BERTOLDO, Saint. — First General of the Carmelites, born in Solignac (Limoges, France) and descended from the noble family of the Malefaide; already a priest, he went to Syria around 1142, together with his cousin Almerico di Malefaide, who was appointed Latin Patriarch of Antiochia. From there he retired to Mount Carmel. With the help and advice of the aforementioned patriarch, who had to seek refuge in Jerusalem in 1153, he gathered together the hermits scattered across Mount Carmel, built a small convent and a chapel surrounded externally by a wall; he was the first Latin General of the Order (around 1154), and governed it until his death.
BIBL.: Acta SS. Martii, III, Paris 1864, pp. 787-88; Monumenta hist. carmelitana, Lérins 1907, pp. 269-76, 280-81; Etudes carmelitaines, 2 (1912), pp. 123-30, 216 ff.; Analecta O. Carm., 3 (1928), pp. 267, 283, 368; 7 (1932), pp. 180-211; Anastase de St-Paul, Berthold, in DHG, VIII, cols. 960-63.
Ambrogio di Santa Teresa