Saint Bertulf of Bobbio

Saint Bertulf of Bobbio, also known as Bertulph or Bertulfus, was a seventh-century monk and abbot of the Columbanian tradition in the Frankish kingdoms and northern Italy. He came from a noble family in Austrasia and was a kinsman of Saint Arnulf of Metz. The principal near-contemporary witness, Jonas of Bobbio, who knew Bertulf personally, reports that he was born of pagan parents and was converted to Christianity through Arnulf’s influence. After his conversion he left secular life and entered the abbey of Luxeuil in Burgundy, the foundation of Saint Columbanus then governed by Abbot Eustace.

From Luxeuil he later went to Bobbio in the Trebbia valley of the Apennines, Columbanus’s last monastery, at that time under Lombard rule. There he lived under Saint Attala, the second abbot. When Attala died in 627 the community elected Bertulf as third abbot of Bobbio. His abbacy is remembered above all for the defence of the house’s independence. The bishop of Tortona sought to impose diocesan jurisdiction on the monastery. Bertulf travelled to Rome with the monk Jonas and obtained from Pope Honorius I, in 628, a privilege of exemption that placed Bobbio under the direct protection of the Apostolic See. The grant is among the earlier papal monastic exemptions in the Latin West.

Jonas portrays Bertulf as an abbot of austere life and records miracles associated with him, including recovery from a dangerous fever on the return journey from Rome. He remained abbot until his death, placed by the martyrological and historical tradition on 19 August 640, and was buried at the abbey of Saint Columbanus in Bobbio, where a local cult developed. In his day Bobbio followed the Rule of Columbanus, later supplemented and in time superseded by the Rule of Saint Benedict.

No surviving source records the year or exact place of his birth, and the major martyrologies do not attach a distinctive list of patronages to his name. His historical importance rests on his government of Bobbio and on the Roman privilege that helped secure the abbey’s later independence. The chief narrative source remains Jonas of Bobbio, together with the papal privilege and the liturgical commemoration on 19 August.