Saint
Bertram's Grief
A prince lost everything in the forest and found a hermitage.
See it clearly
- What's there
- Village church with a medieval saint's shrine
- Legend from
- Medieval saint's Life
- Tone
- Dark history
He left to find a midwife. When he came back, the wolves had been.
St Bertram, or Bertelin, was said to be a Mercian prince who fell in love with an Irish king's daughter and carried her off to England. In a forest she gave birth, and while he went to find a midwife, mother and baby were killed by wolves. Grief-stricken, he became a hermit, first at Bethnei, later Stafford, then at Ilam, where he died. His shrine in the church drew medieval pilgrims, who pushed injured limbs through openings in the tomb hoping for cures. The font may show his story, and St Bertram's Well lies nearby.