(BEGINNING OF 8TH CENT.)
[Additions to Usuardus and some editions of the Martyrology of Bede.
No authentic account of S. Bertulf exists. All known of him is from
a life written in 1703, from old materials, but of what authority it
is impossible to decide.]
S. Bertulf is said to have been an abbot at Renescure, where the
church is dedicated to him. He is regarded also as the patron of
Harlebeke, near Courtrai. Renescure is a village on the canal between
Aire and S. Omer. His body was taken to Ghent, where it was enshrined
in an iron coffin, and for many centuries it was believed that on the
approach of danger to the city, the dead abbot knocked against the
side of his iron shrine. His bones were scattered by the Calvinists in
1578. S. Bertulf is represented in art in monastic habit distributing
alms, with an eagle over his head with wings expanded, a legend
relating that he was thus protected from rain in a heavy shower.