A SUMite Story ... from yesteryear!
May 07, 2025
Last week, I was listening to Lectio 365, an app that helps you ‘chew on the Word’ and they featured a story of a Frankish princess from the year 578. Her name was Bertha.
Much to my surprise, I soon realised it was a story of a faithful SUMite, who prayed for years for her husband, who eventually came to accept Jesus as his Lord.
It was wonderfully encouraging, and I thought I’d share it with our group for the same purpose. The words below are copied from the Lectio 365 app which I acknowledge for providing the content.
Queen Bertha
In the year 578, Bertha, a Frankish princess, moved to Canterbury in the English kingdom of Kent to marry its ruler Æthelberht. Catholic Christianity was not yet established in Britain and Æthelberht was a pagan King, but his new bride had a strong Christian faith.
Æthelberht restored an old Roman church as a private chapel for Bertha, which she visited daily, praying diligently for the conversion of her husband.
For 18 years, Bertha's daily prayers went seemingly unanswered. But in 597, a mission team sent by Pope Gregory the Great, and led by a monk named Augustine, arrived from Rome. Landing in Kent, they first preached the gospel to King Æthelberht who at last acknowledged the sovereignty of Christ.
Within a year, it is estimated that more than 10,000 people had followed Æthelberht example and converted to Christianity. On Christmas Day in 597, there was a mass baptism service. Largely because of Bertha’s support for the mission, Canterbury became a base for Christianity in England and, to this day, Canterbury is the spiritual home for millions of Anglicans around the world.
Bertha left no writings, and there is no record of her ever making a public speech or exercising political power. And yet, through her faithfulness in prayer, she had a huge impact on the evangelisation, not just of England, but other nations too. Today, her prayer chapel, dedicated to St Martin, is recognised by UNESCO as the oldest place of unbroken Christian worship and witness in the English-speaking world.
Bertha may have thought she was just praying for her husband, but she was also interceding for generations to come. The Lord heard the prayers she offered day after day in the chapel, and he used them to do immeasurably more than anything Bertha ever asked or imagined (Ephesians 3:20).
Reading it again gives me goosebumps! What an impact this humble lady had, in fact, her prayers changed the world.
Ours can too!
Yielding Prayer
To close I thought I’d provide the closing prayer Lectio 365 provided, and I invite you to pray it for both your partner and others the Lord has put on your heart.
"Father, I want to be more like Bertha, but I am impatient. Give me the strength to pray again today for my partner [name them] and the people you've put on my heart. Teach me to persevere with the kind of faithful prayer that you can use to change a life, and maybe even a nation."
I’ve found since listening to this meditation it’s reinvigorated my prayer for my partner and others who don’t know the Lord. I hope it may have the same effect on you.
Grace and peace, my friends
Note: Lectio 365 App, provided by 24x7 Prayer, Friday 2 May 2025, Morning Prayer.