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| St. Amalia (Feast Day - July 10) |
By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas
Saint Amalia is of Flemish origin and in the Flemish language is called Amalberga or Amelia. She lived in the 7th century in the then Orthodox Belgium, in the province of Brabant, whose capital today is Brussels, and was born in the Walloon region of the province of Brabant of the then kingdom of the Carolingians, called Neustria. She came from an aristocratic family and was the sister, or according to others the neice of Pippin, Duke of Brabant and Count of Laden. She married Witger, who was Duke of Lorraine and Count of Brabant, and they had five children, whom they raised "in the education and admonition of the Lord."
Saint Amalia and her husband, when their children grew up, decided together to live the rest of their lives as monastics. Amalia joined the order of Benedictine monastics, specifically in the women's Holy Monastery of Maubeuge, in today's Northern France near the border with Belgium, while her husband became a monk in the Holy Monastery of Lobbes.
