ON SAINT GODEBERTA, VIRGIN, at Noyon in Second Belgium.
ABOUT A.D. 700.
PrefaceGodeberta, Virgin, at Noyon in Gaul (Saint)
D.P.
[1] Noyon or Noviomum, an ancient city of Second Belgium, on the Oise, under the Metropolitan See of Reims, an Episcopal Patroness of Noyon city, with distinguished religion honors her two holy Patrons Eligius and Godeberta; of whom the former consecrated by his name the Kalends of December, the latter is venerated on the III Ides of April. Her feast, as also of obligation for the people and a double of the second class or lesser annual, is noted in the Calendar of the Noyon Breviary, reviewed and printed by Episcopal authority in the year 1630, with three proper Lessons for the second Nocturn, a proper Prayer, and proper Antiphons for the Benedictus and Magnificat. Which feast in the said Church is indicated at the reading of the Martyrology with this eulogy: "At Noyon, the deposition of Saint Godeberta, who sprang from a noble lineage in the district of Amiens, whose sacred virginity the most blessed Eligius, now raised to the Episcopate, with his own ring, in the sight of King Clothar, pledged eternally to Christ the immortal Bridegroom. Whom the Lord, to whom she had dedicated the support of her life, so permitted to shine forth with miracles of virtues, that by the suffrages of her prayers the sword of mortality ceased, and light was returned to the blind, and very many infirmities were put to flight."
[2] Her name the Cologne Carthusians, Molanus, Maurolyco, Galesini found ascribed in several copies of Usuard, Inscribed in the calendars with the title of Virgin: from whom Ferrari, Canisius, and others received the same. The Cologne Carmel MS calls her Gothoberta. The old Arras MS, with a somewhat fuller eulogy: "On the same day at Noyon, the deposition of Saint Godeberta, an excellent Virgin, who sprang from a noble lineage in the district of Amiens." To these are added the authors of the Benedictine calendars, Wion, Menardus, Bucelinus, and the like, holding as their own this custom, that they ascribe almost all the ancient Saints professing monastic life under any institute to the Benedictine Order. Against them we do not intend to define anything: this however we know, that Eligius received from the Luxeuil monastery and the discipline of Saint Columbanus the Religious whom he established in his Solignac monastery founded by him, and likewise in Saint Lupus of Noyon and Saint Martin of Tournai; also among the Benedictines so that it may seem likely that he also ordered monasteries of nuns under the same Rule of Saint Columbanus.
[3] Now Eligius was ordained Bishop in the year of the Christian Era 640. Betrothed to Christ by Saint Eligius When therefore you read that Godeberta was espoused to Christ in the presence of King Clothar, beware, with Baronius, of understanding the second King of that name, who departed this life in the year 628. Ferrari stumbled on this stone in the Annotations to the general Catalogue, who having read in Baronius for the year 615 that Clothar II had in veneration Saint Gaugericus, Bishop of Cambrai, who died about the year 600; and finding Saint Godeberta not rightly referred to these times, added a new error, saying that she flourished under Saint Gaugericus, as if he had wished to signify her spiritually subject to him: when the Bishops of Cambrai had never any right in the Amienois, where she sprang, and the Noyonnais, where Godeberta was consecrated. The beginnings of Clothar III, moreover, belong to the year 656. Since, then, it is known that Saint Eligius died three years later, we must defer Godeberta's consecration to the last years of his life; and therefore it is less marvelous that so illustrious an action was passed over in the Life of Eligius by Saint Audoenus, in the presence of Clothar not II but III in that place where he says that "in the town of Noyon he built a monastery of the handmaids of Christ (over whom indeed this Saint Godeberta presided), to which he applied a great congregation and a severe institution of life; to which he also sufficiently assigned land revenues, and with diligent care provided all things that were necessary for it." For Audoenus touched more briefly upon the last times of Eligius: then being further from his dear friend, and occupied in ordering the affairs of his diocese. Thus he does not mention the two monasteries, She died scarcely before 700 which we said were built by Saint Eligius at Noyon and Tournai; and he omitted, as he himself professes, an infinity of other things worthy of being related, being overwhelmed by the multitude. But because Godeberta was then in the flower of her first youth, it will not be inappropriate to consider her death to be placed at the end of the 7th century and even beyond.
[4] Life written long afterward The author of the Life written long afterward did not make known his name. Surius, who inserted it into his work much contracted and with a somewhat emended style, judged it worthy of credit. Louis de Montigny, Priest, Canon, and Archdeacon in the church of Saint Godeberta, who rendered the same from the MS of his own church (whence we also take care to give it here in its original style) into French, and enriched with learned Annotations, dedicated it to the Ursulines of Noyon in the year 1630, thinks the author to be Ratbodus, elected Bishop of Noyon in the year 1067. perhaps by Ratbodus, Bishop of Noyon He founds his opinion on this, that the aforesaid Life is found in a certain manuscript Codex of the Cathedral of Noyon entitled with the name of Ratbodus, together with his two sermons for the Nativity and Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin; indeed in a style (as, for the exigency of the material, encomiastic) different from this Life (which contains a simple narration), but similar to that which the same Ratbodus is known to have held in writing the life of Saint Medardus, which the said church of Noyon preserves under his name.
[5] Her annual feast Whatever may be the case, the Life appears to have been written in the manner of a sermon, to be recited on the annual feast of the Saint: from which it is known that her memory was consecrated not only as of a Saint, but also as of a special Patroness, whose feast was publicly kept. The same is proved by the name of the church said to be from her, in the place where first there had been an oratory of Saint George, which afterwards was converted into a basilica of the Apostles Peter and Paul, proper church and now is called of Saint Godeberta; in which until today
on the left side, by the Episcopal gate, an old wooden cathedra is seen, with an image of Saint George carved on it: and above the high altar, at each corner, are seen effigies of the holy Apostles, whose Antiphon is also sung in the processions customarily held there. Proper church This church enjoys the special prerogative that newly consecrated Bishops, when they enter the city for the first time, having laid aside their traveling garb there, to be distributed among the nobles, are clothed with Pontifical vestments, entering through a small door on the left side, which then only is opened, and remains closed at all other times. In the same church is a fountain, salutary for sick infants; and a little bell, Fountain and little bell which they say was in use by Saint Godeberta herself: which could also be an argument that she lived under the institution of Scottish Monks, to whom it was so proper to have their own little bell and always to carry it with them, that scarcely any Life of a Saint propagated from them is found without mention of a little bell.
[6] Relics of the body The same church still today possesses and shows among the sacred Relics notable particles from the bodies of Saints Eunuchus and Godeberta, whose elevation, and that of Saint Mummolenus, also buried in the same church, is noted in the Martyrology of the Cathedral church on April 27. Elevation 27 April Andreas Saussaie in the Gallican Martyrology calls it a Translation, and so indeed that he understands the second: for after the eulogy given on the present day to the Saint, he adds: "On the same day was made the first translation of the same holy Godeberta, illustrious for miracles": whence he took this we do not see, nor in this way of speaking do we sufficiently distinguish whether he means the translation itself or that the Saint was illustrated by miracles. But what he premises about the Saint, monastery that "she lived enclosed in the oratory of Saint George, in whose honor a church with a monastery was afterwards built, where the sacred virgins gathered together, following her most beautiful path for long courses of times, offered to Christ the Lord the incenses of a pure mind"—this certainly he could not have drawn from the Life. For this brings her there immediately after her consecration, with twelve women who were to be held under her rule; and then narrates the punishment of a petulant disciple, "who when she had vowed herself to God in the monastery of Saint Godeberta was very impatient, and deserved to be spit upon in the face by the Saint herself, and so was deprived of the use of her eyes." All of which declare that monastic and common life there flourished from the very beginning, not indeed that it was first introduced there after the death of the Saint: though I do not deny that that monastery was augmented by new buildings and possessions, and that the old oratory being destroyed, the form of a more august basilica succeeded.
[7] The bodies of Saints Mummolenus and Eunuchus (the latter is venerated on September 10, the former on October 16), elevated from their tomb, were translated partly to the Cathedral of Noyon, partly to the Abbey of Saint Eligius. Burial The deposition of Saint Godeberta herself is believed to have been committed to the earth in the chapel which to this day retains her name, to the right side of the choir, beneath the chapel of the Holy Cross. For there still remains a large part of the old tomb, having sculpted the images of two Bishops, and between them a third in the middle in the habit of a nun: and a similar representation is seen in the porch of the church on the side of the cemetery. In one of the three large porches of the Cathedral, miracle on the left side, under the image of Saint Godeberta, is seen the effigy of a Religious, holding in the folds of her garment burning coals, which brought from a nearby baker's house were changed into roses and flowers, as the ancient tradition of the parishioners has it: and this to have been one of many miracles passed over by the writer of the life, it is pious to believe.
[8] These are the things selected from the learned Annotations of the aforementioned Louis de Montigny, and translated into Latin, which it seemed good to place before the Life which we here give, by the courtesy of the very Reverend and most honorable Lord Nicolas de la Haye, Dean of Noyon; who moreover taught us that the church of Saint Godeberta was granted by Hindulf or Lindulph, Bishop of Noyon, who sat from about the year 978 to 990, to the Canons of the Cathedral Church on this tenor (as John XV speaks in a certain diploma, Translation given a few years after the death of Lindulph) that "four Canons, out of the sixty themselves, should serve daily the body of the same blessed Virgin, in whatever place of the city it should lie, chanting the divine office there": which that it might be done on the very festivity of the Saint according to the norm of other festivities, this Life was composed by Ratbodus, then perhaps a Canon, but after the death of Lindulph Bishop, to be publicly read. How long after (for that phrase "in whatever place it should lie" argues that already then a Translation to be made was being thought of) the sacred bones themselves were translated into the Cathedral Church, is uncertain to us: this is certain, that they were translated before the end of the 15th century. For a silver shrine was established capitularly for them in the year 1499, and inside it in the fourth year of the 16th century, into the Cathedral church on the III Ides of April, a new Translation was made: which, that its memory might not be lacking thereafter, a Lesson was composed, which the Dean himself above-named ordered to be transcribed for us from the very large Legendary of the Church of Noyon; at the same time indicating that that silver shrine was kept beside the relics of Saint Eligius (which the Lesson also indicates) until the year 1625, when the Chapter decided that the ashes of the holy Bishop should be translated into a more splendid ark. The same Dean adds that the head of Saint Godeberta is carried in public processions when prayer is made for rain to be obtained or for any plague to be averted, and that many sick people flee to her sacred church with great hope of obtaining health by her patronage.
LIFE, by an Author, as it seems, Ratbodus the Bishop,
from a MS of the Cathedral of Noyon.
Godeberta, Virgin, at Noyon in Gaul (Saint)
BHL Number: 3572
BY RATBODUS FROM THE MS
CHAPTER I.
The pious education and consecration of Saint Godeberta.
[1] Brothers, about to celebrate solemnly this glorious day of the excellent Virgin Godeberta, Little preface of the author it most becomes us most devoutly to entreat her herself, to whom it is sacred, that whatever we attempt in her praises, by her prayers she may obtain it to redound to the grace of God. For it must certainly be believed that all who venerate the Saints of God in any way, by that very veneration of the Saints, honor not a little the majesty of God himself, by whose grace they are of such great veneration. To her glory, therefore, this notable Virgin, whose passing we are celebrating, whence she was born, and how in this mortal life she served the Lord, and what miracles God worked through her, and by what end she put off the man, relying on the prayers of the same, with God's leave, we hasten to write for your love.
[2] She indeed, born in the district of the Amienois of Christian parents, reborn of water and the Spirit in holy baptism, Nobly born received willingly and followed reverently the institutions of the holy Faith, wherever she could. Perceiving that she was liable from her debt to the deadly condition, she then strengthened the tenderness of her age with the sign of the Holy Cross; and night and day she most humbly commended herself to the pious prayers of the Saints. piously educated She avoided the wanton assemblies of young women whom she had heard to be irreverent; but those whom she knew to be intent on useful and honest things, she gladly joined and intently imitated: for she had heard that good morals are corrupted by evil conversations; she had heard also that with the holy one is holy, and with the perverse one is noted with the infamy of perversity.
[3] Having been diligently educated by her parents, when she came to marriageable age, many of the nobles, sought by many because she was nobly born of noble stock, tried to take her to the marriage bed. But her parents, because they had received their benefice from the royal hand, did not presume to give assent to such a marriage to anyone without the King being consulted. When in the presence of King Lothair the betrothals of this Virgin were being negotiated, and the gaze of all depended on the royal disposition in this matter; in the midst of them, the Lord so preordaining, Saint Eligius threw himself forward, Saint Eligius consecrates her to God pledged that Virgin with his own golden ring, and most confidently assigned her as Christ's bride in the sight of the King and her parents. O inestimable grace of the Holy Spirit! At once the girl, now pregnant with the spiritual conception of divine love, as afterwards appeared, despising all carnal pleasure, putting aside even the desirable propagation of descendants, nay, despising the delightful enticements of girlish life, constantly renounced the King and her parents, and in their presence gladly commended herself to the most blessed Presul Eligius, in the presence of her parents and the King to be consecrated to the Lord.
[4] That most holy Bishop at that time was ruling the holy Church of Noyon; by whose example and preaching very many, converted from error, having cast away the worship of idols, rejoiced not a little to have received under so great a Pastor the Catholic faith. This little lamb of most benign disposition, the most benign Pastor himself most eagerly added to his fold, when he called her from the active life into the contemplative by the spiritual ring of divine espousal. Thus therefore the excellent Virgin, in the sight of the King and Princes, freely abandoning the gentle persuasions of her parents, followed Eligius, whom by the grace of the Holy Spirit she had received as a spiritual father, all delay being set aside. Great astonishment had seized those standing by at such an unexpected inspiration of the Holy Spirit: her father, weeping, was considering the matter in familiar fashion. King Lothair also, by the sudden change of the nuptials, who grants her his palace greatly admired the magnificent virtue of divine grace; yet that he might be commended to the Lord by the happy prayer of the same Virgin, he himself first hastened to strengthen her benevolent devotion by royal munificence. With those who were present assenting, he gave her together with the oratory of Saint George his Palace b which he had at Noyon; he also ordered two villages c to be assigned, with twelve women from the royal treasury, under the rule of the holy Virgin, as a provision for divine worship.
[5] Coming therefore together in the suburb of the city of Noyon, d namely to the oratory which they had received from the King, day and night they indefatigably labored to serve God. with the chapel of Saint George The Virgin herself, taught by Saint Eligius, formed those dwelling with her not only by preaching but also by the manifold example of virtues. For fleeing the little assemblies of the world, she continued fasts of two or three days; to the hungry food, to the thirsty drink, to the naked garments, although you would see her herself also in need of all these, she ministered unceasingly; all night also in vigils and prayers, she constantly besought the Lord for the universal salvation of all. where serving God On these and similar things she was continually insistent; and although she was still held in the world in the body, nevertheless daily she offered herself as a pleasing holocaust to the Lord. The Lord, seeing the great perseverance of his beloved, did not disdain to manifest her devotion in public while she still remained in the fragile body: for God worked frequent miracles through her intercession: to the blind he restored sight, to the lame he restored walking, to the paralytic health; and what we believe to be more pleasing to God, she is honored with miracles by her exhortation he frequently received unbelievers to the faith. In order therefore, leaving aside the detraction of rivals, that out of many
we may set forth a few as certain example for every faithful person.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The miracles of Saint Godeberta while living.
[6] Let us therefore say what first comes to memory, in order that the hearts of the faithful, whom it may happen to hear, may be strengthened, and the foreheads of the unbelievers may be crushed by the very hard stones of her miracles. Plague ravages at Noyon It happened in her time, the sins of the people of Noyon so demanding, that the pestiferous sword of mortality raged in that city; for the implacable wrath gone out from God was devastating those inhabitants on every side, incessantly slaying parents with children, bridegrooms with brides, masters with servants; and raged immoderately against both the powerful and the common people. Those who could escape fled in every direction; and now, with the greatest part of the inhabitants withdrawn, very many empty houses remained in the city. Alas, sorrow! a more unhappy misery followed this so great misery, when, all being terrified by fear of death, the bodies of the dead were cast out unburied; for he who buried a dead man soon himself, dead, was carried out to be buried; no one at all despaired of the imminent danger of death, to whomsoever it happened to bury or touch any dead person.
[7] In so great a peril of mortality, the distinguished Virgin Godeberta, attending to the universal grief of the citizens, Godeberta preaches penance enjoined a three days' fast for the whole Church; teaching them to insist on prayers with tears, and to appease the divine indignation by fasts and alms: "Because," she said, "as water extinguishes fire, so alms extinguishes sin." And the excellent Virgin taught them the salutary penance of the Ninevites, how placed in ashes and sackcloth, through the mysteries of fasts and prayers, they repressed the imminent sentence of divine malediction now overhanging them. She also recited to them the admirable example of King David, who according to the heart of God, by God himself as witness, was found, how easily through penance he received the remedy of the adultery committed. She added also the denial of Peter, the confession of the Thief on the cross, the mournful lamentation of Mary the sinner, and removes the plague how easily by penitential tears they obtained remission of their actions. Reviving by these and other exhortations of the glorious Virgin, they undertook that three days' fast with the greatest devotion: and immediately, by her merits and intercessions, the pious grace of God caused that pestiferous sword of mortality to cease.
[8] A few days afterwards the same Virgin (as one who had macerated her tender flesh too austerely) fell into a most troublesome infirmity of her body: as often a it happens that those who in any way depart from customary foods, either waste away long or are suddenly corrupted. Godeberta being ill The Virgin therefore lay weary on her little bed, but with all the desire of her mind she breathed toward the Lord: heavy indeed in body, but alert in spirit, she always persevered in the praises of God. It happened in this her infirmity that near the principal church of Saint Mary a fire unexpectedly burst out, and by its sudden spread the whole ornament of the whole church was utterly consumed. The flame flying round was destroying everything; before whose face, because they could not resist, the fire raging toward the church everyone, fleeing, was taking care of himself. All things were entirely subject to this danger, since already some things had been consumed, others nonetheless remained to be consumed by the onrushing fire. The inhabitants of the city, as we have said, fleeing in every direction, the mother Church of the holy Virgin Mary remained desolate, which, with most devout tears to God (because already the flame was superior to their strength), the people, very sad, commended to God alone. Moved by so great a groaning of those weeping, the Virgin Godeberta, although she was pressed by the most grievous infirmity, nevertheless ordered herself to be carried in a chair, she orders herself to be placed against it, and calms the flame and to be confidently placed against the violence of the fire, wherever the flame should drive itself. Being placed near the very fiery depth of the burning, when many now were despairing of her life, she most confidently set up the sign of the Holy Cross, which she knew was most salutary in all dangers; and immediately that devastation of fire was extinguished.
[9] It happened at another time that a certain blind woman called Trausirica she illuminates a blind woman came to the holy Virgin, that by her pious intercession she might receive the temporal light of her eyes, which she had lost from infancy. When with sure hope she was pressing with tearful prayers for her illumination, the excellent Virgin, having first made her intercessions to God, placed her hand over her eyes; and having lightly made the sign of the Holy Cross, at her prayer the desired propitiation of divine mercy restored bodily light to her: and so it came about that when she had received temporal sight, quickened also by the spiritual vivification of the soul, she served God there with her illuminator for all the rest of her life.
[10] In this manner this Trausirica deserved to be illuminated from devotion; but Vulgudis, of whom we must now speak, and strikes a turbulent one blind for disobedience was punished by the same Virgin with interminable blindness. This Vulgudis had devoted herself to God in the monastery of Saint Godeberta, but being too impatient of her mind, she behaved contentiously and irreverently toward the others. For this cause she was often corrected by the holy Virgin, but she quarreled tumultuously against her, and in her sight spoke most shameful and cursing words. But the holy Virgin, moved by too much indignation at that foolish woman, when she perceived her incorrigible and irreverently kicking against the goad of obedience, one day, during her quarrelsome shameful speech, very angry, spat in her face; and immediately that unhappy woman, having lost the light of her eyes, remained blind for all the days of her life.
[11] By these and other relations of miracles this Virgin was everywhere made known, adorned with many other miracles and her most celebrated reputation was spread far and wide; whence to her from far parts of the lands a great multitude of sick persons flocked, to whom the most benign mercy of God, through the holy intercession of the Virgin, ministered the benefit of manifold healing. You may indeed from these which have come to our knowledge conjecture that this Virgin performed very many other miracles which have already passed human mention. Although we are unaware, however, her true devotion is known to God alone, who rewarded her mortal life with the immortal reward of eternal perpetuity. For the Lord, seeing the spirit of his beloved immovably fixed in the holy resolution of religion, by God the rewarder of the good lest any malice should further change her heart, or any fiction deceive her soul, called her from earthly to heavenly things, from labor to rest, from temporal miseries to perpetual felicity; and mercifully stripping her of the corruptible body of human frailty, more mercifully adorned her soul with the incorruptible garment of Angelic society.
[12] Thus the most holy Virgin Godeberta, the time of her earthly dwelling being happily completed, is translated to heaven was placed with the choirs of the holy Virgins in the pleasantness of the heavenly paradise; there she exultantly sings a new song to the Lord with the other Saints; there she awaits the future day of judgment with confident vow. For although the very Archangels have cause to tremble at that day, yet they will tremble, sharing in sympathy, not for their own perdition, but for the sentence of human perdition. This end, therefore, as we said, this Virgin, now joined to God, awaits; and for our crimes she incessantly beseeches God in the heavens. her body is buried in Saint George's Thus was the excellent handmaid of God buried on the third day before the Ides of April, in the Oratory of Blessed George, in the church which is now called of the Holy b Apostles, where also they honorably buried the body of Saint Mummolenus, Bishop of the same city. There many benefits are given to the sick and needy by her holy intercession, to the praise and glory of his name, whose honor and dominion remains without end for all ages.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
Miracles performed at the tomb of Saint Godeberta.
[13] Lest anyone should distrust the heavenly reward of this Virgin, we do not refuse to commit to writing those miracles also At her sepulcher which God performed at her burial place. For it happened after her passing, that Agildruda, blind from infancy, having heard the most celebrated reputation of the holy Virgin, and hoping most surely about herself what she had heard of others, not without much difficulty came to Noyon. When she had entered the oratory in which the Virgin lay, she required those who were present to lead her to the tomb where she had heard the body of the blessed Virgin was buried. When she had come there, weeping long on the pavement, with heavy sighs she besought that the sight, which she had long lost, might be obtained again for her from the Lord by the prayers of the holy Virgin. Without delay, because she prayed faithfully, and in prayer did not despair of God's grace and the powerful virtue of Saint Godeberta, by her intercession the blind is illuminated she deserved to be illuminated with bodily sight. Nor indeed do we doubt that she was illuminated not only with bodily but also spiritual eyes, since we have heard that for all the rest of her life, in the same place, she followed the regular discipline with others in God's service. And so by God's grace it came about that while she was begging for fleshly light, by the intercession of this Virgin she was illuminated also in the spiritual eyes of the soul.
[14] Concerning Audemia also, it does not seem to us to be passed over, how, brought there from the village of Raugia, a she was cured at her tomb. She, from infancy paralytic with her whole body dissolved, a paralytic woman is raised as she heard the so celebrated reputation of the holy Virgin, from
her friends, to whom she was already an object of tedium because of her long infirmity, she scarcely obtained her transport there. Carried at last to the aforesaid basilica, she ordered herself to be brought as near as they could to the presence of the holy Virgin. This obtained, crawling as best she could on the pavement, with every desire of heart and mouth she called upon the holy Virgin, that through her most sacred intercession she might deserve from the Lord the cure of her death-dealing palsy. When suddenly she felt strength restored to her limbs, and being made strong, she most joyfully returned on her own feet, she who had come by another's conveyance.
[15] The illumination of Gislegardis also now comes to mind: the film of the eyes is wiped away who when she had been punished with blindness of the eyes from infancy, received sight through the intercession of this Virgin. For when a film was flowing from her eyes which from her very swaddling clothes had spread a dark darkness over her eyes, under the general gaze of the bystanders, with cheerful countenance she received free illumination before the Virgin's tomb.
[16] of one paralyzed in all her limbs But we shall not be silent about the cure of a certain Imperia, who was so named, who was almost raised from death itself by the intercessions of Saint Godeberta. She, now almost dead, had lost nearly all the offices of the body; sight, hearing, and the faculty of the tongue had almost wholly failed her: and to conclude everything in brief, she lay in her little bed like some aborted thing. Having therefore learned of so great miracles of this servant of God, she obtained to be presented to the memory of her prayer. When she had been brought there, having been cast down beside her holy burial place, she was commending her desire to the holy Virgin in whatever way she could; humbly whispering for some remedy from the Lord through her for her so great suffering. What should she do? She sighed in heart, she wept in eyes; with her mouth, since she could not fully form words, amid groans from her breast, she seemed rather to howl than to speak. Indeed, with the tongue of the heart failing, whatever devotion she could, she displayed; and rather by interior motion she urged the holy intercession of the Virgin for her weakness. Health is restored The Virgin, perceiving so great insistence of that half-dead woman, by her happy intercession with the Lord obtained the dissolution of her invalidity, and restored to the most unhappy body of that most wretched woman the health long desired. For soon she who had long lain paralytic, received the light of eyes, hearing of the ears, also the unbinding of the tongue; and thus giving thanks to God and to the holy Virgin, safe and sound returned to her own dwelling.
[17] Perhaps, dearest, it wearies you to hear so many and such great miracles of the holy Virgin: but although they may be tiresome to you, it is fitting for us not to be silent about the great deeds of God and of the Saints. For God himself, through whom every holy one is sanctified, testifies in the voice of the Gospel that he is received or rejected in the reception or rejection of the Saints, saying: "He who despises you despises me; and he who receives you receives me." Luke 10:16 It behooves you therefore, Brothers, both to retain gratefully what you have heard, and to receive with cheerful and attentive mind what still must be added.
[18] The anniversary day is celebrated Amid these and certain other things which God worked through her, it happened that the annual cycle revolved, and the anniversary day, on which the holy Virgin had passed from the world, was presented to the faithful people. With what and how great exultation they received that day, with what and how great devotion they celebrated it, it is not granted to our meditation to consider fully, nor to our unskillfulness to explain to the life. For who could explain so great a gathering of people, the devotion and tearful joy of those who had assembled, or their spontaneous offerings? You would see everywhere crowds of both sexes running together like bees to a hive, orders of Clergy, congregations of Monks, also crowds of Virgins, every assembly of both sexes flowing together into the same joy, and with one mind and like consent soliciting the happy memory of the holy Virgin. Having therefore performed the solemn Office of Masses, and the lights extinguished after the Office after giving manifold thanks to God and the Virgin, all returned to their homes. Even the keepers of the church, with almost all the lights extinguished, having closed the doors of the church, at the proper hour went out to their meal. But after the meal, when very many of them, that they might give thanks to God from duty, returned to that church; when the doorkeepers opened the doors, the lamps with the candles, are found miraculously rekindled which they had extinguished in the sight of all, they find all kindled by divine power.
[19] There was great applause of all over this miracle of God and of the holy Virgin: they all flocked together into the same joy with one and the same mind, and with unanimous and equal consent ran to the oratory of the holy Virgin: with great applause of the people the same devotion of mind, and the same universal joy for the ineffable beneficence of God was in all; some entering, others going out, they all with one consolation exhorted one another to divine praise. Some retraced the merit of the holy Virgin, others sighed with admiration for the wonderful gift of divine recompense. For he who entered to the disciples with the doors closed, entering now also with the doors barred, by the kindling of the lamps declared this Virgin without doubt to be one of those whom, by his own testimony, with lamps kindled, the Gospel Bridegroom brought with him to the wedding. and for a whole week they burn Nor did he grant this only to his Virgin, but he miraculously allowed those same candles and lamps, without any diminution of the wax or the oil, to burn for those seven following days, with the testimony of the whole people b.
[20] In the same place many miracles are frequently heard to happen, which by their frequency, as mostly is wont to be, are known partly to have escaped memory, partly to have become commonplace: those, however, which come to our memory we are not loath to relate again to your fraternity. A paralytic is healed This same most celebrated fame of the blessed Virgin, which had stirred up very many others, was brought to the ears of a certain paralytic named Gregory. He indeed was so languishing in the disease of palsy that he could not even move hand or foot; indeed, with his body already almost dead, scarcely in his chest alone did the breath of life pant. Yet striving somehow to crawl through the earth, at last he scarcely came to the most desired burial place of the most holy Virgin. There with much devotion pouring forth many streams of tears, he begged through the merit of the holy Virgin Godeberta for the medicine of his invalidity. When in groans and tears, until evening weeping and wailing, he had unwearyingly persevered, by the pious intercession of the most sacred Virgin, in a moment he received full health of the whole body, as if he had never suffered any injury. All wept for joy, because he whom they almost suspected to be lifeless, they saw walking sound and whole. But neither do we think it should be passed over what we marvel at having been done through this Virgin for Harveus c.
[21] This same Harveus, punished with his eyes, had traveled to many places of the Saints on this account, and for the same cause had approached the prayers of the Apostles Peter and Paul; the blind man is illuminated and waiting there some days, when he perceived nothing was profiting him, his business unsettled, sad, he returned home. Sitting therefore in darkness and almost in the shadow of death, he mourned his days; for living with others who saw, to the increase of his sorrow he would recall their light. Having therefore traveled, as we said, to the oratories of many Saints, for the sake of the same desire he came devoutly to the memory of this Virgin. There, kindled by the fervor of faith, with hands extended to heaven, in the hiding of his heart he sang that verse of David: "The Lord," he said, "is my salvation and my illumination." Ps. 26:1 With his whole heart also turning to the most holy Virgin, he more attentively commended his devotion to her. Heard therefore was in this also the most devoted intercession of this holy Virgin; and at his humble supplication, Harveus, because he faithfully persevered in prayer, was not defrauded of his desire. There are also many other miracles of this Virgin, Dearest, which, as we said, have not come to our notice; but about manifest and unknown things we must praise together the most holy magnificence of God, who, through the imitable example of the weaker sex, many other miracles are done incessantly invites those so frail to the eternal reward of sempiternal life.
[22] We therefore, brothers, who although we use bodily eyes, are nevertheless blind in soul; who being too intent upon earthly things, wrongly postpone heavenly things; Epilogue who gasping after temporal things, make nothing of spiritual things; let us now, though late, diligently implore the virginity of this our Patroness, namely the most blessed Virgin Godeberta, that before the divine majesty, whom she unwearyingly served, she may deign humbly to intercede for us; let us rehearse the devout insistence of this Virgin in God's service; let us admire the mercy of our Savior, bent down, so to speak, to her prayers. We have just heard that blind Harveus, when he had obtained nothing from the holy Apostles concerning his blindness, through this so great Virgin received sight: let us also believe that through her the blindness of our hearts, if we seek well, can truly be illuminated by God. We heard that Gregory the paralytic, through her mediation, received the remedy of his palsy: let us also believe, if from the heart we repent, that we shall be healed by her, who, alas, destitute of all the offices of the soul, are sluggish to walk the way of virtues. We read that the lamps which they had extinguished in her oratory were suddenly kindled by fire: let us believe and hold for certain that the spiritual darknesses of our souls, with her intercession, can be divinely kindled. But now, dearest, let us lift up our hearts with our hands to the Lord in true confession, and in unfeigned penance and manifold prayers let us anticipate his face; that by the merits of this Virgin, whom he set before us as an example, and who for his true love renounced carnal marriages, he may grant us, stripped of the heavy body, to be united in body to his only-begotten Son Christ our Lord, in the heavenly college of the holy Angels, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
APPENDIX.
The Translation of Saint Godeberta into a silver case in the year 1504.
Godeberta, Virgin, at Noyon in Gaul (Saint)
[23] As God indeed adorns all his Saints God, glorious in his Saints, and wonderful in majesty (whose ineffable depth of wisdom, enclosed by no limits, comprised by no boundaries, disposes heavenly and earthly things alike by the censure of right judgment), although he magnifies all his servants and handmaids, amplifies them, adorns them with high honors, yet he raises those with better marks of dignities, nevertheless honors some more abundantly and follows them with a more abundant reward of prizes, not only those whom he has recognized as more excellent and more worthy among the rest by the abundance of greater merits, but also those whom he has known to be more provident for his faithful and their eternal salvation.
whomever in the earth he has chosen and who are more favorable. So also pious mother Church, following his sacred footsteps and led by a praiseworthy example, though she honors with solicitous zeal all those placed in the heavenly kingdoms, So also the Church her Patrons and extols them with sonorous praises, yet especially those whom she has either as assiduous Patrons, or whose sacred pledges she guards and venerates with her: inasmuch as in them, when the danger of her need presses, she unhesitatingly places and collocates the anchor of her salvation and hope.
[24] Hence with the great and mature support of counsel, the Clergy of this notable Church of Noyon, wherefore the Clergy of Noyon illumined by the divine spirit and by the affection of pious devotion, set about translating their glorious patroness, the most brilliant pearl of Christ, the most blessed Godeberta, in this year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1504, on the third day before the Ides of April, Louis XII reigning in France, from a wooden case, as if a vessel of earthenware, into a most splendid mausoleum, gilded with a whole mass of the purest silver, of the workmanship of wondrous beauty, They placed the body of Saint Godeberta more magnificently and adorned more by the divine than by the human art of heavenly figures; so that by the most excellent architects and artisans it is brought into doubt whether the work excels and surpasses the material, or the material itself the workmanship.
[25] To so distinguished and magnificent a decoration and spectacle of the Translation, with the Venerable Diocesan Abbots there were present the Clergy of no small reputation, a numerous assembly of nobility of both sexes, and a most dense affluence of the lower common people; and from the vaults above and from the pavement below on every side most eagerly looking round, beside Saint Eligius the mystery was carried out through the Reverend Father in Christ Charles, b Bishop of the aforesaid Church of Noyon; that she who had been so holy and pleasing to God, like another Judith, stripped of the garment of widowhood, to be taken to the side and the right hand of the most blessed Bridegroom Eligius, should stand in a garment of joy and gladness; or as a Queen on the day of her espousals at the right hand of the King her Spouse, in a gilded garment surrounded with variety, should sit happily, gloriously, and perennially; and that so great a lamp shining on the candlestick in the house of the Lord might be seen and recognized, for the directing of their feet into the way of peace, by all who trust in the merits and intercession of the same Virgin so dearly beloved by God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom is our salvation and life and resurrection, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.