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Baring-Gould

p. 262

Of the family of the Pippinids. Born at Ardennes and raised by St. Landrada, founder of Munsterbilsen Abbey. "From early childhood she was distinguished for her innocence, piety, and exceeding beauty". Pepin heard the rumors of these things and came to the abbey "with a numerous retinue, to demand her hand for his son Charles [Charlemagne]. But she had made up her mind to devote herself to the Lord, and she refused his tempting offer. According to the legend, Charles himself came to urge his suit in person, and proceeded to lavish sundry endearments on her, which she received with considerable repugnance. His attention was fortunately distracted by a bear which had eaten a woman's honey and upset her hive. He forgot Amalberga, to pursue and kill the bear. But when the bear was dead, and, hot and exhausted, Charles returned to prosecute his amorous advances, to his indignation he found that the damsel had run away".

Pepin, "finding the virgin so resolute", married his son to Hildegard. Amalberga took refuge at the convent in Andenne, which was founded by St. Begga. When Amalberga's parents died, the "right of taking charge of her [p. 263) devolved on Hunrod, a noble in high favour with Charles".

p. 263

"As soon as the kind heard that the young girl was in the house of his favourite, he resolved to make her his wife, and exalt her to share the throne with him. The careless indifference of Charlemagne to his nuptial vows, the readiness with which he divorced a wife and contracted a new marriage, showed Amalberga that the existence of a lawful wife could not protect her from the rude and reckless passion of the great king. She fled with her brother Rodin, first to Villevorde, and then to Meteren. Some time after, Charlemagne heard where she was, and went to Meteren. She fled into the church, and with a pair of scizzors, shore off her hair, and then veiled her head. Charles the Great rushed in, and finding her veiled, asked what priest had dared veil his bride elect. He caught her by the arm, tore off the veil, and when he saw how she had disfigured her head, burst into a paroxysm of rage. In attempting to drag her out of the church, he broke her arm".

"According to a popular legend, from Meteren she betook herself to Temsche [Temse], a place that belonged to her. But on reaching the banks of the river found no boat. A huge sturgeon, however, presented his back; she mounted it, and he bore her across the river...In memory of this miracle, a sturgeon is annually offered on this day by the fisherman of the Scheld to the chapel of S. Amalberga at Temsche".

Amalberga built a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary in Temsche and died there in 772, at the age of 31.

A procession in her honor is made yearly, during Pentecost.

p. 264

"A fountain is shown there, of which the following story is told:--A spring bubbled up in a field, and as it was the only one in the neighbourhood, everyone sent to it for drinking water, and the crops in the field were injured. Thereupon the owner forbade access to it. Amalberga thereupon went to the spring, filled a sieve with water, and bore it to an adjacent field, and the spring rose where she had split the water".

Amalberga's relics were translated in 870 to Saint Peter's at Ghent, but were dispersed by the Calvinists in 1578.

"In art, S. Amalberga is represented with a sieve in her hand, a sturgeon at her side, trampling on Charlemagne. Geese are sometimes represented with her, as she is said to have banished a flock from Meteren, where they were devouring the newly-sown grain".

Dunbar, p. 50

Also known as Amelia. Feast day July 10, virgin. Died c. 772.

"A little print of her...represents her standing on the ground, standing on the shoulders of a king, who lies flat on the ground, wearing his crown and holding his sceptre. At each side of her lies a huge fish; in the background, at one side, is a draw-well, at the other, a flock of geese. She wears a nun's dress, holds a palm and an open book, and has a glory round her head. She is sometimes represented standing on a large fish, holding an abbess's pastoral staff and a book; sometimes she holds a sieve".

She is invoked to heal fever, pains in the arms and shoulders, and intestine disease. She owned the estate of Temse.

"Charles Martel wanted to marry her, or, according to another account, it was his son Pepin who wanted to make her his daughter-in-law by..."

p. 51

"...marrying her to Charlemagne. At first Charles carried on the negotiation by messengers, but, as she always refused, he went to her house to try to persuade her. She fled from him and took refuse in a chapel; the king, or rather mayor of the place, got angry, tried to drag her away by the hand, and unintentionally broke her arm".

Amelberga, on the advice of St. Willibrord, she fled to Bilsen and stayed with St. Landrada. "While her marriage was till under discussion, Charlemagne paid his court to the Abbess Landrada for her sake, by presenting her with a bear which he killed in the forest while hunting near the convent. [Amelberga] became a nun under Landrada, and seems to have succedded her as abbess, or else to have governed a community of nuns on her own lands, as she is represented with a pastoral staff".

"One day she wanted to cross the Escaut, but found no boat, An immense sturgeon offered to take her across on his back, and landed her safely on the other side, in memory of which the fisherman of the place yearly offer a sturgeon at the chapel of St. Amelberga on her day, July 10. It is even said that no sturgeon is ever seen in those waters except on that day, when one presents itself".

She died in Bilsen and was buried at Temsche. "A number of sturgeons escorted the boat up the river. Twice in her life she fed the people during famine on the flesh of large fish which appeared opportunely in the river".

She is represented with a sieve. "The people of Temsche complained to her that they had only one well, and that was in field, the owner of which gave them a great deal of trouble. She went to the well with a sieve, which she filled with water and carried to another field, where she set it down. Thenceforth there was an abundant supply of water in that place, but the old well dried up. A little chapel stands near her well, and pilgrims resort to both for miraculous cures. Long after her death, a woman of wicked life prayed for conversion at the sacred well. She became unable to leave the spot, retaining all her faculties while she kept within a short distance of St. Amelberga's Well, but becoming paralyzed directly she attempted to pass that boundary".

She is also represented with geese; Dunbar states that is because she has been confounded with another saint of the same name, whose feast day is Dec. 12. She was translated to St. Peter's in Mont Blandin, near Ghent, in 870, during the reign of Baldwin I.

Butler, p. 65

Also called Amalburga. Native of the Ardeene. "According to a worthless story her charm and beauty attracted the notice of King Pepin, who asked her hand in marriage for his son Charles. She refused, and was thereupon pursued for a long time with an assiduity and unscrupulousness which did no credit to the medieval hagiographer's idea of either the dignity or the decency of the future Charlemagne. On one occasion, it is related, he broke her arm while trying to carry her off from a church where she had taken refuge. St Amalburga was in fact a nun of Munsterbilzen in Belgium, having been clothed while young by St Willibrord. Her relics were translated to the abbey church of St Peter at Ghent in 1073".

"The Latin life, printed in Acta Sanctorum...is a pure romance, but there was an earlier outline by Radbod [Radboud of Utrecht] in the tenth century which is of some value".

Orthochristian https://orthochristian.com/154779.html

Variants of the name Amalberga, including Amalia) was widespread in the Low Countries and occurs a few times among the female saints of the region. St. Amalberga of Tense was "greatly revered" throughout Flanders and was a disciple of St. Willibrord of Utecht. "She is said to have once crossed the Scheldt River on a large sturgeon. It is also reported that the emperor Charlemagne had designs on marrying her and even attempted to take her off by force. He was unable to move her owing to a mysterious power that rendered her immovable. Stricken with illness in retribution for his sin, he repented and was healed through her prayers".

Catholic Encyclopedia, p. 377 https://archive.org/details/07470918.1.emory.edu/page/377/mode/1up?q=Amalberga

"A virgin, very much revered in Belgium, who is said to have been sought in marriage by Charles, afterwards Charlemagne. Continually repulsed, Charles finally attempted to carry her off by force, but though he broke her arm in the struggle he was unable to move her from the altar before which she had prostrated herself. The royal lover was forced to abandon his suit, and left her in peace. Many miracles are attributed to her, among others the cure of Charles, who was stricken with illness because of the rudeness with which he had treated the saint. She died 10 July, in her thirty-first year, five years after Charles had ascended the throne".

Miracles paper https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8853946/pdf/cureus-0014-00000021355.pdf

p. 1

Study looks at seven patron saints associated with trauma and orthopedic conditions; it identifies and describes saints associated with injury, musculoskeletal diseases, and orthopedic pathology. Author states that saints were adopted to protect against disease and disability in the Christian world since the Middle Ages, which was most prevalent within "disadvantaged populations in Europe", which had little access to doctors or medicine.

"Patron saints of disease represent an important and unique aspect of medical history and culture, which is important to acknowledge and preserve in contemporary scientific literature. A small number of notable saints have been previously explored in a modern medical context; however, the patron saints of trauma and orthopaedic surgery have not been previously collectively described. A saint most often became associated with a particular disorder as a result of their method of martyrdom".

St. Amalberga was patron saint of upper limb injuries.

p. 3

"St. Amalberga of Temse (b. 741 CE, Ardennes, Belgium) is commonly invoked as the patron saint of pain, fractures, surgery and injuries of the arm, due to the legend of the assault inflicted upon her by Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, in Meteren, Netherlands. Amalberga was renowned throughout mid-eighth century Western Europe for her remarkable beauty, nobility and devoutness. Her reputation attracted the attention of Pepin III, King of the Franks, who insisted she marry his eldest son, Charlemagne. Amalberga, at that time a ward of the Abbess Landrada at the nunnery in Munsterbilzen, declined his proposal. Charlemagne himself came to the nunnery to persuade her but to no avail. Described in the 12th century Historia Caroli Magni, or The Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle, in an unusual and fortuitous distraction, Charlemagne became embroiled in a bear hunt which allowed Amalberga..."

p. 4

"...time to escape his advances [15]. King Pepin became tired of waiting for his son to find her and married him to another '.

"Not to be deterred, Charlemagne eventually traced her whereabouts to a church in Meteren but was horrified to find she had cut off her hair in an attempt to disguise herself from him. In a fit of rage, he infamously fractured her arm attempting to drag her from the church. Miraculously, the limb healed instantaneously and she managed to escape him again to the banks of the Scheld river. An enormous sturgeon, with which she is usually depicted, was said to have risen out of the water and carried her on its back to safety in Temse, where her relics and chapel can be found today. She died in Temse in 772 CE and her feast day is 10th July".

LECA (Belgium culture) https://web.archive.org/web/20200623070542/https://www.lecavzw.be/tradities/feesten/wegom-bedevaart-ter-ere-van-heilige-amelberga-temse

Wegom in Temse, Pilgrimage in honor of Saint Amelberga, the patron saint of Temse.

Occurs three times per year: on Whit Sunday (the Saturday before Pentecost), on Whit Monday (Pentecost Monday), and on Whit Saturday (the Saturday before the last Sunday of September) in Temse. It is a 23 km-long pilgrimage on foot, goes through eight Amelberga chapels and one small chapel honoring Our Lady of Seven Sorrows. It always starts at the local church in Temse. Her relics are carried only on Whit Monday.

"According to tradition, she crossed the Scheldt near Temse on the back of a sturgeon (fish) to escape Charles Martel, who wanted to marry her. In 772, Amelberga died in Temse and was buried in the local church (market)".

Amelberga died in Temse and is buried in the local church there. The pilgrimage dates from the 11th century. Her remains were translated from Temse to St. Peter's Abbey in Ghent. The pilgrimage was popular in the ensuing centuries; musicians, magicians, and clowns participated. It was done on foot, on horseback, and by covered wagon. There were periods in which it sharply declined in popularity, but experienced revivals several times.

Organized by the St. Amelberga Guild, probably founded in the 10th century, reestablished in 1861, and revived after "a period of decline.ne".

Common citations:

Watkins

Butler

Saintly Women

Baring-Gould

Catholic Encyclopedia