Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.
BERTOLDO, saint. — First superior general of the Carmelites, born in Solignac (Limoges, France) and descended from the noble Malefaida family; already a priest, he went to Syria around 1142 together with his cousin Aimerico di Malefaida, who was appointed Latin patriarch of Antioch. From there he withdrew to Mount Carmel. With the help and counsel of the aforementioned patriarch, who was obliged to seek refuge in Jerusalem in 1153, he gathered together the hermits scattered across Mount Carmel, built a small convent and a chapel surrounded on the outside by a wall; he was the first Latin superior general of the Order (around 1154), and governed it until his death,
BERTOLDO di GIOVANNI — Bronze with battle scene. Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello. (phot. Alinari)which occurred on 29 March 1198. The earliest evidence of the celebration of the feast of St B. dates back to 1525; the Carmelite General Chapter of 1564 prescribed the celebration of the feast throughout the Order on 29 March, which was approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites in 1584.
BIBL.: Acta SS. Martii, III, Paris 1864, pp. 787-88; Monumenta hist. carmelitana, Lérins 1907, pp. 269-76, 280-81; Etudes carmélitaines, 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
Cite this article
“BERTOLDO, SANTO.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II (1949), p. 857. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/bertoldo-santo.
