biography therefore records proposals for a much later lifetime as well as the traditional early dates. Her veneration remains connected with Saint Peter’s church at Meerbeke, where the biography locates her relics.

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