ON SAINT GALTERIUS,
ABBOT OF SAINT MARTIN NEAR PONTOISE IN GAUL.
TOWARD THE END OF THE 11TH CENTURY.
PrefaceGalterius, Abbot of Saint Martin, of the Order of Saint Benedict, near Pontoise in Gaul (St.)
BY G. H.
The Vexin country at this time is reckoned to be double, distinguished by the river Epte: one part of this subject to the dominion of Normandy is commonly called the Norman Vexin; as the other part is called the French Vexin, added to the government of the Île-de-France, as they call it. In this is reckoned the chief city of Pontoise, by some called Pontoesia, situated at the river Oise, to the ancients Oesia: in whose suburbs at the Viosne was built in the eleventh century of Christ the illustrious monastery of the Benedictine Order, first consecrated to Saint Germanus, then to Saint Martin: of Saint Galterius, Abbot of Pontoise: concerning whose foundation, also confirmed by a diploma of King Philip I of the Franks, Arthur du Monstier treats at length in Neustria Pia, page 550 and following. To the rule of this Abbey there was summoned from the ancient Resbach monastery, once built by Saint Audoenus, and appointed first Abbot Saint Galterius, by some called Galterus, Gualterus, Walterus, and Gauterius: concerning whose acts and holiness of life we here inquire. We have obtained of his Acts hitherto unpublished two copies, both ancient and illustrious: Acts from the ancient Legendaries, of these we give in the first place, those which are found in the old Legendaries or Breviaries, and are accustomed to be recited in the Ecclesiastical Office for the Lessons at Matins, both in the monastery of the men at Pontoise, and in the monastery of the women of Blessed Mary at Bertaucourt, which owes its origin to the same Saint Galterius: as is indicated more fully below in chapter 3 of this Life. We give them from the Tongres manuscript of the Canons Regular, and from the Huy manuscript of the Crosier Brothers. The same were long ago submitted by André du Chesne, Cosmographer of the Most Christian King, and recently by Hippolyte Vrayet, monk of Corbie, both most loving of our studies. These are the Acts concerning Saint Galterius, partly drawn from those which we give in the second place, partly things lacking in the said Acts added from elsewhere and more complete.
[2] Then in the second place we give Acts very ancient, written by a monk of Pontoise, and a disciple of Saint Galterius, and for the most part an eye witness: thus in number 16 he reckons himself among those whom he had loved with paternal affection, other acts written by his disciple, and whom he had instructed, drawn away from worldly allurements, in the fear of God. And at the end of chapter 2, "Moreover," he says, "let us recount what
we have seen and heard, the glorious great deeds of the same blessed man." These Acts are extant written in a parchment codex in the said Abbey of Saint Martin at Pontoise, and through the care of our Frederick Flouët they were transcribed from there in the year 1651, and were transmitted to us; but before, accurately collated with the original by Michel Alix, Official of Cergy and Parish Priest of Saint Audoenus Laumosne, who testified this by his subscription, on June 12 of the said year 1651. At the end of these Acts very many miracles are said to be shown, as the little page of the following book testifies: with a History of miracles, and in the Prologue to the History of the miracles he asserts that he has written the Life and passing of Blessed Gauterius, and wishes now to write his miracles; and everywhere he displays himself an eye witness. This history, we returning from Rome through the Gauls, found at Paris with Francis du Chesne, son of the aforementioned André, in the second volume of Collections, and here we give it; and we subjoin to these the Charter of Canonization, and the Charter of Canonization. found in the box of the relics of Saint Galterius, in the year 1655, on the 4th day of May, and transmitted to us by the Hippolyte Vrayet previously indicated in the year 1666.
[3] Day of death on Parasceve, Saint Galterius died on Parasceve, toward nightfall, that is, on the day of the Lord's Passion, namely the sixth feria before the Paschal feast. The year 1095 is added, when with cycle of the Moon 13, of the Sun 12, Dominical letter G, Easter fell on the day March 25. Hence, when we had obtained the former Life, we had decided to give it on March 23: but we were in doubt whether perhaps the year was begun from the Paschal feast, and accordingly he had died on April 11, Easter being celebrated on the 13th of the same month. But the second Life is thus concluded: "Our Blessed Father Gauterius of holy memory passed away on the 6th day before the Ides of April, in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord 1095, Indiction III." Which because they do not cohere as is clear from what has been said, whether April 8. we have expunged as added to the Life itself afterwards by another. Meanwhile we have taken care to inquire concerning the true Birthday of the Holy Abbot among the Pontoise monks themselves, whose Prior wrote back on June 19 of the year 1666, that in the ancient Martyrology of his monastery his death is referred to this April 8 in these words: "On the 6th day before the Ides of April, at the castle of Pontoise the passing of Saint Galterius the Abbot:" and the Prior adds, that on the same day the feast is celebrated in the said Pontoise Abbey of Saint Martin, and earnestly requests that the Acts of Saint Galterius be inserted in our work at that day. The Sammarthani in volume 4 of Gallia Christiana, where they treat of this Abbey, think that Saint Galterius died on the 6th day before the Ides of April, on the day of Parasceve, Indiction III, in the year 1110, when with cycle of the Moon 9, of the Sun 27, Dominical letter B, Easter was celebrated on the day April 10. But since in both Lives Saint Galterius is said to have flourished from the time of Leo IX until the time of Urban II, under the Frankish Kings Henry and Philip, he must necessarily have died earlier. For if he had lived until the year 1110, he would have attained the 11th year of Pope Paschal II elected after the death of Urban, and the second year of Louis the Fat, King of the Franks. What if it be said that he died in the year 1097, on the third day of April on Parasceve, and on the 8th day of April the 4th feria after Easter was handed over for burial? Thus the day of deposition, as has often been done elsewhere, would have been taken for the day of death. In the Florarium MS. the day of deposition is assigned to April 12 with the year 1091: but the day May 3 by Molanus and the Brussels Carthusians in Greven, and in Wion, but confusing in the Notes with the Abbot of Melrose in Scotland.
[4] Another mark concerning the translation of the body is clearly expressed in the cited Charter of Canonization, day of Translation May 3, and it is the year 1153, the 3rd day of May, on the feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross: at which day in the Pontoise Martyrology these things are read: "On the 5th day before the Nones of May. At the castle of Pontoise the translation of Saint Galterius the Abbot." But the festive memory of this translation from the beginning was transferred to the following day, it is celebrated on May 4, May 4: which day from the year 1548, by the authority of Francis de Harlay de Chamvalon, Archbishop of Rouen, and with the consent of the Pontoise community, began to be celebrated with the greatest solemnity, and with the royal faculty there was joined to it an annual fair continuing for two days. elsewhere he is venerated on May 30, In the Abbey of the nuns of Blessed Mary of Bertaucourt Saint Galbertus is venerated on the day May 30: which feast is also observed by Claudius Robertus in Gallia Christiana, Ignatius Josephus of Saint Mary in the History of Abbeville, Arthur du Monstier in Neustria Pia page 551, and André Saussay in the Gallican Martyrology: who with a very long encomium, drawn from the Acts, celebrates him, and near the end has these things: "He departed indeed to his reward released from the flesh on the 6th day before the Ides of April, but because that day often falls on the funerals of the Savior, the passing of the blessed man is deferred to this day to be venerated." Chrysostom Henriquez in the Cistercian Menology refers him to May 2, and asserts that he wonderfully adorned the Cistercian Order with excellent virtues. Which things fall of their own accord, nor do they need refutation.
LIFE
From ancient manuscript codices.
Galterius, Abbot of Martin, Order of Benedict, near Pontoise in Gaul (St.)
BHL Number: 8798
FROM MSS.
PROLOGUE.
[1] The present day offers material for divine praise and cause for exultation to the monastic order; cause of the writing. which, as a debt of canonical duty, gives back to us the pleasant and solemn memory of Blessed Walter. For when times were already bent toward evil, and the charity of many cloistered men was growing cold, Walter, like the sun bursting from the clouds, like a rose rising from a thornbush, shone forth as the honor of the order, nay, rather the order itself of monks: whose beginning and progress, and finally his glorious end, to describe I believe meritorious for me, and by God's persuasion working fruitful for hearers.
CHAPTER I.
Saint Galterius' formation: His monastic Life at Resbach, his Abbatial Life at Pontoise. His various flights thence.
[2] In the territory of the Ambianeses, in the region of Wimareus a, in the village which is called Andain-villa b, Walter was born. Who when in his boyhood years had been devoted by his parents to liberal disciplines; with the flowing grace of his talent beyond the strength of his little age, he was imbued with the first rudiments. But at the beginning of adolescence, showing signs of his future perfection, he went out from his land and from his kinship, Instructed in various sciences he instructs others: and from the house of his father, that he might as a happy peripatetic hear many sciences and diverse opinions from various masters. Thus proving all things, retaining what was good, more fully taught, he was made a teacher, and endeavored to teach faithfully and to be useful, ruling famous schools, frequented by the great and the greater.
[3] Already a man of great name, with the Spirit working within, he began to fear lest worldly pomp should entice his mind, deliberating about his state of life he puts on hair-shirt, and lest the plague of vainglory should extinguish the spirit: and he conceived the counsel of the Gospel, that as a poor man taking up his cross he might follow the crucified Jesus Christ poor for the world: he chose far from the tumult of the age the safer life of cloistered men and the better part of Mary to be preferred. Yet, seasoning the offered sacrifice with the salt of discretion, taming the flesh with harsh hair-shirt, he wished first to prove himself long in the world; lest the regular austerity of the order suddenly assumed, he becomes a monk of Resbach, under an unaccustomed burden should make the despairing one change his mind. At length strengthened by such exercise, he betook himself to the cloister of Resbach c: where as to the traditions of the order, he was long a novice; but as to the holiness of life, he quickly surpassed the rest.
[4] Furthermore, charity condemning no inert leisure, considered at that time a certain commoner, imprisoned by the Provost of the monastery, for the exacting of his faults, with his bread he refreshes a captive, and afflicted by long fasting, so that he was already almost failing from hunger. Moved therefore, the man of God by the bowels of compassion, secretly keeping back the bread given for his own refreshment, he who had read that of Augustine, "Have charity, and do whatever you will"; feared not the transgression of a pious cause; but in the silence of the untimely night going out from the cloister, he approached the prison, and opening it he loosed the bonds of the captive, and revives him with the bread which he had brought. and releasing him carried on his shoulders he is flogged: He then drew him out, wasted with hunger, and carries him on his own shoulders, like a lost sheep, to the place where, loosed, free flight was open. First, however, he received from him a promise of faith, that he would not inflict any evil for the punishment which he had justly endured afterwards upon that church or its persons: but also for this release that he would give glory to God, patiently bearing contumely, and thus yield to him a crown. This deed did not lie hidden from the Brothers; it was reported to the Abbot: who without mercy flogged the man of mercy, with punishment inflicted for a work which merited an eternal reward.
[5] Absent he is elected Abbot of Pontoise, In these times, not far from the castle of Pontoise, certain Brothers subjecting themselves to the monastic rule, chose a place to inhabit, where, a Monastery having been founded, the devotion of the faithful conferred possessions, by which they might be sustained, devoted to the divine offices. And lest they should be, without a Pastor, like wandering sheep, they began to deliberate about an Abbot. And having heard of the fame of the aforementioned man, spread far and wide, they elected him, that he might be induced to this, exhibiting every kind of effort: Who refusing more strongly and resisting, with difficulty was at length conquered, and drawn to that office. And having received the Pontifical benediction, when by King Philip d, the Advocate of his monastery, the pastoral staff was delivered to him, and the royal hand gripped him near the curved part; and is instituted by the King: the Abbot took the staff above that hand at the curved part, saying: "Not from beneath your hand, but from above do I receive this staff: for not from you do I receive the governance of the Church, but from God." Which brave deed the King and those who were present commending within themselves, began to revere such constancy of a humble person. He excels in every virtue, Promoted therefore to the grade of dignity, he strove to ascend by the grades of virtues. Who neither a respecter of persons nor a palpater of crimes, showed himself mild and gentle to the good, terrible to the unjust. He was of lofty stature, handsome in countenance, angelic in appearance, composed in act; lowly in dress, clear in talent, prudent in counsel, sweet in eloquence: generous to others, very sparing to himself; even treading on the whirlwinds of fortune, just as in prosperity so in adversity he persisted with unmoved mind and face: and also with a certain craft of the Holy Spirit putting on various forms, he appeared humble to the gentle, terrible to the proud, great to the powerful, equal to the poor: nor less admirable was his eloquence, plain to the simple, and admirable to the learned.
[6] He flees to Cluny, But since a blessed man is always fearful, he began to fear lest in this state also glory should tickle his mind, or God should more severely exact of him the faults of his subjects. Slipping therefore from the monastery by a clandestine flight, he transferred himself to the cloister of the Cluniacs, long desired by him, where at that time the choicer school of virtues was vigorous. And concealing who and how great he was,
how humbly and devotedly he showed himself there, and with how great merits he shone forth in that Religion, the fame of the neighboring places has proclaimed; which flying as far as the ears of his subjects, filled the land with its good odor. Therefore the Brothers stirred up sought their Master solicitously: whom the Abbot of Cluny unwillingly restored, compelled by the authority of his superiors. But Blessed Galterius returning, spent a short time among those Brothers, transferring himself to a certain grotto, returning he lives in a grotto, situated not far from the monastery, where for a long time the servant of God led an eremitical life. However, frequented there both by his own and by others, he left the same place, imitating perhaps the anchorite, who is read to have said, that one enjoying the discourse of men is not worthy of the conversation of Angels.
[7] With the aforesaid causes, or perhaps with another hidden from us, deciding to be far from his monastery, he went to a certain island near the city of Tours, and fleeing again, on an island near Tours. there having obtained a little church founded in honor of the holy Martyrs Cosmas and Damian f, suiting his solitude. But neither can a lamp in the midst, nor a city set upon a mountain, nor Galterius lie hidden in that place: but he is visited in troops by the people of Tours, honored with gifts: which he received for himself unwillingly, but that he might distribute them to the poor. For one day, all things being exhausted in similar uses, he gave his books as a pledge to a certain importunate poor man, that that poor man might retain the money for himself. Once also he gave a tunic given to him by the Brothers of the Major monastery to a poor man, and clothing Christ in the poor man, the chilly giver warmed the needy one.
NOTES.
CHAPTER II.
Roman journey, admonition of the King and Bishops, other penances and virtues.
[8] At length, betrayed by Agarinus, accustomed to travel through holy places, at Pontoise. The Brothers of his monastery prepare a journey, and hasten to the said island, and find whom they seek. They plead before him, that his monastery has collapsed in spiritual things through his absence, and that temporal things have been scattered. Then, wrapped around his knees, with a shower of tears they barely moved him, his return obtained with difficulty. Brought back to Pontoise, Returning, however, he collected the scattered, restored the collapsed, solidified the broken, informed the motives of those straying. Then a cause arose that he should visit the Roman Curia; and having visited according to custom the thresholds of the Saints, he begged Pope Gregory from Hildebrand a for absolution from his undertaken rule. Who, knowing the blessed man's holiness, delighted in his discourse, although refusing to accede to his petition about laying down the rule. But with him detained with much honor for many days, at length he enjoined upon him, with license given to return, that he faithfully guard the flock committed to him. Nor moreover should he waver, unless by the familiar counsel of the Holy Spirit this command should be changed. He seeks Rome:
[9] Returning therefore to the care of the flock, he strove thus to lead the sheep through the pastures of life, that they might deserve to be placed in the heavenly folds. Moreover a flame burning within vehemently, He admonishes the King: he gnawed at the crimes of the powerful no less constantly than confidently. For once, noting and rebuking Philip King of the Franks, a most bitter man, for the crime of simony, he said: "It is not lawful for you to give ecclesiastical dignities, much less to sell them; by selling them you give an example to buyers, and thus you are made guilty of the crimes of others." Likewise concerning certain commands of the already mentioned Pope, namely of not hearing the Mass of a Priest having a concubine, b with a council of Bishops convoked at Paris, and the Bishops gathered in council, when they judged these things too hard and unworthy to be equally fulfilled; the holy man, who then happened to be present, boldly resisted in their face. Inflamed with zeal the Bishops judged him a blasphemer and enemy of the Kingdom, with the King's attendants incited and animated: who having seized and bound the Saint of God consigned him to prison. He went, however, from the sight of the council rejoicing, because he was held worthy to suffer contumely for Christ: but liberated by the intervention of friends, and returning to his own, he undertook a life more austere than usual.
[10] In giving alms he did not wish the trumpet to sound before him, but openly repelling the poor, he conferred generous benefits on them most secretly. He gives alms secretly through others: Whence one day to honorable men, Marcellus the Bishop and Raymund the Deacon of Pontoise, he committed no small sum to be distributed to the poor, pretending that it had been delivered to him by a certain friend for these uses; and forbade them to reveal this secret while he lived. So bountiful was he to the poor of Christ that he denied to the needy neither a little knife nor anything else which he could do without. In the cell beside his church with how many torments he afflicted his flesh, he is great in afflicting his body, he alone knows who contemplates all things. There his bed was felt, and a cheap mat covered with a hair-shirt: so that it could scarcely be discerned where he laid his head or where he placed his feet. c Linen sleeves appeared sewn onto the hair-shirt, lest the hair-shirt be detected. From knotted thongs having made a scourge he so harshly disciplined himself, that although he withdrew to a more remote chamber, yet the noise of blows was often heard by the sacristans of the church and others.
[11] He aspires to the lowest services, Clothing he did not change except when loosed by excessive age or given to the poor. Often he exercised the office of reader, often of cook in the refectory. Sometimes he prepared the oven for baking breads. Whence one day, failing through excessive mortification of flesh, he fell before the mouth of the oven, carried back by the hands of his disciples into the cell. Rarely eating in the refectory, he had a familiar who from his wine cup, the wine having been taken out, secretly poured in water, so that by the Brothers he might be believed to be refreshed with wine, and to have drunk from it. in prayer he keeps watch. In his cell he received loaves and beans cooked without fat or delicate flavor: and since so many loaves were often taken out for the uses of the poor, as many as were brought in, it is clear that he was then content with beans and water. He received water on Saturday for his own uses, which should suffice through the following week. The others entering the dormitory after the matins psalms, vigilant in prayer, he was sometimes found to have fallen asleep, with his head wrapped between his knees. But he detested sitting in the church as the crime of sloth. His limbs, fainting with fasting and age, he supported with a staff when they failed.
NOTES.
CHAPTER III.
The monastery of Bertaucourt constructed; the illness and death of Saint Galterius.
[12] In these days, by divine revelation worthy of the merits of his singular life a to Galterius, there appeared the Blessed Mother Virgin Mary, thus speaking: b "Arise, Galterius, prepare the journey, warned by the appearance of the Mother of God, and go to Bertaucourt, and there near arrange a church: for I have chosen a place there, to which women may come together to show me service and honor." These things said, she disappeared, leaving the man weighing the judgment on the things heard in the balance of discretion: and because he did not yet give credence, he desisted from carrying out the command. Returning at length the blessed Virgin, rebuking her minister for sloth, and repeating the command, impressed a blow of her hand on his face, so that the traces of her fingers appeared on his face for a long time afterwards, they say. He goes to Bertaucourt, Thinking within himself and saying, "Because I have not seen Bertaucourt and do not know the place"; the journey instructed he went on pilgrimage, commending himself to divine wisdom; and inquiring from travelers about those parts, fully instructed, beyond the city of Amiens five leagues distant c he found the desired goal.
[13] There in a wooded place beside the waters he rested and remained, building there a little house and a chapel. To which there was then made a gathering of peoples, that they might carry away from him the food of eternal life. But also to women he more secretly explained the cause of his coming and the revelation, that he might animate devoted women to show service there to the Blessed Virgin. But since, as the poet says,
Nothing is more intolerable than a rich woman,
and thence he is driven out by a powerful woman, at Bertaucourt a certain matron held sway, to whom at the persuasion of the devil it was said, that on account of that man's presence no small damage was imminent to her; for the multitude flowing in would trample her crops, and the possessions which she had consigned to herself, as if by an army coming upon them, carts and horsemen would make public, if that man of great name should remain there longer. She, however, acquiescing in the counsel of the ancient enemy, drove the man of God from the seat of God, who is struck with sudden death: and compelled him to leave her territory: but offended that his purpose was unfulfilled, he returned to his own seat. But the detestable deed was in a short time followed by punishment. For when that Lady with her people on a certain solemn day was admonished to go to the church, she rose from her chair, and falling backward by sudden death expired with broken neck.
[14] But although Satan strives with all his efforts to impede a good purpose, yet he can do nothing except as much as is permitted him by the divine power. For the holy and noble women Godelendis and Helwigis devoting themselves to the Lord, a monastery is constructed under Abbess Godelendis. gathered at the chosen place with great possessions. Tearing up even the shrubs with their own hands, they extend both the acquired possessions and the buildings. In a short time, however, with other women dedicated to God flowing together, and the devotion of the faithful conferring ample benefits there, a church was founded there also in honor of the Blessed Virgin, and enriched and endowed with estates bestowed there. The virgins
serving there God and the blessed Virgin under the rule of Blessed Benedict, after Blessed Galterius' passing, in the third year, had the aforementioned Godelendis consecrated as the first Abbess of that place. d But that heavenly Dispenser, who hanging on the cross scarcely converted one thief, but through his disciples afterwards enlarged his Church; returned his Saint to the desolate flock, before he had advanced much in that place; nevertheless he gave increase to his planting.
[15] Restored, however, to his place, from humble he made himself humbler, and from meek meeker. For when one day in Chapter he had accused his sins and negligence and insufficiency, He asks to be flogged by his own and obtains it, for these he suppliantly asks to receive the correction of the scourge on bended knees from the Brothers. They abhorring such a thing, since he persevered in his insistence, he hardly obtained what he asked: whence made more cheerful, that day he took food joyful with the Brothers. With the time of his dissolution approaching on Palm Sunday, entering the Chapter, with sweet and amicable exhortation he opened and urged the way of salvation to the Brothers. Then to the people, who on that day had come together in large numbers according to the processional custom, with the Count of Beaumont e present when he was making a sermon, there approached a certain matron conspicuous in too ambitious ornament, so that her train sweeping stirred up dust in the eyes of the bystanders. he reproaches the luxury of female clothing, Offended therefore, the man of God, when he called her in prophetic spirit a demoniac, rebuking such luxury of ornament, cried out that the shameless woman would come on the following Lord's day into his sight much more gloriously. To whom he replied: "Indeed you will come, but in a state much different from that which you now bear."
[16] But on the following day celebrating Mass, he with difficulty completed it, seized by fever, seized by a grave force of fever. Having called a certain one, for whom he had prepared parchments for writing a Breviary, he said: "Cease from your purpose, let the parchments be left for other uses of the Brothers, they will not be of least profit to me hereafter." There came to him on that day a messenger from the Countess of Beaumont, sick in a certain villa not far from Pontoise, signifying to him the command of that Lady, desiring greatly to be visited by him. To whom the man of God, full of the Spirit of God, he predicts his own death and the Countess': replied: "May the grace of God grant us that she may see me in the heavenly fatherland: for in this age she will see me no more." But with the illness urging, the Brothers having been summoned, he was anointed with Holy Oil, absolving the Brothers from all things to be absolved. Whom grieving very much for his departure he began to console, and taught with what spirit they ought to choose a Pastor. With frequent persuasions also he animated them to voluntarily bear the yoke of the Lord, openly made an express imitator of Christ, who after he came into Jerusalem on the Sunday before his Passion, on the intermediate days did not cease to preach the word of God and to exhort his disciples.
[17] Then the holy man, on the day of the Lord's Passion having received the Body of Christ, fell asleep in the Lord, and he dies on the day of Parasceve, with liberty given to his spirit to fly away to those above: whose flesh so shone, that the extinguished one displayed a certain beauty of resurrection. When indeed the Brothers were honorably handing over his body for burial, the peoples stirred up by fame from afar, with incomparable lamentation together with the monks mourned his departure, esteeming it as a most grievous loss to themselves. Most blessed Galterius flourished from the time of Leo f the Pope until the time of Urban II, under Henry g the father and Henry the son reigning, under the Frankish Kings Henry h and Philip, and a little later the Countess: in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1041 taken away from the light: but on that same day the aforesaid Countess is said to have died, as if following the man whose discourse and sight she desired.
[18] But on the following Sunday, the matron, who with pompous apparel had offended the holy man, as you have heard; that his prophecy might be fulfilled, seized by a demon, was brought to the sepulchre of the blessed Confessor. miracles are performed. By his merits, after much insistence of the prayers which the faithful offered to the Lord for her, liberated from the demon she was restored to health. By this miracle afterwards induced those who were held by various languors, rejoiced that the suffrage of this Saint had prevailed for them; our Lord Jesus Christ working these things to the glory of his Saint, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit is honor and glory, world without end. Amen.
NOTES.
ANOTHER LIFE
By a monk his disciple.
From the Pontoise MS.
Galterius, Abbot of Martin, of the Order of Benedict, near Pontoise in Gaul (St.)
BHL Number: 8796
BY A DISCIPLE FROM MS.
PROLOGUE.
[1] Since we see that the most ancient Poets, even Gentiles, have committed in their writings to tenacious memory the sayings and deeds of the old Gentiles with diligent solicitude, and with most illustrious eloquence and most delightful sweetness of words have extolled their merits; it seems worthy to hand down for the notice of posterity the contests and victories of the soldiers of the heavenly King, by which they subdued this world's pomp with its prince, for the utility of posterity. For indeed "to hide the secret of the king is good": The Lives of the Saints are written to the praise of God, but "to recite and confess the works of God is honorable." But it is worth while to attend to how many goods arise from these narrations. It is the praise of God, when the deeds of the Saints, for whom he stood forth as cooperator, are recited. For marvelous, as the Psalmist says, "is the Lord in his Saints." Ps. 67:36 The Saint is proclaimed in all his works. Through these the minds of many are stirred up to do well, enemies of the Christian name are cast down, the devil with his presumption is confounded. and incentive to readers. But for narrating these things I consider myself unequal to the merits, unequal in sense, unpolished in speech: but I beg his piety to render me somewhat fit for these things, who, when he willed, from the rock brought forth water for the thirsting people, made a brute animal form human words, and rendered the tongues of infants eloquent. But whoever shall be so inclined as to read this little edition of my small wit, be not suddenly moved, do not suddenly burst forth into censure, judging me unlearned and inert: do not attend here to the elegance of the sayings or the rusticity of the words, but to the truth of the matter which I am about to narrate: do not seek what you may reprehend, but whence you may profit.
CHAPTER I.
Saint Galterius' formation: his monastic Life at Resbach, his Abbatial Life at Pontoise: his various flight thence.
[2] Let us give thanks, most dear Brothers, to the Divine excellence, who after the Apostles and Apostolic men does not cease to guard his Church redeemed by his precious blood, ceaselessly granting to her examples from which she may profit; a lamp, by which she may seek those things which are to be sought, and flee those things which are to be fled. Among the most Christian defenders and champions of the holy Church, a great light, the man of God Gauterius, shone forth in our times: of how great merit he was the following page will declare. This man flourished in the times of a Pope Leo, Alexander, Gregory, who was called Hildebrand, Galterius flourishes in the 11th century, until the times of Pope Urban, named Odo; in the days of Henry the elder and Henry the younger, Emperors, reigning in his time Robert King of the Franks, Henry and Philip Kings of the Franks. This man from the earliest flower of youth, leaving his paternal soil, parents, and kinsmen, gave his work to the studies of letters, traversing the neighboring regions and distant: instructed in letters, he teaches others: whatever anywhere he found, which he could add to the fullness of his knowledge, he by no means sluggishly hid in the storeroom of his heart. But after he had been sufficiently and abundantly imbued in the liberal arts, that is Grammar, Rhetoric, and Dialectic; he began to have disciples, ruling many and most famous schools: and the treasures of knowledge, which with much labor and sweat he had sought, he began to open and pour forth to others.
[3] Then a divine ardor touched his mind, that all things which are of this world being left, deliberating about the state of life, free from all things he might be at leisure for God alone, and in the port of tranquil station he might fix the anchor of good action, where he might not fear the shipwreck of his ship. For first, as a man of great counsel, still placed in the secular habit, he proved himself with many arguments, wearing down his flesh with frequent fastings; he assumes afflictions of the flesh. clothed in the roughest hair-shirt, from the shoulders to the loins. With such exercises the soldier of Christ accustomed himself, lest suddenly he should seek so great a burden, and unaccustomed to the burden, terrified by fear should flee. Good Jesus! how sweet your calling! how sweet and pleasant the illumination of your hope! For those whom you suddenly call, them you also justify; but those whom you justify, them you also glorify. Therefore the man of God, he becomes a monk at Resbach, taught by heavenly mastery, sought the monastery of Resbach: and renouncing all things which he was seen to possess, he began to be a disciple of truth; and with the secular habit changed, he put off the old man with his actions; and put on the new man, who was created in the justice and holiness of truth: and there as long as he lived and tarried, he deserved to be an example of true religion to others: and he who among others was lower in order, he strove to be first in working.
[4] He feeds the imprisoned man with his own bread, Meanwhile it happened that a man, his faults exacting it, was imprisoned by the Provost of the monastery, and was vehemently afflicted by him, and was withering with hunger and thirst. To whose suffering the man of God, with compassion, and sighing from the depth of his heart, did not fear the most harsh rebuke or hard return of blows which he was about to suffer from his Abbot or the other Brothers. And in the nocturnal silence with all sleeping, he unsealed the bolts of the prison, he carries him out on his shoulders and lets him go, and refreshed the man with bread which he had taken away from himself; moreover drawing him out from the prison, he imposed him on his shoulders, and loosing all his chains, at length permitted him to go free: exacting from him only the promise of faith that he would not
henceforth harm the church, nor return to anyone evil for evil which he had suffered. and for this he is flogged: When morning came the man is sought and not found, and that the man of God was privy to this matter is discovered: by the Abbot and the other Brothers he is vehemently rebuked, afflicted with bitter blows: but he embraces this with all patience and alacrity of mind.
[5] At the same time certain Brothers began, at the instigation and providence of God, beside the castle of Pontoise, to build a certain monastery, in which, with all things set aside, they decreed to serve God. But not wishing to be of the order of those whom Blessed Benedict b calls Sarabaites, who approved by no rule, living under no one's mastery, in the newly erected monastery at Pontoise, two or three together, are enclosed not in the Lord's sheepfolds but in their own; to whom the pleasure of desires is a law, since whatever they think or choose, this they consider holy, but what they will not, this they judge unlawful: guarding against being called or being such; because they had previously known the man of God, they asked that he preside as Abbot over them: and although he long and greatly resisted, by the will of God according to their desire they accepted him, and had him ordained and consecrated for themselves. Having been ordained Abbot he strove by double teaching to preside over and profit his disciples, he is made the first Abbot, namely to show all good and holy things more by deeds than words, so that to intelligible and more honest minds he might show the divine precepts with his words; to the hard of heart and simpler set forth in his deeds the example of living well, chastising his body according to the Apostle, and reducing it into servitude, lest perchance when he preached to others, he himself might become reprobate. 1 Cor. 9:27 Moreover the man of God was adorned with all preachable and becoming morals; to the mild and humble gentle and lovable; to the proud and disobedient by the very feeling terrible: among the poor and middling and rich he knew how to conduct himself well: so that the rich and middling venerated him as higher than themselves, but the poor judged him a poor man equal to themselves. The shapeliness of his form was by no means contemptible, nay, much praiseworthy; for he was of lofty stature, handsome in countenance, angelic in appearance. Not uncomposed in act, he excels in every virtue: always lowly in habit; not easy in laughter, not heavy with sadness; not joyful in prosperity, not sad in adversity; bright in eloquence, sweet in address; generous to others, sparing to himself. But who could worthily repeat how great a grace of exhortation, how great of preaching proceeded from his mouth by divine gift, when all literature was rendered dumb at his preaching, when generally in all a most devout compunction of heart was born? For the man of God had a lively discourse, a tongue taught to speak, so that his words were intelligible to the simpler, admirable to the more learned. Although he was apt in all things, although he seemed useful for all things; yet knowing and frequently revolving in mind that he had taken up a heavy burden, and because the government of souls is the art of arts, and fearing the future discussion over the sheep committed to him, and that whatever negligence that highest Shepherd could detect in anyone would fall to the shepherd's blame; as if laboring under a burden, he sought reasonably to lay down so great a weight. From which when he was hindered by the dissuasion of many probable men, he attempted secretly to flee.
[6] Therefore having heard the fame of the religion and holy conversation of the Brothers of Cluny, namely that those Brothers, above all whom all Gaul contained in her bosom, held the world and its concupiscence in contempt; that they anticipated each other in honor; and that their weaknesses, He departs secretly to Cluny, whether of morals or of bodies, they bore most patiently; and that with all humble subjection they were obedient to each other, and no one followed what seemed useful to himself, but rather what others felt; that they had the bowels of charity; that they loved their Abbot with sincere love; that they preferred nothing to the love of God; this place the servant of God, believing he could be hidden, chose to seek. Coming therefore to the place, he was received with all devotion by the Abbot and the other Brothers; received, he dwelt humbly among them, and recognizing from them what he had learned by hearing, rejoiced; gave thanks, and rejoiced that he had escaped the peril he feared; and believing he had found a safe hiding place, did not indicate that he had been an Abbot. These things indeed were done by divine providence, that in them he might take an example of mortification, which he might show to us, his disciples, by the document of good action. Meanwhile the Brothers of the already mentioned monastery of Pontoise, bearing his absence with annoyance, went to John c then of Rouen, of good memory, the Archbishop, asking that they receive letters sealed with the seal of his authority, by which they might bring the servant of God back to his place. What more? Letters having been received from the Archbishop and presented in his name to the Abbot of Cluny, with God as author he is brought back to his place, and is received with the joy and wish of all. Afterwards the man of God hid in a certain grotto, returning he lay hidden in a grotto: not far from the monastery of which by God's disposing he had been given Abbot: in which he dedicated his body to God by abstinence and vigils and keener disciplines, by which he sacrificed his outer man.
[7] But afterwards he had a certain notable hiding place of his concealment, he lives on the island of Saints Cosmas and Damian near Tours: on an island which is in view of the city of Tours, on which there is a church, dedicated to the name of Saints Cosmas and Damian and sanctified with honor. On this for a long time tarrying, with how great harshness he tamed his body, with what fastings and what vigils continuing day and night he endured, with what alms he stood forth profuse, the tongue is not sufficient to tell. For to you Jesus Christ alone are his works known, from whom no secret is hidden, no one's conscience is concealed: you alone he sought to make sharer of his secret, whom alone he believed the most faithful rewarder. Then the man of God began to be frequented by the inhabitants of that city, and to be venerated by the more noble both Clerics and Laity: who recognizing in him so great wisdom, humility, and probity of morals, and he gives large alms. heard from him admonitions of salvation, and loved him with all affection. Therefore, to him unwilling and much resisting, they sent frequent gifts, which at least might be spent by him on the necessities of the poor. All of which distributing with a liberal hand, he also offered to the Lord all his own things, whatever he was seen to have: so that one day to a poor man coming to him and asking alms, having nothing at all to give, he gave him his books, that he might receive mutual money for them, which the man of God would afterwards redeem. At another time also he gave to the same poor man his clothing, that is, a tunic and cowl, which the day before yesterday the Major-monastery had sent him, precious indeed and new. And thus the man of God truly clothed Christ in the poor man, and the chilly giver warmed the needy one.
NOTES.
CHAPTER II.
Roman journey. The King and Bishops admonished in Council.
[8] Brought back to Pontoise, Meanwhile he was sought by his disciples, and was not found: but by a certain pilgrim, Guarinus by name, who was going round the places of the Saints on pilgrimage, at length by God's will he is discovered; found, it is announced to the monastery: the prayers of the Brothers are directed to him; the destruction of the same monastery, which had almost been destroyed in his absence, and its disorder is suggested; and yielding to so many prayers, to the house of which he had specially been given Pastor, he goes to Rome, he is brought back. Afterwards, however, he seeks the Pope of the city of Rome, Hildebrand a by name; by whose counsel and authority at least he might be able to avert such a burden. In whose presence, the man of God with tears and intimate sighs of heart begged forgiveness, frequently crying out that he was unworthy of so great a burden, and was by no means fit for the honor. Having stayed some days at Rome, he becomes known and familiar to the Lord Apostolic, and is frequently called to discourse. For seeing in the man of God an admirable fullness of knowledge and praiseworthy humility, he is sent back by the Supreme Pontiff: he decided to recall him with the Apostolic benediction to his former grade, rebuking him with gentle words; saying that it was not worthy that a man so fit, able to profit himself and others, should be intent on his own utility; that he ought to return to his monastery, and govern with God's help the Lord's sheep, which he had undertaken to feed. But seeing that his mind remained inflexible in its opinion, with supreme obedience and Apostolic authority he enjoined upon him the pastoral care, and besides struck him with anathema, if henceforth without his permission he should leave his monastery, which he had undertaken to rule. Then the man of God, strengthened by Apostolic authority and benediction, returned to his place, and thereafter did not seek a way of escape. But how he lived the rest of his life, or how he migrated from this age, or by what miracles after his blessed end he shone forth, so far as we have been able to know the following discourse will declare.
[9] The man of God was so tenacious of justice and right, that he spared none sinning, none wishing to defend his injustice: nay, he would contradict Kings or any powers acting perversely with the free voice of reason. For he knew and also frequently revolved in mind what through the Prophet the Lord reproaches to those dissembling the sins of men, saying: A lover of justice, "You have not gone up against the adversary, nor have you set up a wall for the house of Israel, to stand in battle in the day of the Lord." Ezek. 13:5 For they do not go up against the adversary, who do not contradict with the free voice of reason any powers acting perversely; and in the day of the Lord they do not stand for the house of Israel, and do not oppose a wall, who do not defend the faithful innocent against the injustice of the perverse from the authority of justice: for they hardly reprehend anyone with open voice for his fault; but what is graver, if sometimes any person in this age has offended, his offenses many times are praised, while they are not reprehended, lest if they be reprehended they may perhaps oppose. Whence one day, when he sought conversation with Philip King of the Franks, that one knowing the great constancy and fortitude of mind of the man of God, by which he did not soothe the sins of the erring, but struck them; blushed to be noted before his Magnates by his harsh invective, and therefore asked for a private meeting. Which obtained, the man of God began thus to speak to him: "Since we hold it certain, and without any ambiguity believe, that for the good or evil which we do here, He admonishes the King, either glory or punishment remains for each one; I marvel that you, a man most learned in all things to which you devote yourself, do not regard the evils which you do indifferently: for the Lord appointed you Rector and Leader of his people: whence the Apostle says: 'There is no power but from God; and those
which are, are ordained by God; therefore whoever resists the power, resists the ordinance of God.' Rom. 13:1 If therefore according to the Apostle you have received power from God, and have merited to be called and to be King, you ought to rule the people of God, not to scatter them; to do those things which have been commanded you by God; to abstain from those things which the Lord has forbidden. Through you and by you the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are gratuitous, are sold; by you gifts are received which God reproves: and if you are not permitted to give the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are gratuitous, how much less to sell them. Do you not recollect, do you not turn over in your mind, what it is that our Savior, having entered the temple, overthrew the seats of those selling doves, and poured out the money of the money-changers, saying, 'Take these things hence, and do not make my Father's house a house of business'? John 2:16 What is it, I say, to overthrow the seats of those selling doves? but to destroy the power of those selling the gifts of the Holy Spirit? lest he continue to sell ecclesiastical benefices: All ecclesiastical offices, all things pertaining to the Church of God, are gifts of the Holy Spirit. Tell me, if you know, whence you received the key of the kingdom of heaven; for you give and sell the power of binding and loosing. But what have you that you have received? By the holy Fathers in the Council of Toledo and in other equally holy Synods it has been forbidden that ecclesiastical offices be obtained for money: also to give altars or tithes for money, no one of the faithful is ignorant is simoniacal heresy. All Laics who hold anything in the Church, and also Clerics who hold from them or serve under them, and also those who strive to confirm that this can be done, are made despisers of the divine law: and therefore unless they repent, they will perish without end; and already in this age, while they live, by the rightly believing they are to be refused as transgressors or apostates. See therefore what evils arise from these sellings and buyings. For while you yourself sell Ecclesiastical honors to certain men, they in turn sell sacred Orders and the imposition of hands to others. Of all these evils, if you look well, you are seen to be the head. So the churches are despoiled, while those worst buyers and simoniacal invaders do not fear to melt down as much gold and silver as they find in the Church of God, and to sell precious ornaments, that they may at least obtain Ecclesiastical offices." With these and other such words the man of God rebuked the King: which therefore I wished to write, that I might show the invincible fortitude of mind in the man of God, through which he rather wished to succumb to death, than to hide the truth. Therefore he had many enemies, endured many abusers and persecutors: but all these he overcame with a brave mind and unconquerable patience, memorably recollecting what Truth itself says to his disciples: John 15:19 "If you had been of this world, the world would love what was its own: but because you are not of the world, therefore the world hates you:" and that Matt. 5:10 "Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven:" and also that, "All who wish to live piously in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Tim. 3:12
[10] Instructed with these and such weapons, when at Paris the Council having been gathered, almost all, both Bishops and Abbots and Clerics, judged that the command of the Lord Apostolic Hildebrand of holy memory ought not to be obeyed, saying and falsely asserting that his precepts were unbearable, and therefore unreasonable; and the Bishops lest they set themselves against the Pontifical mandate: before all the multitude he said: "It is evident that you wish to define an indecent sentence to be refused by all: for justly, as Blessed Gregory says, or unjustly a pastor binds, nevertheless the sentence of a pastor is to be feared by the flock, lest he who is subject and is perhaps bound by unjust causes, deserves the very penalty of his obligation from another fault. Nor ought anyone rashly to reprehend the judgment of his pastor; lest even if he was perhaps unjustly bound, from the very pride of swollen reprehension, the fault, which was not, may come to be." These things said, those who were present being vehemently inflamed with anger against the servant of God, the King's slaves joining in their crime, and all crying out rose in one conspiracy, seized him from the council, drag, strike, box, spit upon him, and afflicted with many contumelies, they lead him to the King's house. But the man of God manfully enduring these things for the love of God, stood immovable, and to those threatening death with a cheerful voice he answered: "I prefer to undergo death for truth, than shamefully yield to falsehood." O with how many vows, with what prayers, Lord God, did he entreat your magnificence, that he might be joined to the number of your holy Martyrs, to whom he was already joined by merits. It had been good for him, Lord, and therefore he is imprisoned. to lay down the burden of this earthen vessel, that he might be able to attain the perpetual crown. But nevertheless, Lord, you were yet planning to reserve your servant, profitable to your Church; and therefore you deferred the crown desired with such vows. Therefore by the valor of certain Magnates, who had known and loved him before, the man of God is snatched from the place in which he was held, and returned with honor to his Church. It is long to narrate by particulars, what and how many perils he endured for truth, what poisoned darts of words and abuses he tolerated: but let us recount the glorious great deeds of the same blessed man which we saw b and heard.
NOTES.
CHAPTER III.
Various exercises of patience, humility, and other virtues.
[11] There was a cell adjoining the monastery to which by God's will the man of God presided, in which it was his custom to pray, and to wear down his body with many fastings and vigils and excessive torments of blows. In this alone, with God alone as witness, he insisted on prayer, He does his works in secret: and gave his work to divine contemplation. But who could worthily explain in words the insistence of his prayers and the number of his genuflections, with which he venerated the Divine majesty; when especially, as has been said, alone, with God alone as witness, in the same cell he prayed, kept vigil, fasted, and was intent on the other exercises of holy virtue. Matt. 5:15 But by no means, as Truth itself testifies, can a city placed on a mountain be hidden, nor is a lamp placed under a bushel; but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all who are in the house of God. The more holy men seek to hide their works, the more they become manifest for the example of holy conversation to those who follow. The man of God was cautious and circumspect about the exercises of holy works: for he feared to lose in vain, what with great bodily labor and contrition of his spirit he was acquiring: for he knew that the praise of the impious is brief, far from vainglory, and the glory of the hypocrite is like a point. For there are very many most vain pretenders, who inflated with the wind of pride, while they macerate their body with a certain abstinence, wish to be seen fasting by men, and thence seek human favors: they desire to appear great in the sight of men, and are not afraid to be foul before the eyes of the supernal Inspector; they engage in preaching, not that the people may profit for the better from their preaching; but that their wisdom may become known to those whom they preach to: they give many and great gifts to the needy, not for this, that thence they may merit the kingdom of God; but that they may attain transitory praise, which is sweet in their affection: who indeed, according to the attestation of Truth, are like sepulchres, whitened outside, but inside full of the bones of the dead: whose heart is at the corners of the streets, to pray, to engage in salutations, to love the first seats at banquets, to wish to be called Rabbi by men. Matt. 23:27 But what, I ask, is this madness, to afflict the body in vain, to sow many seeds, and not to wish to receive any fruit? to lose eternal rewards, and to love transitory ones? All which things the man of God, inflamed with the fire of divine love, fled as the poison of the devil, and continually said that verse of David, familiar to his mouth; "Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to thy name give the glory." Ps. 113:1
[12] We have a noble document of his magnanimous humility, in that when the blessed man had money to be spent on the necessities of the poor, he wished neither to distribute it by himself nor through his domestics; but arranged to do this in such a manner he distributes alms through others, that no suspicion might arise, by which this might be recognized to be his giving. Therefore at one time having a quantity of coins, he made certain very familiar to him, namely Marcellus the Presbyter and Raimund the Deacon, come to him from the castle of Pontoise, and said to them: "A certain friend of mine has handed to me money of coins to be distributed to the poor; but because I am unaccustomed to such actions, I ask your love to distribute it in such a way, that no one, as long as I live, may think it was entrusted to you by me." Who hastily fulfilled his commands, and concealed the blessed man to have been author of this benefit until his death. Who ever would believe him liberal, who compassionate toward the poor? For when in the sight of men a poor man asked something from him, or with no one present: he vehemently contradicted him as if with indignation and anger, so that you would judge him not compassionate, but hard and cruel: but when no one was present, who could be judge of his secret, the poor man was recalled, refreshed, and in him truly Christ was adored, who was also received. Moreover it was his custom, that as often as he wished to wash the feet of poor men and pilgrims, he did not do this, unless either when the monks were about to recite the divine offices in the oratory, or while they were refreshing themselves in the refectory, or resting in the dormitory. Thus the man of God was so munificent toward the poor, that many times he gave them even the shoes from his feet and the other necessary garments, so that he retained neither knife nor anything else or anything worth an as, but spent all on the necessities of the poor.
[13] He uses a hard bed, There was in the aforesaid cell a little bed, not propped up with much softness of feathers, but only a hair-shirt placed upon a mat, so that you could not easily know, by which the head, by which part the feet were placed at the hour of rest; and in our times another Germanus was shown forth, whose, as is read in his Deeds, "head from his shoulders through the border of the neck was raised up by no addition." None of us saw him lying bare, since not even the cord with which he was girded was laid down, and rarely were the shoes drawn from his feet. His flesh was continually worn down with the roughest hair-shirt; to which however precious sleeves adhered, made of linen stuff; so that while the sleeves were seen, with a rough hair-shirt, the hair-shirt within was not detected. O a deed praiseworthy in all, by which the commands of the Savior are fulfilled, with knotted scourges, and protection is given to the example of preserving humility! The blessed man had also made for himself a scourge from the hardest thongs, whose tops were exasperated with firmest knots, with which almost every day
his flesh was cruelly smitten. The sound of this smiting was heard by the sacristans of the church, and by others existing in the church; although, lest it be heard, he withdrew into a more secret chamber. The vilest garment, which he used, he never changed; with worn garments, unless either it was loosed by excessive age, or perhaps given to the needy. We saw him at the hour of refection of the Brothers, in the manner of the weekly Brother lector, reading in the refectory, serving the office of the kitchen, ministering to others, preparing the oven for baking breads. Whence one day, he undertakes the lowlier services: fatigued by the affliction of fasting, while he was heating the oven, before the mouth of the oven he almost lifeless fell, and was carried away thence by the hands of the disciples. With others occupied in the labor of hands, forgetful of his own authority he was similarly occupied; and he who was first in the order of prelation, rejoiced to be made equal to others in the exercise of work.
[14] Whenever in the refectory with others, the Brothers compelling, he took refreshment (which however he did not lightly do, unless either at the promise made to him by the same Brothers of the supplication of Masses or the refection of the poor, content with water and tasteless foods: as if for the recompense of his abstinence), he secretly sent ahead one of our fellow disciples, for a little while aware of his secret, that, the others being ignorant, he should remove the wine from his cup a and pour in water. It was a sight to behold the man defending himself with such circumspection, that while we thought him being filled with abundant wine, he drank water; and thus carefully the fish, which perhaps were brought, with his own hand having removed the bones b he divided through the dish, so as to deceive the eyes of those watching, judging him to be really eating fish, when indeed he did not so much as taste their flavor. The man of God had provided for himself a Brother, fearing the Lord, who at the hour of his refection in the often-mentioned cell brought to him through a suitable window bread and beans, seasoned with no fat or flavor, and with these foods most strictly sustained his humanity. Moreover, which is wonderful to say and hear, as many loaves as the minister brought to him, he often received from him as many back; whence it is clearer than the day that he was sustained only by the power of God through beans: and water was brought for drinking, which he himself often drew for himself, and carried, which was not changed until another Sabbath. But who could believe by hearing, unless he had learned by seeing, how great was the blessed man's perseverance in standing in the choir? He stands during chanting, Since scarcely anyone saw him sit in the church during the time of psalmody. Fatigued sometimes by labor and by the affliction of fasting, he supported his aged limbs with a staff; and so standing, until the chant of the psalmody in the church was finished, he persevered. The course of Matins having been finished, while the rest of the Brothers, for the sake of relieving labor, indulged themselves a little in quiet; the man of God remained vigilant, and giving his work to prayer and holy meditation he passed the night: and remains in prayer, whence on account of excessive continuation of vigils pressed down by the heaviness of sleep, with his forehead struck on the ground, on his knees and elbows he was found by the sacristan of the church to have fallen asleep.
[15] And although the man of God was amply decorated with the flowers of all virtues, yet most of all an outstanding document of humility shone forth in him: for this Father of ours, imitable by all, admirable by all, while he desired to run through all the paths of humility, with all of us gathered into one place (for he had commanded all to be present for this) he said: "Let it please your assembly, most dear Brothers, let no one of you contradict my just petition, that because I, as an indiscreet and entangled in all crimes, He asks to be flogged by his subjects, irrationally, namely at the dictation of anger and no justice preserved, many times have applied corrections of words and blows to you; let it be permitted, in the manner of a sinner, that is, with bare feet, and with my whole body girt only about the loins, and carrying in my hands the disciplinary rods, to come into the chapter; and before God and his Saints from you my Brothers to ask forgiveness for my offenses; and from all of you to receive the correction of rods, namely worthy recompense for my deeds; that thus I may deserve to escape the everlasting pains of hell which are due to me for the same. Let no honor of my prelacy be preserved by you in this deed, but rather let the vices in me be struck, to which honor is not to be shown, but the blush of confusion is to be applied. Let the first in order and agreement first exercise blows on me in turn, that is, let the first begin and the younger end: the measure of which correction shall rest in the judgment of the Prior, presiding in my place: and let all know that he who scourges me more harshly, this one henceforth will be dearer to me: and at last he obtains it: but he who touches me more gently and resolves to be as it were clement to my iniquity, this one by no means loves me according to the Lord, because he gives honor not to me, but to vices." Hearing which things all of us unanimously began to contradict these words of the blessed man, saying that it was unheard of, that any prelate should seek such things from his disciples, and that disciples should obey their masters in such things: that he ought not to do these things, since especially he had been sufficiently tortured by the wasting of fasts and vigils and by old age, and perhaps on account of his infirmity might be about to die amid the scourges. But because the man of God was skilled with wondrous talent and eloquence, although we for a long time and much resisted unwillingly, he persuaded us. What more? The chapter is entered, the servant of God is stripped in the manner above described, before the majesty of God in our presence he is humbly prostrated on the ground. with many weeping, The amazement of all of us surrounded our hearts at his entrance: for seeing a man worthy of all honor, contemned with such vileness, all counsel had fled from us. Everywhere was grief, everywhere weeping, everywhere sighs, everywhere groans. After we had long wept, the old man rebuking us more harshly, calling us soft and effeminate, we yielded to his will. Therefore by the elders it was begun. We were about thirty Brothers, all of whom succeeding each other in turn, we began to smite the man of God with rods. You would have seen a man, weakened by the number of fasts and vigils and at the same time by old age, constant amidst the scourges, calling each by his own name, and inciting him to his own smiting, and crying with a strong voice: "I do not recognize your hands: I do not feel your blows, softly petting me." But the much-desired smiting of rods having been gone through from the greater even to the lesser, who ignorant under the regular discipline was in the schools; again the servant of God is clothed, he gives thanks to all, and on that same day congratulating he is made our dinner guest. It must be weighed, with how great glory of praises the blessed man in this deed is to be extolled by all. And although the man of God was decorated by name with the flowers of all virtues, now it must be seen what virtue, what triumph out of this virtue follows. Let each say what he thinks, I prefer the humility of the blessed man to the illumination of the blind, to the curing of lepers, and to the healing of all diseases. Whence to certain men boasting of the power of miracles and saying, "Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons, and work many wonders?" in the end the Lord will say, "Amen I say to you, I do not know you." For he who gathers virtues without humility, carries as it were dust in the wind. Great indeed is the virtue of humility, which the more it is inclined to the depths, the more it advances to the heights. Without this no one can please God; through this each is able to ascend to the peaks of virtues: this the blessed man always held in his heart: through this he wished to subject himself not only to masters, but also to his subjects.
NOTES.
CHAPTER IV.
Last exercises. Illness. Death.
[16] But in that Lent, which was the last for the blessed man, He spends his last Lent in holiness: he exercised himself with sharper exercises of fasts, vigils, and holy works: so that in comparison with these his former torments were thought lighter. For it was his custom, that at every time, from when he undertook to practice the monastic warfare, he should always add something to his former life, and not grow cold through tepidity from his initial fervor, and doing good not grow weary; but inflamed with divine fire, he should advance from virtue to virtue; and the more his body withered with old age and long fasting, the more his mind, victor over the years, should burn to seek greater things, so that with the Apostle he could truly say, "For when I am weak, then I am stronger and powerful." 2 Cor. 12:10 Whence throughout the whole space of the aforesaid Lent it was known to us that the blessed man did not eat the pound of bread which is daily set before the monk by the precept of Blessed Benedict: but only with beans and water, in tears and measure, he used. But on that Lord's day, On Palm Sunday he kindly speaks to his own: on which our Savior and Redeemer, with the hour of his passion approaching, wished to come to Jerusalem on an ass and to be met by the children of the Hebrews with flowers and palms, and to be called by them King and praised; he refreshed us with such sweetness of his words, that, as if bidding us farewell, up to that time he had not spoken so sweetly and so amicably. On the same day too, at our urging, he celebrated his last banquet with us. The following day, while he was singing Mass, he began to be gravely pressed by the force of fevers, and to be deprived of bodily strength. the next day he suffers from fever: Finally, a certain Brother having been called, who by his command had cut parchments for making a Breviary for him, with a spirit foreboding his imminent dissolution from the body, he said: "Dismiss the work conceived in mind: for this book which you were arranging to write will not be of use to me, he foresees his death: rather let it be left to the will of those who follow, who will assign the cut parchments for other uses after my death." Then the man of God began to be squeezed by greater stings, he receives extreme unction, and from day to day to approach his exit: and having called us together, whom he had loved with paternal affection, and whom, drawn from worldly enticements, he had educated in the fear of God, in the ecclesiastical manner he asked to be anointed with holy Oil. A procession is made to him as he wished: he is anointed: he confesses himself guilty of his sins before God and his Saints in our presence; he absolves all, and is absolved by all; and other Sacraments: then having kissed all of us, and with many intimate sobs and sighs of heart, venerating the glorious memory of the Lord's passion, he is made partaker of the Sacraments of our redemption.
[17] Meanwhile we all began to be irremediably saddened by the imminent passing of the blessed man, fearing lest by his absence the order of our monastery be scattered, or lest with the pastor removed the Lord's flock exposed to wolfish bites should be scattered, he comforts his sad subjects: or lest, whence the greater doubt had grown, with the King corrupted by gifts, someone through simoniacal heresy should enter upon taking up the government of our place. Again having called together all of us, in this manner he addresses those standing by. "Do not," he says, "my sons, be saddened, do not be overly troubled by my bodily dissolution. Trust in the Lord, casting all your solicitude upon him, for he has care for you. Let the charity of God be confirmed in you, that you may be concordant, and lovers of spiritual brotherhood. For if according to God you love one another, know without doubt, that in
all of you the Lord will be cooperator. he gives his final admonitions, Near is, according to the truthful voice of the Psalmist, the Lord to all who call upon him in truth. Ps. 144:19 He will do the will of those who fear him, and will hear their prayer. Do not detract from one another: for all detractors and murmurers are hateful to God. Do not deviate from your holy purpose: for if after I have departed you deviate from your holy purpose, and have schisms among you, and consent to the ordinations of light persons, it will be manifest that not out of love of God, but out of fear of your Master, you have up to this time remained in religion: but if, as up to this day, you remain in humility, in concord, in charity; the Lord will provide a most faithful dispenser for his house, who will cherish you more gently than I, spiritually and bodily, in all things according to the Lord." With these and such exhortations desiring us to come into consolation, he had the stole placed on his holy neck, and holding with his right hand the pastoral staff, absolved all of us, and with the voice that he could commended us to the Lord, the protector and author of all.
[18] he foretells the day of his death; But when the fifth feria came, on which the Lord supped with his disciples, and as a form of humility washing their feet, handed over to them the sacrament of his Body and Blood, and was handed over by a disciple to the Jews, with the Brothers standing by him he said: "I shall not tarry here longer; for tomorrow, God willing, I am about to migrate from this light." Which was indeed done. For on the day of Parasceve, having received the life-giving Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, on Parasceve having received the Eucharist he dies. and all ecclesiastical rites duly ordered, when it was already late, he began to labor with his last breath; and in a brief interval, namely with night falling, leaving behind the bodily clay, his spirit by angelic guidance migrated to the bosom of blessed rest. But when, to be washed, his body had been stripped; we saw his flesh shining with snowy whiteness, and stained in no part of the whole body even with a slight spot, already displaying a certain appearance of the future resurrection; so that it was believed to be no longer human, but angelic, what was seen. For not, as is wont to be seen in a lifeless body, with the skin stretched were his bones, with the flesh failing, laid bare, but filled moderately with a certain appearance; so that you would not easily believe that the blessed man had ever covered his flesh with a hair-shirt, or wearied it with any abstinence, but had always lived in delights. He was buried in the oratory of the most blessed Martin, which had been in great part begun to be built by the same man, in the place where he had ordered himself to be buried. In which place through the glorious merits of the blessed man very many miracles are shown, as the little page of the following book testifies.
HISTORY OF THE MIRACLES
by the same Pontoise monk
from the MS. of the illustrious man André du Chesne.
Galterius, Abbot of Martin, of the Order of Benedict, near Pontoise in Gaul (St.)
BHL Number: 8797
BY A DISCIPLE FROM MS.
PROLOGUE.
[1] Many for various causes have applied their minds to write deeds: some that their talents, rubbed as it were by the very use of writing, might be rendered brighter; others that through this they might become more famous to the ears of men, and thence might attain honors and the greatest profits; others that deeds, effaced by the length of times, might not be taken away from the memory of men. Life and miracles written from obedience. But to me to write the Life of Blessed Gauterius, to be desired by all good men, and his passing from this world, and now to write his Miracles, by which after his blessed end the Lord deigned to glorify his servant, the greatest cause is obedience. Which virtue, namely obedience, joined with humility, by right has been made greater than all virtues; while she not only strives to carry out those things which men know, but also compels to attempt those they do not know. This, to me stammering and not yet able to form words fully, has commanded those things which I cannot do. Whence I ask all who will read this little work, that they grant pardon to my ignorance. For I confess that I have presumed beyond my strength: but yet I prefer to prepare the works of the blessed man with whatever style, than wholly to be silent about them.
CHAPTER I.
The crippled, lame, mute, fever-stricken, and raging cured.
[2] Miracles performed soon after his death: After the glorious deposition of his body, the place of burial of the blessed man began to be frequented by many: among whom were many of promiscuous sex, weak and sick, asking the remedies of health: and through the glorious merits of the man of God God conferred many kinds of healings: for to the blind sight, to the lame gait, and to others of whatever kind of pain and languor entire health was restored.
[3] At the same time, with the fame of his virtues running everywhere, the crippled are healed, from the parts of Normandy a certain boy was brought by his parents to the patronage of the blessed man; who was so contracted with the dryness of his sinews and the inflexible knottiness of his joints, from the loins through the borders of the ribs and hams and shins, that with the ankles clinging to the buttocks and nature vitiated, the half-dead limbs were in no way able to fulfill their own offices. His parents began to implore heavenly aids, that through the merits of the blessed man, the healing medicine might be divinely bestowed on the sick one. Divine clemency was present to these suppliants, and with the merits of the most holy man assisting, to the sick one was returned the long-desired health. He marvels to go on his own feet, who for so long had been carried by the hands of others: but lest this miracle should quickly be taken away from the memory of men, indubitable proofs remained for those desiring to know and see: for as long as he survived in this life, the traces of his ankles were seen impressed on his buttocks.
[4] Around the same time a certain one within the years of puberty had been so condemned in the office of all his limbs, that he could never move his step, the lame, but even lying down could not turn himself to another side: who being laid down by the pious solicitude of his parents before the tomb of the man of God, began both to implore and await the remedy of health. Nor was he longer frustrated of his expectation, but rather looked upon by the mercy and commiseration of God, he began little by little to recover the liveliness of his limbs, and after a short time with no one guiding he began to try new steps. Thence brought into our presence, we confirmed that wholeness had been returned to him divinely; whence we began to praise and magnify the divine power. He was called Ralph.
[5] Finally, a certain Deacon, named Raymund, (concerning whom it was said in the superior book, that he had been the dispenser of the blessed man's alms) was tortured by a most violent chill of fevers. num. 12 This one, trusting in God's mercy and the virtue-bearing power of his servant, suffering from fever: came; and on account of the multitude of the sick, expecting health there, being unable to approach nearer, stood from afar, and cried with what voice he could: "I entreat you, servant of omnipotent God, that because you served the Lord in virtue, you may deign to obtain for me from the Lord as quickly as possible refreshment, me whom in this life you much loved with sincere love." This with tears repeating, and nothing more having said, immediately with all the bile of the pain vomited up, he returned home well, and gave thanks to God and Saint Galterius for the health granted.
[6] In these days also another, called by the same name, was gravely ill with the same disease: and this one was a merchant, in the castle of Pontoise, as that one of whom it was written above, born and brought up. This one long before had been joined to the blessed man by the service of familiarity; another likewise: for also to Rome with the same as inseparable companion he had gone, and had humbly served him with charity. Who despairing of himself (for the pain was most violent) lay before the tomb of the man of God, and with tears recollecting his former friendships, and at the same time humbly begging to be succored, began to doze for a little while. Awakened from sleep, he felt the divine power to have been present, because of the wholeness returned to him: whence made joyful, as if for a gift, with a precious tapestry he covered the tomb of the man of God, and thenceforth he remained unharmed from the very infirmity by which he was held.
[7] Moreover it is not to be passed over in silence, but to be committed to diligent memory, that through the merits of the blessed man to many, turned into madness by the instigation of demons, the sobriety of their evilly seized mind was restored. For a certain raging man, named Durand, from the village Tineosa, a raging man, which is nearest to the castle of Pontoise, is brought in a cart: who bound to the shafts of that cart with the tightest ropes on every side, is thus miserably drawn to the burial of the blessed man. But you would see the wretch, horribly rolling bloody eyes, gnashing with teeth, clamoring irremediably, blaspheming God and men shamefully, speaking strange and unheard-of things, recognizing no one, eating nothing at all, never sleeping even a little, desiring to tear himself and those approaching him with his teeth. This one, certainly using the strength of the demon, was stronger than any man; and therefore, although he was bound on every side with chains, he was nevertheless held on every side by the strongest men. But the Divine goodness did not long permit the man so miserably to lie subject to the frauds of the devil: but with all those present, parents and neighbors, imploring the suffrage of the blessed man, the man received his sober sense. Whence with all astonished at this miracle, he had himself loosed, loosed ate, and thenceforth vowed himself to be the servant of the blessed man, and thus most gently returned to his home.
[8] Let us bring forward into the midst a miracle similar to the former, which God deigned to work to the praise and glory of his name through the merit of the blessed man. A certain woman, from the village which is called Settana, a raging woman, named Stephana, her faults without doubt exacting it, by diabolical fraud had lost her sense: and since she desired to tear all, as many as set themselves against her, with bestial bites; and shamefully with hair loosed, not considering the female sex, rolled about on the ground; suddenly she is rushed to by friends, is seized, chained, and in the manner in which the aforesaid man, is brought to the tomb of the blessed man. I shudder to relate: I saw her the cruel tearer of her own body, tearing her own limbs with her teeth, sometimes sprinkling her face with tears, and suddenly with her face still sprinkled with tears laughing, so that weeping, she made the bystanders weep; and laughing, she forced all nonetheless to laugh. When with these and other such illusions she was fatigued, her parents and friends began to demand the suffrages of the man of God, that to the woman entire sense be returned, and her tumultuous voices be quieted. And behold, sense having been recovered, she began to recognize the name of God, which before she abhorred and blasphemed; and recognizing from those who brought her what she had done and what she had said, was amazed; and vowing herself with a vow to be the Saint's handmaid, with her wholeness persevering, returned to her dwelling.
[9] Likewise from the a region of Beauvais a certain one similarly afflicted, to be led bound to the tomb of the man of God, but suddenly his bonds broken, shaking himself from the hands of those holding him, a third raging demoniac: escaped. And when by those pursuing by no effort he could be caught (for he was beyond what could be believed, not by his own but by the virtue of the evil spirit, agile and strong) by chance into the borough called Cambly b he entered, and there by the burgesses themselves he was caught, with those following
by friends he was returned. And while he was being placed on an ass, with feet chained beneath the ass's belly; suddenly his manual bonds broken, he struck his godfather, who was standing nearer to him, gravely with his fist in the face: and with the great difficulty of all, until to the church of the blessed Martin, in which the venerable body of the man of God lies, he was brought. It pleased his conductors, that not far from the monastery he should be let down from the ass, and should go on foot up to the monastery. But while he is being let down, again he escapes, and making a run toward the Oise, that he might cast himself into it, by God's will he is anticipated by the servants of the church; and caught, into the monastery, which he feared to approach as to a fire, at length he is brought in: where when he was brought in, he struck heavily with his foot the belly of a certain monk, Sacristan of our church. What more? His parents and friends pray the suffrage of the blessed man, that he would deign to have him as servant, and expel the demon from him. And when they passed the night in prayers sleepless, and the man by no means ceased from his clamor; suddenly looked upon by the divine gift, he began to doze a little; and immediately awakened, with a tranquil voice he called those standing by him; and manifested what the divine Piety had wrought about him; and having confessed his sins, he communicated in the life-giving Body and Blood of our redemption, and unharmed he returned home.
[10] Many miracles could be narrated, which have been done concerning demoniacs: but to avoid the weariness of readers, let us pass to others. A certain young man, born in the village of Asinaria c, came to implore the mercy of the blessed man: a mute young man, and when he had passed the night with other sick before the tomb of the man of God, the next day, which was held as Sunday, the Sacristan compelling all to leave after the Masses, this one alone could not be moved from the place. Then the Sacristan offered him bread and cheese, that he might be refreshed: but he with such signs as he could satisfied him, that he would take no food at all, until he should deserve to receive speech. Therefore the Sacristan, after the prandium of the Brothers, opening the door; behold there ran to meet him the young man, speaking well and distinctly, blessing God and his most holy servant. Then on the following Sabbath with a great company of his neighbors and parents he returned, and paid his vows with them for the gift given.
NOTES.
CHAPTER II.
Various limbs of afflicted men are cured.
[11] In the same village a boy, son of a certain knight named Goslenius, Pustules are cured, was held by a grave disease of pustules through his whole body: and because by no art of doctors could he be cured, it was urged to his father that he have the boy taken to the virtue-bearing burial of the blessed man: which was indeed done. Finally, the courses of a few days having rolled by, the boy lacked every pestilence of the disease by which he was held, and whole met two monks of our church in the same village; and his parents joyfully went forth to meet the same monks, and through them destined a gift of charity to our monastery.
[12] In the castle of Gournay a, which is situated in the borders of Normandy, there lived a certain man, who had so lost his hand, that I may not say to do any work, but he could not even bring it to his mouth: he was a shoemaker. And when, as he was accustomed, by laboring with his hands he could not relieve his indigence, immobility of the hand, and was in want; one day, moved by grief at once and anger, having taken an axe he placed his weak hand on a wooden block, that he might cut it off. When his wife saw this being done, she restrained him, saying: "Let it not please my Lord to do that thing unadvisedly and with imprudent haste, nor let it seem injurious to hear my counsel. Now with the fame spreading the reputation of the blessed man it is known that in the place of his burial many benefits are divinely bestowed on the sick: therefore it seems salutary to me, to hasten as quickly as possible to that very place, and to beg the suffrage of the Saint himself. There are no great dangers of the way and of labor to be undergone; no great expenses to be carried on the way; this attempting will harm you nothing, but will profit much with God's help." These things said, the man yields to his wife well counselling him, and, so that what is said might be fulfilled, "The unfaithful man will be saved by the faithful woman," he sought the monastery of Pontoise; in which, with the merits of the blessed man assisting, the infirmity put to flight, he recovered the former office of his hand, the solace of his life. 1 Cor. 7:14 Therefore congratulating he began to extend his hand, and as if praising to say: "Thanks do I return to God and Saint Galterius, because I shall yet sew many goat and ox hides with this hand, and with God's help I shall labor, whence I shall relieve my house's need." And saying these things he began to depart: and when he was not far, looking back on the monastery, with joy he returned; and placed his offering upon the Saint's tomb. These things again and a third time from the abundance of his joy in similar manner he performed.
[13] From the village of Avesnes b, which is in the Vexin region, a certain smith, named Robert, was brought: who miserably with his belly like a wineskin, marvelous swelling and immobility of the whole body, and with the rest of his limbs stretched with malignant swelling, suspected and awaited neighboring death. This one continually lying supine, could not be turned to the right or left side even a little. This one's (I am about to say wonderful things) sinews were so inflexible, that he could neither sit nor bend his knees; and if ever from necessity compelling he had to be raised from the bed, in the manner of a wooden or stone image, with his whole body remaining inflexible, he would be raised up. But also that I will not hide, although to some it may seem shameful to say, that he emitted frequent sounds from his posterior, so that in whatever place he was, he could in no way control himself. Afflicted with such discomforts, before the venerable tomb of the blessed man he is set down, and earnestly entreats, that either death or wholeness be given him, lest longer he be tortured by these pains. And behold, with the merits of the blessed man protecting, the sick man began to improve, and little by little to be relaxed from that swelling; and not long after, recovering most entirely, he gave thanks to his liberator for the health granted him.
[14] But that is not to be passed over in silence, that a certain citizen of Beauvais was pressed by such anxiety of his limbs, that scarcely able to take food, scarcely able to rest in sleeping, despaired in every way of himself. This one when he heard the reputation of the virtues of the blessed man, weakness of limbs, trusting in God's piety, and presuming beyond his own strength, and supporting his languid limbs with a staff, leading toward Pontoise he began to take the journey, and what a well man could have completed in the space of half a day, scarcely the sick man could finish after seven days passed. Coming, however, before the tomb of the man of God, he faithfully offered his devotion of prayers, and received the long-desired health, and joyful he departed to his own; and the journey, which, as is said, sick he could scarcely complete in seven days, now well he completed in one and not a whole day.
[15] Likewise from the c borough of Saint Denis a certain woman came; who was so contracted in the loins, contracted loins, that she could in no place move her step by herself, but supported with staves placed under her armpits on either side, she dragged herself along as best she could. And when for a long time she had been subject to this injury of necessity, having heard the fame of the miracles by which the Lord was glorifying his servant, she arranged to come to his salutary tomb, which indeed she did. But coming, and offering devoted prayers to the Lord with tears before the venerable tomb of the man of God, she began to await the reparation of her body faithfully, nor was she long frustrated in her expectation: for feeling the desired life to be present to her body, she constantly raised herself up, and raised up firmly she began to walk without the support of her staves, and joyfully offered her staves, so to speak, feet: which for a long time, as a sign of so great a miracle, hung before the tomb of the man of God.
[16] In the village of Gonesse, which is in the territory of Paris, a certain boy was vehemently troubled with a headache. headache, With the disease growing, the very pain began to rage to such an extent, that for three days the boy remained without any support of food, with his eyes already as if closed by approaching death, and through individual moments he seemed now to have died. Then his parents, with 9 worms coming out through his ears: moved by their son's pain, at length found a useful counsel, that they should hand over the aforesaid boy to the blessed man in service, if from the infirmity by which he was held he should be released by his merits. And behold on the third day, through the ear of that boy three worms came forth; and he began little by little to improve. But on the sixth day again six worms emerged through the same ear, and all pain was put to flight.
[17] But with no less miracle the blessed man shone forth in the same village. For a certain one by falling had broken his shoulder, fracture of the shoulder: and when from the pain of the fracture itself he could have no rest either by sleeping or taking food, with human medicine profiting nothing at all, at length he sought divine aids: for he began to invoke the name of the blessed man with tears, that by his piety he might mitigate his pain; which if he should endure longer, death would be sweeter than life. And behold when one night he was being pressed down little by little by gentle sleep, Blessed Galterius seemed to stand by him, and to touch his shoulder gently with his hand, and to make the sign of the Cross above it. Awakening he felt no further pain of that fracture, and that Blessed Galterius had stood by him and conferred a remedy, he manifested by evident signs.
[18] A certain man's throat had swollen so, that he could scarcely speak; but could not swallow anything, except liquid. This man was from the village called Serannia, which is in the territory of Troyes d. And when he was laboring with this pestilence, having heard of the virtues of the blessed man, he promised that every year to the measure of his stature he would bring or send him a candle, swelling of the throat, if by his merits he should deserve to obtain health. Health having been obtained, he paid the vow in that year; but with prosperous things succeeding, the man forgetful of his former adversity, became also forgetful of his promise: whence it came about that he was vexed by the former discomfort. Seeing this his mother said: "Son, you suffer these things deservedly: because the benefits of God, which were conferred on you through the blessed man, you have handed over to oblivion, and the vow which you vowed you have not paid. growing worse because of the deferred vow: For behold two years have passed, since you neither brought nor sent a candle to the tomb of the blessed man of God. Ask therefore pardon, promise amendment, that God may receive your satisfaction, and securely await your liberation." This done, shortly after, he lacked all that pestilence; and hastening as quickly as possible to the burial of the man of God, what he had unjustly withheld from former years he returned with satisfaction; and narrated to the Brothers of the monastery with attestation the things that had happened to him.
[19] A certain man also had become deaf from an excessive headache; he was from the town which was called Marines, which is also in the Vexin
region. And when in the church, in which the body of the man of God rests, praying faithfully he was awaiting his suffrage; nothing of those things which in the church were sung by the Brothers celebrating the divine mysteries, deafness, could he hear. But one night, while the Brothers were occupied in vigils, that deaf man began to doze a little, and saw Blessed Gauterius standing by him, and gently with a soothing hand touching his head on all sides: then awakened clearly he heard the things which were being said by the Brothers, which, as has already been said, by no means had the faculty of hearing: and as long a time as he lived, he by no means was subject to this deafness.
[20] A certain woman, who was from the castle of Marly, which is in the territory of Paris, had entirely lost the offices of both hands; curving of the fingers. for by no means could she straighten the fingers which the disease had curved. This woman with her spouse, about to obtain the aids of the man of God, came; and emitting many sorrowful voices, which the very grief of mind dictated, at length beneath the stone by which the tomb of the blessed man is covered, fell asleep. But waking, as she sensed the desired vigor to be present to her hands, immediately leaping up, with great alacrity of heart she moved her hands through the air; and curving her fingers, and again often raising them up, from joy she began to cry: "Thanks be to God, I have hands, hands, I say, I have, whose shape I bore, but the utility I lacked." These and other things frequently repeating, she vowed herself to be thenceforth the Blessed one's handmaid, and rejoicing she returned home.
NOTES.
CHAPTER III.
Miraculous cures of various infirmities at the tomb of Saint Galterius.
[21] Two suffering from falling sickness are healed, What also befell a certain inhabitant of the same castle, I will manifest: this one was going for the sake of reaping into the field; and when he had not yet proceeded far from the castle itself, touched by a certain passion, which doctors call falling sickness, he suddenly fell to the ground. But with many standing around him, behold there came a woman, who said: "If he should bring a candle of the measure of his stature to the burial of the man of God, he would never again labor with this disease." Hearing which voice, but not able to see the woman, he said: "O woman, have you learned by any experiment what you have urged me to do?" To this she: "I myself frequently labored with this disease, until it was urged on me to bring a candle of the measure of my stature to the said place: which when I had done, I was perfectly healed." He hearing these things, when what had been urged on him by the woman, he had promised to do, immediately rose up: and from that hour, from that disease by which he was held, he remained immune. These things were made known to us by faithful narration from the same man who was healed.
[22] But I do not wish to pass over, how a certain woman, called Ermetrudis, the blind, deprived of the double light of her eyes, by the merits of the blessed man was enlightened. This one was from the village which is near Marly: and when the virtues of the man of God had sounded in her ears, trusting greatly in the Lord, she gave her hand to a boy, and had herself drawn to the venerable tomb of the same. Three days having been completed in tears and contrition of heart, the woman received her sight: and exulting and no longer seeking a guide for the way, she returned to her dwelling.
[23] It has also pleased to write that a certain man, called Ingo, well known to certain Brothers of our monastery, by the obtaining of the man of God gained sight and hearing alike: and this one was from the region of Meaux a, from the village which is called Domnus-Martinus. dim-sighted and hard of hearing. For heavy with an infirmity of the head, he had lost sight and hearing, but not entirely: for he saw the light of day, but not so that he could fully know anything; and heard the sound of one crying loudly. But it was said to him, or, as it can more truly be said, was cried, that if he went to Pontoise to seek the suffrage of the blessed man, he would without doubt receive sight and hearing. Giving credit to these words, without delay he sought the place distinguished by the virtues of the blessed man; where by his intervention the blindness being put to flight, he deserved to receive hearing. Returning in the hour in which he had come, when through the wood which adjoins Francorum-villa he was making his passage; marveling he said, that he had not seen that wood at all, when already at another time he had passed by the same path.
[24] It happened that, when an innumerable multitude was coming to the tomb of the blessed man, some to lay down their vows, others to pray for their various infirmities, many began to detract from the holy man, and coming to him to dissuade others, saying that it was not good that he be called a Saint, whom a little while ago they had seen similar to the other mortals, subject to the passions of this life, Detracting from the sanctity of Blessed Galterius, to be hungry, thirst, eat, drink. Among whom were two, Hilduinus and Erembergis, a husband and his wife, who above others strove to obscure his virtues, and were attempting to assert that he neither was nor should be called a Saint. And when for a long time they had persisted in this obstinacy of mind, it pleased the Divine dispensation to correct them in this way. For when one night both were resting in bed, it seemed to the woman that she was standing beside the tomb of Blessed Galterius; they are corrected by a wonderful vision, and from very small shavings, such as those who polish the shafts of lances or arrows make, she was heating water; and in the same water she was softening wax. And behold there stood beside her a person, most beautiful in habit and in appearance, by whose splendor the whole basilica was shining, who seemed to address her in these words: "Why, O woman, with your husband do you detract from my servant, and strive to assert that he neither is nor should be called a Saint? whose virtues hearing, not only do you not believe, but also try to obscure? Know for certain that I wish him to be called a Saint, who obeying my commands has merited this, that he ought both to be a Saint and to be so called. Unless you correct yourself and your husband from this foolishness, you will suffer the greatest losses of your bodies and of your things." Awakening she announced these things in order to her husband: and not long after going to Pontoise to the venerable burial of the man of God, she found there the shavings shown to her in the vision. But so that no ambiguity might remain in their hearts from this, their son was turned into madness by an infirmity of the head, which is called phrenesis. their son being freed from madness. Whom his mother taking carried to the often-mentioned place: where the pain of the head being put to sleep, he received his sense. A few days having rolled by, she brought a precious Alb to the same place with her husband; and recounted the things which had been done concerning them, with truthful report.
[25] Madmen are healed, another from a headache, There is still what may be said of the virtues of the man of God. For a certain young man from Labivilla (for thus is the village called in which he lived) is brought to the already said place (and this one was also called Galterius) who seized for a long time with a headache, had lost the strength of going or even of doing anything; and was uttering many delirious words, as if taken in mind. And spending there about seven days, he sees in sleep Blessed Galterius standing near, and placing his hand on his head, and signing it on every side with the sign of the Cross. Which having seen, when he awoke, he felt all pain had fled; and having obtained his desire, he merrily revisited his kindred.
[26] At another time a certain woman, from the same village, when one day, another from the insufflation of a demon, with night now falling, she was making her passage through a certain place, in which everything between two houses was narrow; met an evil spirit, who seemed to have the appearance of as it were a most black little man: who blowing into her face said, "In this manner I will cool by blowing your extended hot porreye." Who immediately was made out of her mind, until she should be restored to health; and drawing frequent sighs from the bottom of her breast, she emitted them through her mouth. What more? By her parents and friends she is bound, and carried on an ass is placed beside the tomb of the man of God. Whom when the brothers of the Monastery sprinkled with exorcised and blessed water, she was so tortured, that she seemed to be utterly lifeless. Yet by the merits of the man of God she received her sense; and how these things, which are written above, had befallen her as discomforts, she narrated to all who wished to hear.
[27] From Pontoise also a certain young man is brought, who when one day from the village, a third from a mother's curse: which is called Cergy, with his mother he was returning to Pontoise, by his words vehemently stirred the same mother to anger; whence excessively exasperated, she horribly cursed him. Who immediately leaving his mother, turned to madness, began to go through trackless places. Finally, his parents and relations recognizing him to be raving, bound him tied with thongs, and led him to the virtue-bearing memory of the blessed man of God. This one was reporting from his mouth certain barbaric and unheard-of things, and whatever good things were done by the brothers of the monastery for the restoration of his sense, he held of no value and mocked. Nevertheless the Abbot of holy memory Theobald c, and the brothers living under him, insisted in prayers, begging the merits of the man of God, that entire sense be restored to him from his delirium. Their vows God hearing, by the merits of blessed Galterius he recovered his sense most entirely: and gave his innumerable thanks to God his liberator, and promised himself to be his servant, paying a candle yearly. This one was called Hubert. A certain madman of Pontoise, who although he had his hands tied and was given to a certain block through the middle of his body, a fourth tearing himself with his teeth; yet violently was gnawing his own arms with his own teeth; through the merits of Saint Galterius he received his sense entirely, and giving thanks returned to his own.
[28] Let it suffice to narrate these things of the virtues of the holy man. Few indeed are the miracles which we have written, that Divine goodness deigned to work through him, passing over very many. For many, with wooden and iron fetters broken, he freed from prison. various freed from prison, and the sick healed. These things iron chains testify, hanging before his tomb from those who were freed. Many daily held by various infirmities, before the venerable mausoleum of the blessed man, heavenly piety deigns to heal: which we have passed over, lest we engender weariness in readers: but these things we have written to show of how great merit he is with God. d
[29] A certain young man from Gosengies, who was staying at Vilers, when one night he was sleeping with his wife, lost the virtue of all his limbs: this one brought to Saint Gauterius, was by his prayers made whole, and giving thanks in the presence of the Bishop of Amiens returned home.
NOTES.
CHARTER OF CANONIZATION.
Galterius, Abbot of Martin, of the Order of Benedict, near Pontoise in Gaul (St.)
BHL Number: 8800
a[1] In the year of the incarnate Word 1153, on the 5th day before the Nones of May, b with Eugenius the universal Roman Pope, Louis c the King of the Franks, I Hugh d, called Archbishop of Rouen, came to Pontoise. With three Bishops present, There gathered Theobald e of Paris, Theobald f of Senlis, venerable Pontiffs; with William g presiding as Abbot over the monastery of Saint Martin, and with many religious authentic persons assisting, the Clergy and people gathered in manifold ways, and others: a legation having been sent concerning this and with the assent of the magnificent Archbishop of Reims Samson h and of some Gallic Pontiffs. Then was opened the tomb of Abbot Gualterius of the aforesaid monastery of Saint Martin of Pontoise; with the miracles aiding, nay, compelling, the tomb of Galterius was opened: flashing not with vanity but with truth, in the present and in many past times.
[2] But since the holy and celebrated and most necessary devotion of the holy Fathers is most accustomed to have mercy on the penitent, Indulgences are granted: for the ineffable grace of our Redeemer, who forgives sins; and for the manifestation of his faithful servant Father Gualterius, whose relics the present church reverently looked upon, and deserved to be gladdened by the glory of his miracles; to the faithful of Christ, imploring the benefits of the same Father Gualterius, we have decreed that the indulgence of the penitential burden should be granted. Therefore from the penances of mortal sins, which are concluded in seven years, to those piously confessing and truly repenting a whole year and a third part of the remaining years is relaxed. To those who have undertaken a penance of fourteen years, two whole years and a third part of the residual time is pardoned. For twenty years we remit three years, and we indulge the third part of the residual time. But from a penance of forty years and more, we remit the whole half, and we equally pardon the third of the remaining years. Concerning little ones who were baptized or without baptism died within seven years through the negligence of their parents, we remit the penance to their parents, except on the sixth day in the week: in which even if the penitent has gone to church, such charity as his Priest shall give him, let him have; but if he be sick or a pregnant woman or weak, who cannot fast, let him say the Our Father seven times and do the good he can; but the third part from the penances of minor sins we remit: but also forgotten sins we wholly pardon. Today, however, the above-prescribed Indulgence, from the day after the Invention of the Holy Cross for a whole year, and on the individual days of this present year, to all coming in memory of the Saint has been granted by us under confidence of divine grace.
[3] With the agreement of the Reverend Fathers the Bishops, the memory of the Translation is venerated on May 4. and of the others who were present at the translation of Blessed Walter, we have decreed, that the festive memory of the aforesaid Saint be annually celebrated on the next day following the Invention of the Holy Cross. But by the pious and merciful consideration of those Fathers we have decreed, that, because with iniquity abounding in these latest times few bring forth worthy fruits of penance, sinners be succored by the grace of ampler Indulgence. On this account to all those, who on the very day of the Invention of the Holy Cross, on which day the blessed body was taken up; and on the next day, on which is celebrated the annual festival of the Saint, shall come to the Saint himself for the grace of remission, to them, in whatever coming year from any province or bishopric they approach the clemency of the Saint, we plenarily bestow the above-written indulgence. To these things I truly confess myself unworthy, and loaded with grievous sins and ancient faults. Whence I greatly need much and great mercy of God: therefore with the merits and prayers of the pious Father Walter the Abbot assisting, I suppliantly beg the grace of our Lord, and the clemency of the Mother of mercy, and the unceasing compassion of all the Saints, and commend my passing and end to the communion of the Catholic Church.
[4] Since this charter was found in the box of Saint Galterius in the year 1657 on May 4, as he who sent the transcript informed us; Translation into a new box: we can scarcely doubt that the most recent translation of the body into a new box, whose memory still persists with one of ours then staying at Paris, was made in the same year and month. But it was made, as he reports, through the zeal and expense of the most noble Walter Montagu, born of a most illustrious family among the English: who on the occasion of the wonders seen concerning the Ursulines of Laon, some mention of which was made by us on March 19, at the last number concerning Saint Joseph, converted to the orthodox faith, and enrolled in the Clergy, first being Grand Almoner of Henrietta Queen of England, then of her daughter the Duchess of Orléans, obtained the Pontoise Abbey of Saint Martin. This one thinking that grace ought to be used to the increase not so much of revenues as of religion, first restored discipline there, by introducing into the monastery religious of the Congregation of Saint Maurus; then took care to renovate Saint Galterius' chapel and to have it furnished with a marble altar; and finally had the bones of the holy man translated into a new and more elegant chest of ebony and gilded bronze: but now he has ceded the title of Abbot to Cardinal Bullonio, that he may live privately for himself and God, unburdened for the greater part of the burden of ecclesiastical revenues. I do not know whether those things which happened in the very act of the Translation have been committed to writing, nor is it longer permitted to await the instruction sought through letters: if anything is afterwards brought forward, and the adornment of the chapel. it can have place in the making of the Supplement of the work. There is still in veneration the cave or grotto, to which the Saint was accustomed to betake himself for the cause of praying to God more secretly and macerating his body with scourges: and for this reason the picture which previously stood exposed on the altar, showed the Saint raging on his back with pointed cords: in place of which now is seen another substituted, representing that noble act, by which receiving the Abbatial staff from the hand of the King from above, not from below, he wished openly to testify that that power was accepted by him, not as conferred by a terrestrial Prince, who had no right in ecclesiastical matters, but from the decision of a higher authority.