St. Amalberga of Mauberge
Amalberga was the wife of Lotharingian Count Witger, a strong and compassionate but also hard-headed man. Unlike other Frankish nobles of the day, he did not rely on servants for many day-to-day tasks, preferring to do them himself. In fact, when he and Amalberga visited their relatives and made pilgrimages, he would drive the wagon himself.
In the year 670, there was one particularly harrowing trip to Strazburg, where they were to visit Witger's cousin Ludger. A wrong turn on a narrow, hilly path meant that they would have to stay the night in the Vosges Mountains, and Amalberga was rightly frustrated with her husband for not having stopped at the nearest inn to ask for directions.
Though the cold night passed without incident, Amalberga resolved to learn to read, so that she could decipher a map and have something to say about their travels. That she did, and her new passion for the written word persisted through the rest of her life. She joined a convent where she taught the other nuns to read, and is always pictured with an open book.
