A Dictionary of Saintly Women/Begga (1)
St. Begga (1), Dec. 17. 7th century. Patron of Anden.
Represented (1) with a bear or boar, to show that she built her church in a place previously the resort of wild beasts, or in memory of a tradition that her grandson, Charles Martel, killed a bear at Anden; (2) with a hen and seven chickens, or a flock of ducks in a little pool. (The site of her churches is said to have been indicated to her by seven little animals grouped round their mother.) She holds in her hand a complicated building to represent the seven churches that she built.
Begga was daughter of Pepin of Landen, mayor of the palace under Clothaire II. (612) and Dagobert I. (628), Kings of France, and Sigebert II. (638), King of Austrasia. Her mother was B. Ida. Her sister was the famous St. Gertrude of Nivelle. Begga married Ansigisilus, or Anchisus, son of SS. Arnulf and Doda. Arnulf, or Arnoul, was of noble Frankish birth. Ansigisilus and Begga had a son, Pepin of Herstal, the second of the three great Pepins, and the father of Charles Martel. Ansigisilus met his death while hunting. Begga then made a pilgrimage to Rome, and on her return built seven chapels at Anden on the Meuse between Huy and Namur, in imitation of the seven principal churches in Rome. She also built a nunnery at Anden like that of her sister at Nivelle. Gertrude had long been dead. St. Wulfetrude, the second abbess, was dead too. Agnes, the third abbess, took care to give Begga the benefit of all that she had learned under the holy Gertrude, and sent nuns to train the new community. They took with them a piece of St. Gertrude's bed, and placed it near the altar of St. Genovefa, in Begga's church, where it worked miraculous cures, and was adorned with votive offerings of gold and precious stones. The monastery of Anden was afterwards converted into a collegiate church of thirty-two canonesses of noble families, with ten canons to officiate at the altar. Begga is said by some authorities to have founded the Béguines, who devoted themselves to religion under simple vows not taken for life. The general opinion is that they were founded in the 12th century, by Lambert le Bégue, a priest of Liége. R.M. Cahier. Butler, Lives. Bouquet, Recueil, iii. 304, "Chronique de St. Denis." Pertz, Hausmeier, p. 52. Mabillon, Contemporary Life of St. Gertrude.