 Bertrand was born in Valencia to Juan Bertrand and Juana Angela Exarch.Through his father he was related to St. Vincent Ferrer, a thaumaturgus of the Dominican Order.At an early age he conceived the idea of becoming a Dominican Friar, and despite the efforts of his father to dissuade him, was clothed with the Dominican habit in the Convent of St. Dominic, Valencia, on 26 August 1539.