Church of Santa Maria (or Santa Berta)

Church dedicated to the Patron Saint of Cavriglia, Santa Berta. Her place of birth is uncertain, some say Florence and some say near the castle of Vernio in around 1106, daughter of Count Lotario Alberti.
She entered the Vallombrosan Benedictine monastery of S. Felicita in Florence at a very young age and here became noted for the great holiness she demonstrated, so that in 1153, the general of the Vallombrosan Order, the blessed Gualdo Gualdi, chose her to entrust her with the task of reforming the monastery of Cavriglia in the province of Arezzo, in the upper Arno valley.
Berta moved to that new place where obedience took her and by working hard in the task entrusted to her, she made the monastery flourish again spiritually and numerically, with greater observance of the Rule.
After ten years as abbess, in 1163, during Lent, she had the perception of her earthly end; on Holy Thursday he participated in the solemn liturgy, washing the feet of his nuns, on Good Friday he participated with great fervor in the rites of the cross and on Holy Saturday, having gathered the nuns together, he recommended them for the last time to remain united in prayer and charity, during the night he died.
Her body, buried in the monastery, was lost in the 14th century during the wars between Siena and Florence, although even today the inhabitants of Cavriglia assert that it is found under a side altar of the parish church.
Since 1773 she has been patroness of the Municipalities of Montano and Cavriglia; in honor of her a work was created whose aim was to maintain her cult; in 1815 it transformed into a Congregation and in 1831 another one for priests was established.
These two Congregations are still flourishing and active and have the merit of perpetuating the cult of Blessed Berta, whose feast is celebrated on the first Sunday of August.